Homeschool Den

To introduce the kids to quarter notes (crotchet),half-notes (minim), whole note (semibreve), etc., I made aset of sandpaper music symbols. You can see where Igot the original idea here at laytonmusic or you candownload the paper symbols here. I’m grateful she sharedthis great idea and resource! We’ve used them blind-folded;we have them out when go over our rhythm cards, whenwe’ve played music file-folder games, etc. I often use the symbols...

I thought I’d explain how I use the rhythmcards in case you are wondering. I use thisterminology: quarter note=tahalf note= ta 2dotted half note= ta 2 3whole note= ta 2 3 42 eighth notes= ti-tirest=shh I would say the card aloud, the kids repeat. Once the kids are proficient, you can addclapping and/or rhythm sticks. I’ll give you examples of how I would “say” the cards: (Others might not do...

When I first introduced quarter notes, half notes andwhole notes to the kids, I showed the kids the sandpapernotes. They looked at the notes, felt them, and also shuttheir eyes to guess what they had. Then I showed them the rhythm pizza pieces. Westacked them and talked about how many quarter sliceswere needed to make a whole pizza, etc. I thought thiswas a clever, creative way to introduce the topic...

Here is a list of some of the things I’ve found especially useful in putting together music games, activities and so forth for our little classes (I’ll come back and add to this if I think of anything more): Kodaly Today: A Cognitive Approach to Elementary Music Education — by Micheal Houlahan/Philip Tacka:  This is a bit heavy on the philosophy and methodology of early music education and teaching, but...

Here are some games that are set to go, but that we have not yet played together. I’m sharing it now, though, along with my other music-related resources. Move forward the value of the note you pick up (thus, a half-note moves forward 2 spaces, a quarter note moves forward 1 space, a whole note moves ahead 4 spaces, etc.) Climb the Mountain Sheet: Cards for Climb the Mountain Game:...

You can find some very cute treble and base cleff fishynotes at susanparadis.com. If your child is learning the notes on piano there is avery cute icecream activity at laytonmusic.wordpress.com Here she has plain keyboard cards with a dot. (Like theicecream part below.) You can use them as three part cards, placing the keyboard and letter onto the full card, you could play memory,matching and so forth. Here is a...

If you’ve visited our website before, You’ll recognize thecraft table where I set up experiments. In the corneris where I stash some of my music stuff. I have theselovely composer posters there. Since I’m talking aboutresources, I thought I’d share the link where I got them:http://laytonmusic.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/composer-posters/She has lots to choose from. I noticed that she had these same composer cards in asmaller version and I thought that was perfect for...