Songbird Studio

 Hi! It's me again, two weeks in a row (kinda) that's good, right? Today I'm sharing a visual schedule I use. I use this in two ways.        1) On Google Slides, set up with each icon as its own individual icon, and then move each icon to the "Done" section after we complete it.       2) I have another set printed, laminated, and velcro-ed, and I move each icon from the "To Do" to the "Done" section in a similar, but more concrete, fashion, for the students that benefit from that.   Do you do anything similar? I'll talk about what my general session schedule is in more detail later.  If you are interested in downloading your own copy, click here !

I have been using a formula for our color review with my littles in their music groups the past couple of weeks.  It has been fun and easy, and very straightforward, so I thought I'd share!  (Plus the pictures just make me happy 🌈)  We have gone in rainbow order (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple), devoting one class to each color.  Right after our hello song, we usually do a movement activity.  For our color review, we've had free movement to a song about that day's color, using that day's colored movement props.  Next, we usually play instruments, so during our review, we've had free play using instruments in that color with a song about that color!  Finally, we always end with a book, so we have read a book devoted to each color each day.  The books I've been using primarily are from Cantata Learning .  They include CDs and we've used the music for the movement or instrument activities sometimes. You can...

This month in my music groups, we are exploring the element of rhythm.  One of the easiest and most fun ways to do this is by playing in a drum circle.  For my drum circles, we always play through a round or two of my basic commands, which you can see here . A simple exercise we start with early in the month is composing our own rhythm patterns!  We begin with basic choices, such as: |               BEAT—one sound on one beat    (AKA—“ta” or quarter note) | ˉ |          DOU-BLE—two sounds on one beat (AKA—“ti-ti” or beamed eighth notes) Z               (REST)—no sound on one beat    (AKA—“(no sound)” or quarter rest) Each student is asked to choose FOUR of any combination of those options.  They may choose four BEATs, or BEAT BEAT DOUBLE BEAT, or some smart alecks l...

I love this song.  Festive and a fun spin on the traditional "Jingle Bells!"  Since it's a little more up-tempo, it's a great carol for kids, and since it's older, it's familiar and fun for adults, too! For my youngest kiddos, I do a simple add-on. Verses/Chorus ("Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock..."): Play jingle bells. Bridge ("What a bright time...") : Wave scarves. Use Christmas colors or fabric for the scarves for an added holiday touch. :) If you use the original , you can also add an easy xylophone/boomwhacker/keyboard pattern at the beginning of most stanzas: JINGLE BELL , JINGLE BELL , JINGLE BELL ROCK D                    C#                   B                    F# The...

Besides adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders, I also work with K-12 students with severe cognitive disabilities. Possibly due to my Orff background, I rely a lot on a variety of folk songs--yes, there are age appropriate folk songs for even adolescents and young adults! One reason I LOVE folk songs?  Most of the beloved 'classics' are SO classic that they are public domain.  There is also a rich oral tradition in folk songs, which makes variations plentiful, so there is always a new version out there to give you new ideas.  This series will explore a few of my current favorites. Today, we are looking at one appropriate for younger (elementary aged) children. The range and repetition of pitches in our song today makes it appropriate for younger voices.  One particular genre of children's folk songs that I especially love are pile-up songs, where they have a list of some sort that grows and grows while the song continues.  These types of song...