Sing, Dance, Move and Read with Ms. Kim!
Zapateado Jarocho From Veracuz, Mexico with Ms. Maria De La Rosa
Singing With Ms. Maria (VIDEO)
How To Teach Letter Formation To Tactile / Kinesthetic Learners
Teach letter formation with clay, yarn, legos and much more!
Read moreColor, Beats and Dots with Ms. Kim and Family (VIDEO)
Learn Colors and Letter Sounds Singing The Rainbow Song with Ms. Kim and Family (VIDEO)
A Simple Pitch Activity You Can Do At Home (VIDEO)
For other pitch activities you can do at home check out this one! Kids guess what object they hear!
Movement, Patterns, Letter Recognition and of course... MUSIC! (VIDEO)
Join Ms. Molinelli for a quick family lesson that includes:
1. Stretch warm up
2. Criss Cross Apple Sauce / Let’s Make A Pizza Game (2:19)
3. BINGO (3:48)
It’s great for the whole family!
Sing Along With Mr. Matt to "Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site" (Video)
Here is another book sing along with Mr. Matt!
Sing Along with Mr. Matt: Bear Snores On (VIDEO)
This is one of Mr. Matt’s son's favorite children's books when he was in preschool. Original music written and performed by Matt Wrobel.
Read Bugs with Teacher Kim! (VIDEO)
Read Bugs with Teacher. Kim!
Read moreTOP TEN (plus) ARTISTS in the Bay Area and more who have GREAT, ORIGINAL MUSIC FOR KIDS AND YOUTH!
We wanted to share some of our local gems, talented artists who continue to stick it out in the Bay Area and are challenged at this time with loss of income.. They are part of the cultural wealth of resources the Bay Area has to offer. If you have Amazon Prime you can stream music for free. Many of these artists have free resources and links to offer. These are my friends, colleagues, and fellow artists who create their own music and don’t just use a garage band soundtrack to cut and paste something together. These are true and verified artists who offer wonderful education materials in our own backyard!
BAY AREA/CA ARTISTS THAT TEACH MUSIC
1. Enzo Garcia Multi-instrumentalist and local Artists Enzo Garcia “Breakfast with Enzo” - and other cds Mom and Me music activities at Sports Basement in the Presido SF. San Francisco even has a “Breakfast with Enzo” day designated by Gavin Newsom when he was mayor. I was there EVERY week (work permitting) in the baby and toddler years!
2. Crosspulse with Keith Terry and Evie LadenKeith Terry started the International Body Percussion Festival and can literally play ANYTHING! Evie Laden is an acclaimed musician, singer songwriter and can be foudn in a multitude of projects.. This is their project and I use the track “Liza Jane” ever year!
http://www.crosspulse.com/merch-cd-cpe-i-like.html
3. Jose Luiz Orozco: Los Angeles based: Caruba kids has a CD that is bilingual and youtube videos. “Buenos Dias/Good Morning” is a great circle and opening pod start to any day!
https://joseluisorozco.com/main/index.html
4. Alphabet Rockers - Grammy nominated hip hop for change Bay Area super star group. They make the Bay Area look SO good. As a parent at my son’s school these were the #1 group I had come in especially for preK-2nd!
5. Kyle Blase - A Funky's Uncle- https://afunkysuncle.bandcamp.com/releases and his youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFHsCPGvi_9yc31WU4hE_Rg He’s also the music teacher at San Francisco Thomas Edison school K-8 in the Mission!
6. Asheba Putemayo childrens artist who lives in the East Bay. This Caribbean powerhouse has youtube videos, Cds with Putemayo World Music Label and his “No More Monkey’s Sitting on the Bed” is how I walk into my SPED (special education) classrooms with my bluetooth speaker blasting. Giggles are guaranteed!
http://www.asheba.net/about_asheba
https://store.cdbaby.com/artist/asheba
7. Banana Slug String Band https://www.bananaslugstringband.com/
This bluegrass band is full of STEM lessons and their classic “Dirt Made My Lunch” is like many other videos on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwgP2gCzSC4
Ecology/Nature/Science and music
8..Teacher Barb has been entertaining events and preschool children all over San Francisco with unlimited energy. Her website with events, information on brithday parties and more! https://teacherbarbmusic.com/
Link to her music on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Teacher-Barbs-Train-Sleepy-Town/dp/B006M4D3W0 and website:
9.. Maria de la Rosa and DiaPaSon: Maria de La Rosa is a powerhouse of Mexican Folkloric music and her group DiaPaSon features the stylistic music of Son Jarocho from Vera Cruz.
https://www.facebook.com/DiaPaSonMusic/
10. SFUSD teacher and San Francisco Mom Zareen & Kelly Vogle “Fly with the Fireflies” Pay what you Can!
When selecting songs for this album, Kelly & Zareen picked popular songs and jazz standards that they knew kids would love. Combining Kelly's skills as a singer-songwriter and Zareen's skills as a jazz vocalist and arranger, they have created a sound both familiar and unique. In addition, each singer has her own original tunes (Kelly's "Hiccupping Willa" and "The Fog Song", and Zareen's "Jump Around"), inspired by their own kids' love of music.
https://kellyandzareen.bandcamp.com/album/fly-with-the-fireflies
11. Elle Jenkins - is an American folk singer and actress. Dubbed "The First Lady of the Children's Folk Song" by the Wisconsin State Journal, she has been a leading performer of children's music for over fifty years. Free streaming w/amazon prime!
https://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Folkways-Teaching-Material-M10026/dp/B000001DOE
All Are Welcome Story Sung By Mr. Matt (VIDEO)
I end almost every lesson with a book--I've always done that because of the Music First curriculum. Lots of kids' books lend themselves to being made into songs because they rhyme--I just started making up songs spontaneously as I read them. I have the classroom teacher hold the book and turn pages while I sing and play guitar. This book was introduced to me by a teacher named "Ms. B" at Rollingwood school in San Bruno. Teachers usually have great suggestions about books and I've been introduced to lots of good ones this way. I hope you enjoy - Matt
How To Use Body Percussion To Create Weather Sounds With Students
This is an ideal lesson to use when teaching a Weather Unit to your students. Find the lesson plan below!
“LET IT RAIN”
MATERIALS NEEDED: You and your students PREP TIME: 0
DURATION OF LESSON: 25 -30 minutes
VOCABULARY: Percussion, Sound Effects, Rhythm Pattern, Tapping, Clapping
Introductory Activity: Teach the song “Rain, Rain Go Away” with students.
Practice having students first watch and then try and imitate using a steady beat by either clapping or tapping their legs.
SITTING ACTIVITY: 10 minutes (Rhythm Integration w/Language and Math Acquisition) Integrated Music and Games
MAKING RAIN and following directions without verbal cues.
· Ask students first to stand in a circle shoulder-to-shoulder. You will be standing inside the circle.
· To demonstrate your directions, ask the students to model or copy your action or sound as you perform them, otherwise known as “do-as-I-do.” Students are not to start the action/sound until you have walked directly in front of them.
· Select one student to begin, use eye contact as you start a motion such as tapping the top of your head lightly. This signals the student to begin. When that student copies your motion walk to the next student, then the next student, and so on. (Some students will usually start immediately so I am careful to re-iterate that they are not to begin the motion or sound until I am directly in front of them.)
· After walking around the circle, every student should be tapping his or her head softly also. At the same place and student where you began, using contact to signal, change the motion by rubbing your stomach making sure they understand they can only change actions when you are right in front of them. (This means that half of the circle at one point will be actively engaged in one motion while the other half does the new motion).
· As all students are now rubbing their stomachs, after you’ve successfully walked around the circle begin to make each of the following the sounds:
ACTIVITY: Perform each of these movements and sounds sequentially as you move around the circle until each student is participating.
1. Rub your hands together as if you’re trying to get them warm and walk around the circle.
2. Take two fingers and tap them against your other two fingers and cluck the tongue intermittently.
3. Tap your hands against your thighs.
4. While still tapping hands on the thighs, stomp your feet by jogging in place.
5. While still tapping your hands and jogging in place, add an intermittent clap of your hands here and there for the effect of thunder.
At this point the rainstorm should be in full effect and as it peaks we will reverse the patterns and wind it down.
6. Continue to move around the circle and first remove the intermittent clapping.
7. Secondly, continue to move around the circle but discontinue the jogging.
8. Thirdly, continue to move around the circle and change to:
9. Students snap and cluck.
10. Students rub hands.
11. After this last motion of rubbing the hands together, blow softly as if almost whistling to imitate the sound of the wind. There should be soft blowing and whistling sounds and when you find an appropriate moment signal everyone to stop by sitting down quietly.
12. OR: After this final pass around the circle please find a space within the circle and at an appropriate moment by example, stop all sound and rest in silence for a moment.
REFLECTION: After answering the following questions, revisit one of the first activities, and new vocabulary
QUESTIONS:
1. What did you hear?
2. What actions made which sounds?
3. Could we have made that sound with just one person? What about a few people?
4. Was it music?
5. Is percussion always a sound-pattern or rhythm?
Ask students to listen to the rain the next time it rains and to hear the different sounds and see if they sound similar to what you just created as a group. Look to the chapters on making shakers and sound effects for similarly related topics.
CONCLUSION AND GOALS:
1. Students understand that through working together we are able to achieve success.
2. Students understand that a weather like rainstorms have patterns.
3. Students understand that “percussion” is anything that shakes, hits, taps or strikes against something.
Follow up: Read a poem about rain. Ask the students to imitate the rain sounds that they used in our rain exercise to “illustrate sound effects.”
Matt's Favorite's: Top 5 Books That Go Great With Music
Matt just joined the Music Is First Family. We are so glad to have him. Here are his top five books that go great with music!
(Please Note the these are affiliated links. When you use these links, they support Music Is First in providing free stuff for you! So thanks for your support!)
How To Teach the Rock Passing Game To Your Students
The West African Rock Game is a great way to teach patterns. Originating from Ghana, this game takes a pattern and repeats it over and over. Learn how to teach it…
Read moreA Simple Musical Ear Training Lesson That Impacts Language Arts
What is ear training and why is it important? Ear training is the process of learning to play your instrument, writing it down, and identifying mistakes in music and then fixing them ALL BY EAR. Does this sound familiar? Yep, we teach students to do this all the time when we teach spelling, sentence structure and grammar. Here is simple activity you can use with your students!
Read more