Blog - Victoria Boler

Our repertoire in Kindergarten serves multiple purposes at the same time.

From a musical standpoint, these songs and rhymes form the basis for all the other musical work we’ll do in later years. Musical expectations about things like phrasing, tonality, meter, and form are constructed through active musical experiences in Kindergarten.

But perhaps more importantly, this is also where we learn crucial skills about how to interact with each other in a group setting. What is it like to make music in a collaborative, collective ensemble? What will the overall tone of music class be?

Ideally, in addition to building music foundations, we’re also building a love for music class, a joy from being together, and the capacity to engage with many different types of musics on many different levels.

In the new Kindergarten Music series on Teaching Music Tomorrow, Anne Mileski and I are talking about active Kindergarten experiences for developing musicianship skills in a play-based way.

Click here to listen and learn more.

What a great action song for entering the classroom, or any time throughout the lesson!

This song has been well-loved across many places in America, but was collected in Illinois as a circle dance (McIntosh, 1957). 

In the classroom today, it’s more commonly sung as a follow-the-leader, action game in which students suggest movements to replace the text. 

For example, “I’m gonna jump it and a jump it,” “I’m gonna wiggle it and a wiggle it,” etc. 

Consider starting with the teacher as the line leader, leading the class around the room and calling out different movements with each iteration. After a few rounds students can suggest their own motions, and eventually be the line leader instead of the teacher. 

This is a Kindergarten classic!

It’s a great game to use at the beginning of the year, or after a break, especially when learning names.

To play the game, students stand in a circle with one student in the middle. That student in the middle bounces a ball on the strong beats of the song as the whole class sings. Instead of “Shilo,” the class sings the name of another student in the circle. The person in the middle bounces the ball to the chosen student and the two switch places. Repeat the activity wth different student names each time. 

To save time with choosing which student’s name the class will sing in the next iteration of the song, I have also modified this game to have a solo singing component. The whole class sings the first four beats (“bounce high bounce low”) and the student in the middle sings “bounce the ball to __(student name)___.” 

A classic play party, this singing game has been re-imagined for young music students in a classroom setting. 

In an interview, Jean Ritichie (1957) commented that Old Bald Eagle was often the last song they would sing at their “singing plays” before it was time to go home. This can make it another great song to use at the end of class, like “Caballito Blanco.”

Students create a circle with one student on the inside. That student walks around the inside of the circle as the class sings the song. At the end, the student in the middle chooses the student they are standing next two, and both students walk around the middle of the circle as the class sings “two bald eagles sail around.” 

How does young Juan like to dance? He dances with his feet, his hands, his fingers, his elbow…. Just like this! 

This Spanish song has been loved by many children across many Spanish-speaking countries, making it difficult to pinpoint an exact location for its origin. Kindergartners can add themselves to the collection of children across the world who love singing and moving to this Spanish song!

(2) Con el pie pie pie (foot)

(3) Con la rodilla dilla dilla (knee)

(4) Con la cadera dera dera (hip)

(5) Con la mano mano mano (hand)

(6) Con el codo codo codo (elbow)

(7) Con el hombro hombro hombro (shoulder)

(8) Con la cabeza eza eza (head)

Sing the song and dance with each new addition to the text.

This is a cumulative song. Each time through, add on one more body part to dance with!

By the time this singing game was recorded in its current version, it was no longer associated with its original social and political connotations. Like other mentions of Charles Edward Stewart in Scottish songs like “Over the River to Charlie,” Scottish songs with Jacobite references eventually became encompassed into play parties, then in children’s singing games, and transitioned into the singing games we love today.

Students create a circle with a leader on the outside. The leader sings the song while moving around the outside of the circle, and the rest of the class echoes.  At the last line (“can’t catch me”), the leader taps the student closest to them on the shoulder. Both students run around the circle, with the student who was just tagged trying to catch the leader.

If the leader makes it back to the tagged student’s spot, the student who was tagged becomes the new leader and the game begins again. If the leader is caught, they lead the game in the next round.

You can also have students walk, or jump, or hop on one foot around the circle if running doesn’t work for your situation.

This activity is a hit at the beginning of my Kindergarten lessons! I’ve used it in other grades as well, and it’s just as delightful. 

Hello, my friends, hello!

There isn’t a game or activity that accompanies this song, so this is one I have added. 

In this activity, I ask students to imagine how they would greet a friend if they couldn’t use any words. We explore all sorts of non-verbal waves: waving two hands enthusiastically, wiggling fingers, Barbie wave, etc.

With a few student ideas at a time, the teacher signs and shows different ways to wave for each phrase. Students copy the teacher’s movements. 

Another day, students choose their favorite three silent ways to wave. Practice switching between the three waves, following the teacher as they hold up 1, 2, or 3 fingers. Students sing the song and wave with their first, second, and third movement choices as the teacher directs. 

What could we build with our hammer? 

With my hammer, hammer, hammer,

with my hammer I hammer

In this activity I‘ve added to the song, my Kindergarteners love suggesting things we could make. 

Students imagine what we could build, the class sings the song as we pat imaginary hammers, and then we inspect our work. Each iteration of the song, the teacher discovers we have made a mistake following the directions, and have almost finished building something else entirely. Students suggest what we built by accident, and we sing the song again. 

This is another hit in my Kindergarten lessons, and another song that doesn’t come with a standardized activity. Instead, I’ve added a movement activity to help us line up at the end of class. 

Little white pony, take me from here

Take me to my home where I was born

Students sing the song and walk in a circle. (My students sit in a circle, so it’s easy to stand and point our “noses and our toeses” in one direction.)

At some point, the teacher breaks away from the circle and the class continues to follow. Explore different movement pathways around the room such as zig-zag, straight, curvy, etc.) With each iteration of the song, ask students to suggest how much further the little white pony has to travel until we’re back home.

Eventually the teacher leads the line of students to the door. 

Sulla Rulla is one of my favorite lullabies for Kindergarten, or any age!

It’s associated with Østerdalen, a valley in southeastern Norway. The phases, “sulla rulla,” or “sulla lulla,” are calming sounds used in many Nordic lullabies. Traditional performance practice would include an elongation of consonants rather than vowels, specifically with the “ll” sound.

This song is sourced from the collection at Nordic Sounds.

Sing this song as you rock side to side. If you have stuffed animals in your class, have students take turns rocking them as they sing.

This singing game from Mexico is such a great way to practice movement and stillness! Montoya-Stier (2008) suggested that teachers might give categories of statues for students to explore (animals, etc.).

Like the ivory statues,

one, two, three, like this

There are several ways to play this game about ivory statues, all of which involve freezing in place at the end of the song.

For Kindergarten, a fun way to play is to move around a circle, or around the room in open space, while singing the song. One student stands at the front of the room, facing the other students. At the end, all students freeze in their favorite statue shape. If anyone moves the person at the front of the room calls their name and they are out in the next round of the game.

This children’s ring game was shared by the beloved singer, Bessie Jones. Bessie Jones is one of the most well-known singers from the Georgia Sea Islands, and has contributed tremendously to the field of children’s music education through her preservation and dissemination of Georgia Sea Islands culture. 

The phrase, “shoo lie loo” was believed by Jones to be a joyful expression of gratitude. The song references children playing in the yard who periodically go into the kitchen and come back out with a handful of biscuits. 

Students stand in a circle and sing the response. In the place of "Miss Mary", the lead singer sings the name of another student in the circle. That student improvises a movement as he or she travels to the opposite side of the circle.

The history of Aiken Drum is fascinating! 

The melody I notated here is from The melody I have notated here is from Crane (1878) and Forrai (1990), but there are many more tunes associated with the name, “Aiken Drum,” and even more stories about its origin. You can find more in the “sources and variants” section of the repertoire page.

From my reading of the sources, this is a very old Scottish children’s song that was recycled into a Jacobite ballad, and like “Charlie Over the Ocean,” this song isn’t currently associated with the Jacobite cause or Charles Edward Stuart. Some other early versions include another character, Willie Wood, before Aiken Drum is introduced. 

In the classroom, students love changing the foods Aiken Drum was made of. 

For example:

His head was made of a tomato, a tomato, a tomato....

His hair was made of spaghetti, of spaghetti, of spaghetti...

His nose was made of a strawberry, of a strawberry, of a strawberry…

Winding games are delightful additions to Kindergarten music, provided every member of the group shows the self control to keep everyone safe!

The text of this song is conducive to encouraging self-control, as students pretend to be very slow snails. 

Little snail snail snail,

Take out your horns and stand in the sun

Students hold hands in a line, with a leader at the front. The leader moves the line in an inward circle, creating a spiral like a snail. Eventually the leader turns around and unwinds the group.

I don’t think I’ve met a person who loves Kindergarten music as much as my friend, Anne Mileski.

Anne and I collaborate on the podcast, “Teaching Music Tomorrow.” If you’re interested in more songs, games, and activities for Kindergarten music, I cannot recommend enough that you jump over to teachingmusictomorrow.com to listen to our latest podcast season about Kindergarten music!

There are times we come across a song or rhyme we know students would enjoy, but we might not be sure where it fits in the curriculum.

How can we step back and imagine musical possibilities? What if we were to treat songs like musical prompts?

In this post we talked about some ways to explore one rhyme with several different pedagogical lenses. 

Today we’ll do the same for a song, Sea Shell. Here’s an example of how one song might be used for three different pedagogical outcomes and three different age groups.

This also shows how we might approach the song in different areas of learning: The first activities are for students who don’t know the song. The next two, it’s expected that students would know the song already. The 2nd grade activities are in preparation, before students are aware of the notation and label for half note. The 3rd grade activities are in practice, after students consciously know low sol. 

Each grade objective includes student choice in the activities.

Let’s jump in!

This song is sourced from the collection at Holy Names University.

This activity is designed for young musical learners in the early grades.

This activity doesn’t require any previous knowledge or experience! Consider using this as an introduction to vocal exploration and add it to your collection of echo songs.

In this first learning experience, the teacher introduces the song through movement and active listening.

• Seated, the teacher sings the song and leads students in swaying side to side as they listen. 

• In between rounds of the song, the teacher asks questions: “What is our song about?” “What do you think the sea shell is singing about?” “Wait, can sea shells actually sing?”

• Sing while moving hands like the waves of the ocean, showing the melodic contour of the song. Students echo each four-beat phrase with ocean movements.

  • Sea shell, sea shell (sea shell sea shell), Sing a song for me (sing a song for me)

In this second experience, students extend their ocean movements and continue echoing the song. This learning experience is primarily a review and reinforcement of the previous class, giving students more opportunities to listen and move to the song.

• Review the previous class: Sing while moving hands like the waves of the ocean, showing the melodic contour of the song.

• Students echo each four-beat phrase with ocean movements.

  • Sea shell, sea shell (sea shell sea shell), Sing a song for me (sing a song for me) 

• “What if you could make your ocean movements while standing on your spot?” 

• Repeat the activity with students echo singing and showing the melodic contour with stationary movement

There are many possibilities for the pitch exploration here! Feel free to write your own on the board.

• Echo sing and move to the song as review 

• “What do you think the sea shell’s song sounded like?” Show several options of melodic contour on the board, and lead students in performing with vocals and movements

Students have sung the song and explored many examples of pitch exploration. Now it’s time for them to create their own sea shell songs. Asking for four different options encourages students to invent variations, instead of stopping after one idea.

• Echo sing and move to the song as review 

• Review pitch exploration ideas on the board 

• With their shoulder partner, students use a piece of yarn to create their own vocal explorations 

  • Ask students to come up with four different options 

• Students take turns sharing their ideas with the class

Many music curricula explore one sound over two beats in the 2nd grade year. The ocean theme of this song can make it convenient for exploring elongated sounds, like ocean waves. We can also experiment with the form of the song.

• Previous Knowledge: Before this activity, students should have conscious knowledge of steady beat, quarter notes, and eighth notes. Even though the activity focuses on one sound over two beats, students don’t need to have conscious knowledge of half notes. In future classes, students will be introduced to the half note vocabulary and symbol we’ll use in this class.

• Previous Experience: Students should have plenty of independent and collaborative experiences singing, playing instruments, speaking, moving, reading, writing, improvising, arranging, and aurally identifying the rhythmic set listed in the knowledge section above. For these activities, students should have heard the song before, though it does not need to be memorized for the first learning experiences.

In this first learning experience, students use movement to show the duration of the rhythm. This happens as a whole class at first, then with pairs of students. There is an opportunity for formative assessment as students tiptoe, step, and slide with a partner at the end of this experience.

• The teacher sings the song with movement directions for tiptoe, step, and slide. Students echo sing and move (locomotor or non-locomotor)

  • Step step step step (students echo)

  • Tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiiide (students echo)

  • Tiptoe tiptoe step step (students echo)

  • Tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiiide (students echo)

• The teacher sings the song on text. Students echo sing and move, translating to tiptoe, step, and sliding movements

  • Sea shell sea shell (student sing text and step step step step)

  • Sing a song for me (students sing text and tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiiide)

  • Sing about the ocean (students sing text and tiptoe tiptoe step step)

  • Sing about the sea (students sing text and tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiiide)

• Divide the class in half. One half sings and moves first, then pauses for the other partner to sing and echo

The movement work from the previous class is extended here, as the teacher takes away the movement directions and replaces them with an instrument or neutral syllable. Students use their aural awareness to identify one sound that lasts for two beats.

• Review previous class. Students echo sing the song on text

• “Let’s take out the echo and sing it straight through.” Students sing the song straight through, without echoing.

• Students sing the whole song and clap the words, remaining seated 

• Seated with their feet in front of them, students sing and put the rhythm of the words in their feet

• Students stand, and sing the whole song while tiptoeing and stepping in open space

• As a B section, the teacher plays four or eight-beat rhythms on a recorder (or sings on a neutral syllable), using a combination of two sounds on a beat, one sound on a beat, or one sound elongated over two beats. Students echo move.

  • Example: ta ta ta-a (students step step sliiiiiiide), ta-di ta-di ta-di ta (tiptoe tiptoe tiptoe step) ta-a ta-di ta (sliiiiiiide tiptoe step) ta-di ta-di ta-a (tiptoe tiptoe sliiiiiide)

• Students sing the song as they tiptoe, step, and slide back to their spots.

• “How many times do we slide in this song?” Students inner hear and pat a steady beat (we slide two times)

• “How many sounds do you hear in the word, ‘me’?” (one sound) “How many beats does it last?” Students sing and pat a steady beat (it lasts two beats)

Students have identified one sound that lasts for two beats. Now they use their aural awareness and translate it to a visual representation of the rhythm. Iconic notation is used here to show the elongated sound. In later lessons, the label and symbol for a half note may be used. At the end of the learning experience, students mix up the form to create a new order of the song.

• Review previous experiences as necessary

• “Which phrases of the song have matching rhythms?” Students sing and pat a steady beat (phrases 2 and 4 have matching rhythms)

• Help the teacher put the phrases of the song in the correct order.

• “How do you know this is the correct answer? Talk to your shoulder partner.”

• Students explain their thinking, then share their answers as time allows

• “I’m tired of giving the correct answer all the time. Let’s mix up the form so it’s the incorrect answer.”

• Mix up the form to create new version of tiptoeing and sliding. Students speak the new combination while moving their feet in front of them (staying seated) or turning their fingers into people and moving on the floor in front of them.

• Repeat the activity, with students arranging the form for the class

• Students repeat the activity with a partner and move around the room to their arrangement.

• Share combinations as time allows 

By the 3rd grade year, many students are ready to work on the extended pentatone, including low sol. As melodic vocabulary grows, students can apply their knowledge to their developing partwork skills.

• Previous Knowledge: Before this activity, students should have conscious knowledge of solfege pitches, do, re, mi, sol, la, low la, low sol. These learning experiences would fall in to the “practice” phase of learning.

• Previous Experience: This activity is for students who are ready to sing a bass line to a known song. Consider previous experiences students have had with bass lines and partner melodies to prepare them for these experiences. You can find more information about scaffolding vocal partwork skills here. Students should also already know the song for these experiences.

These are adapted from the low sol concept plan in the 2021 - 2022 Planning Binder.

In this learning experience, students listen to the new partner melody with the song. After hearing the melody, students learn it by rote through a combination of movement and aural skills. Aurally decoding the melody is one of the reasons this experience should fall in the practice phase of the learning process. When students have learned the melody, they sing it as the teacher sings the main song.

• Students walk in a circle, singing the song without teacher assistance

• “I’ll try to mess you up this time. Listen to each other.” The teacher walks inside the circle in the opposite direction, singing the partner melody:

• Students sit in place. The teacher teaches the partner melody by rote. Students echo sing eight beats at a time, showing the high and low movements of the melodic contour

• The teacher sings eight beats at a time. Students echo on solfege with Curwen hand signs or with the movements they just created

  • “Hey there, let me hear your song” (do do do do sol sol sol)

  • “Hey there, then we’ll sing along” (do do sol sol do do do)

• Students walk around in a circle, singing the partner melody without teacher assistance. The teacher walks around the inside of the circle singing the main melody of Sea Shell.

This lesson experience reviews the melody from the previous class, and expands partwork skills. Instead of the teacher singing one part and the whole class singing the other, students work toward partwork interdependence by dividing the partner melody and main melody between half the class.

• With a partner, students decide if they’ll sing the partner melody on solfege with hand signs, or on text with movement that matches the melodic contour.

• Seated with their partner, students perform their choice, then switch jobs

• Students walk around in a circle, singing the partner melody without teacher assistance. The teacher walks around the inside of the circle singing the main melody of Sea Shell.

• The teacher “tags” a few volunteers to be on the inside circle team and sing the main melody. The rest of the class continues to sing the partner melody.

• Continue tagging singers until the inside and outside groups are approximately even

Students have already aurally identified low sol in the partner melody. When it’s time to transfer their understanding to a barred instrument, students use their knowledge of steps and skips to identify low sol and figure out the partner melody by ear.

• With a partner, students decide if they’ll sing the partner melody on solfege with hand signs, or on text with movement that matches the melodic contour.

• Seated with their partner, students perform their choice, then switch jobs

• Using a barred instrument visual on the board, students work with their partner to figure out where do and low sol live if do is F.

• Students help the teacher notate the melody of the partner song on the board

• Students read the notation on the board, pointing to the notation or pointing to a barred instrument visual

• With a partner, students sit behind a barred instrument and figure out how to play the partner melody by ear.

• One partner plays and sings the partner melody. The student without mallets sings the main Sea Shell melody. Switch jobs.

When we step back and look at our classroom materials as musical prompts, we see many pedagogical possibilities.

Today we looked at how one song might be used for vocal exploration, half notes, and low sol. But there are so many more ways this song might be re-imagined in our teaching.

There are many possibilities with one simple musical invitation!

This year is unique in so many ways. This year is challenging in so many ways.

One of the difficult obstacles many educators face is rethinking lesson ideas and teaching strategies to fall within the safety parameters set by their school districts, including no singing and no moving around the room.

These are the options we’re used to having:

What’s different about this year?

It’s not that much! We still have many options for active, student-centered musicing.

When a musical pillar like singing gets taken away, it can be hard to imagine our classes without it! However, when we take a step back and start with what we can do, we can find a different perspective.

This different perspective doesn’t change how challenging this year is, and it doesn’t take away how discouraged we can feel by the constant need to rework our go-to ideas.

But simple shifts to the reality of the situation (there are many avenues of musicing) instead of the false situation (I can’t do music this year) can be incredibly helpful as we move forward.

Today we’ll look at some practical ways to teach a song without singing.

We’ll begin with a framework you can use for any concept and any song in any year, and then look at a specific example of teaching a song without singing.

Let’s jump in!

When we know why we’re doing an activity, the rest of the steps suddenly become much more clear! The answer to the question becomes the primary goal in our musicing.

There are infinite reasons we might select material for the music room. Here are some possibilities:

• Just for fun! Simply having fun and collectively making music is a beautiful curricular objective

• Melodic vocabulary: Maybe the song has a pattern of pitch relationships we want to highlight

• Rhythmic vocabulary: Maybe the song uses a specific pattern of durations or a new collection of weighted beats

• Form: Perhaps the song has an interesting structure we want to highlight

• Partwork: The song might lend itself to exciting ensemble layers

• Expression: The song might open our imaginations to exciting ways to show musical meaning through dynamics, articulation, and tempo variations.

When we’re clear on the purpose, we have an opportunity to transform the tired question (How do I teach a song without singing?) into one that moves us forward in a more musical way.

For so many educators, the question of how to teach a song without singing is one that causes confusion, anxiety, and discouragement. This is a tired question.

We can reframe it from one that causes confusion and anxiety to one that moves to clarity, imagination, and music.

The old question: How do I teach a song without singing?

The new question: How could I explore the purpose of the song (fun, melody, rhythm, form, partwork, expression, etc.) without singing?

Let’s go back to the purpose of the songs we’ve selected. With the purpose in mind, here are some examples of transforming the question to gain more clarity, imagination, and music.

Just for fun:

If we selected a song because its fun, our primary goal is not for students to sing the song. It's to have fun! How can we still have fun without singing?

The new question: What are some ways to have fun with this song without singing?

Building Melodic Vocabulary:

If we selected a song for a specific melodic understanding, what other ways of musicing could we use to show pitch relationships? Could we use visuals? Movements? Body percussion? Listening? All of these are wonderful options for embodying melodic ideas!

The new question: What are some ways to show pitch relationships without singing?

Building Rhythmic Vocabulary:

If we selected a song for a specific rhythmic understanding, how else could we show duration or beat? What other modes of musicing could we use besides singing?

The new question: How can we show duration without singing?

Form:

If the form of the song is important, how could we show the structure of same, similar, and different musical sections?

The new question: How can we explore the structure of music without singing?

Partwork:

If we love how the song helps students with musical independence in an ensemble setting, what are some ways we could explore that besides singing?

The new question: How can we practice independent musicianship without singing?

Expression:

If we chose the song because of all the opportunities for expressive musicing, the purpose of the song isn’t singing. The purpose of the song is exploring things like dynamics, articulation, and tempo variations.

The new question: How could we show interesting expressive qualities without singing?

These new questions do a much better job of moving our thoughts toward clear musical goals!

There will be variations in this process, and depending on the purpose of the activity this could be extended in many exciting ways! However, the core steps at beginning will probably follow this structure:

1. Listen (actively)

2. Notice something important about the song

3. Embody the important parts through a musical medium like movement, body percussion, or speech

4. Extend the activity based on your teaching objective

Let’s imagine we want to teach Tideo without singing. There are so many possibilities!

From Lois Choksy: 120 Singing Games and Dances for Elementary Schools

• The song: Tideo

• The purpose: Melodic patterns with mi re do

• The question: How can we explore stepwise motion that moves to the tonic without singing?

There are infinite possible answers to this question! Here’s one process, but yours may be different. The text in italics is the teacher dialogue.

This recording is available as part of this collection of vocal recordings for elementary general music.

Step 1 - Active listening:

As you keep a steady beat to our new song, I have a curious question: What could this song be about? Listen to a recording of Tideo and tap a steady beat. Students share their answers.

Step 2 - Notice something important:

Interesting! This time as you tap the beat a different way, let’s listen for how many times our song says, “tideo.” Listen to the recording and tap the steady beat. Wait! Hold your answer in your head and double check while you keep the beat a new way! Listen to the recording again. Students hold up eight fingers.

Step 3 - Embody the important parts through a musical medium:

I agree, it is eight! This time, let’s show the direction of the melody on each “tideo” with our eyebrows OR our noses. You choose. Play the first half of the song only. Students show the melodic contour. Please talk to your shoulder partner about how each tideo is different. Students discuss with friends around them, then share answers as a class. Great! The first one moves up with a skip, the second moves down by step, the third moves up with a skip, the last one moves down by step. A pattern! This time as we listen you may silently show those movements any way you want. Students take a few seconds to think about their movements, and give a thumbs up when they have their motions ready. Listen to the first half of the recording again.

Step 4 - Extend based on your teaching objective

This is where the possibilities are endless! It’s likely that this step will take place in the next class, and could be extended for several lessons. Here are some ideas:

Notate the melody:

Now that we’ve listened to the target melodic pattern, moved to it in multiple ways, and talked about it with friends, students can help us map it out in graphic notation.

Graphic notation is a beautiful way for students to work with pitch relationships!

After students help us map the graphic notation, we can easily transfer it into standard notation as well.

Play on body percussion:

Students can take all their musical knowledge of the melody this far and play the melody on body percussion. To do this, students will need to show different levels of sound that reflect the melody.

To create their body percussion patterns, students might work independently, or with their immediate shoulder partner without contact.

Here’s one option, but there are many more!

To recap, there are many possibilities for teaching a song without singing!

They start with having clarity on the purpose of the song. From there, we can help students actively listen to the song, notice the important aspects, invite them to embody the music, and extend the activity based on our musical objective.

In this post we talked about why we need options for music education that are as accessible as possible to all our learners. We discussed the three brain networks that impact how students show up in our classrooms (Affective, Recognition, and Strategic), and some general strategies to consider when it comes to UDL.

Today we’ll zoom in on the Affective brain networks. In this model of brain research, the Affective networks are responsible for the level of engagement students experience in learning, as well as their motivation level to become a lifelong musical learner. We’ll look at concrete examples of providing multiple means of engagement in elementary general music.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it can get us started in thinking through practical applications of UDL in music.

Let’s jump in.

On the go?
Listen to this post instead of reading.

For some of us, UDL is a framework we learned in a recent teacher training course. For many of us, we’re learning about this approach after many years already in the classroom. When we hear about a new approach in education, we might wonder if we really need to add one more thing to our list of things to think about.

How will we know if students are being provided enough means of engagement?

The answer might be more simple than we think. It doesn’t come down to what our principals say we need to do, or a checklist from a PD session, or a trend in education.

If students are off task and unengaged in learning, it may be time to try out some new methods of recruiting interest, motivation, and self regulation. If there are students who struggle to participate in musical tasks - for whatever reason or whatever perceived reason - we can brainstorm more ways to engage them.

We can also ask students about their experiences in our classrooms and listen to their feedback. If their answers show that they don’t feel particularly interested in our curriculum, way of teaching, or level of ownership they’re given, it might be time to explore some new ideas.

Our goal is for students to be purposeful, motivated, and musical in our classrooms. Providing multiple means of engagement is how we can partner with elementary musicians so they make as much music as possible.

1. Recruiting Interest
   We like to learn about things that are interesting! How can frame or rework our presentations to nurture more student interest?

2. Sustaining Effort and Persistence:
   Musicianship takes practice over time. How can we help students be attentive through the whole process?

3. Self Regulation:
   When we self regulate emotional responses, we contribute to a classroom environment that’s conducive to learning. How can we help students regulate their behavior so they’re set up for success?

These are guidelines from Cast, with examples of how they can be applied in elementary general music.

We like to learn about things that are interesting! These are ways we can partner with students to engage them in classroom activities. Much of this has to do with the repertoire we select, but it also has to do with student roles in the classroom. Are students active participants in musical tasks, or are they only being asked to follow teacher directions quickly? Here are some ideas for adjusting our learning environments to be more interesting to students.

When we build lessons with student choice embedded, we not only strengthen our overall musicianship expectations, but we put students in a better place to take ownership of their part in learning. This starts with clear goals in our curriculum planning. From there, we can be flexible and creative about how students will show their learning. There are so many opportunities for student choice in the music room! Students can choose whether they will tiptoe or slide to their spots. They might choose to clap the rhythm of the words or pat the steady beat. They could choose to come in 1st or 2nd in a two-part round. They might choose to play an ostinato or clap the rhythm of the main song. Let’s imagine we want to expand students’ melodic vocabulary by exploring new melodic patterns that use low la in the extended pentatone. Early in this vocabulary building phase, we’ll want students to show melodic contour of a specific pattern. Students can choose if they’ll show the melody through movement or through body percussion. Since both options in this scenario move students toward our learning objective, we don’t need to dictate how students show melodic contour. Both pathways give us the evidence we need to move learning forward.

Read More:
Musical Choice - Steps to Take Before Improvisation

Students can help us create arrangements for sharing activities like informances or other presentations. They can also help create arrangements just for fun to be performed in class. If letting students create class arrangements is new for you or your students, an easy way to get started is with rhythmic building blocks. When we work with a folk song, students can use rhythmic building blocks to create their own rhythms in small groups. With their rhythms created, we can decide as a class if the rhythms will be a B section the class plays all together, or if a few of them will be ostinati that happen throughout the whole song.

Read More:
Planning an Elementary Music Informance (Part 1)

Among other criteria, repertoire we engage with in the music room should be repertoire we expect students to enjoy! We can select repertoire that is age appropriate, and then see how students respond over time. Students can also suggest repertoire to be used in the music room. Using student-provided repertoire requires more time and creativity from us, but the buy-in from students makes it a worthwhile endeavor.

Read More:
Resources for Creating a Grade-Level Song List

When our musical tasks are authentic, they can be transferred to real-world scenarios outside of the music classroom. In an active musical learning environment, students learn music by musicing - by actively embodying musical ideas - not by simply being in the room while a teacher talks about musical ideas. This emphasis on active musicing engages students in authentic, real-world activities. When we think beyond things like worksheets and memorizing the lines and spaces of the staff, so many new possibilities open up like singing, playing instruments, speaking, moving, reading, writing, improvising, composing, arranging, and listening.

Read More:
Planning an Active Music Curriculum

From the first day of class, we can make sure our classrooms are safe places to learn. Our music classrooms should be places where student mistakes are welcomed and encouraged, and where forward motion is praised. Students might need coaching on the specific language to use in group work or in other classroom sharing activities when peers perform musically so the feedback is process-oriented.

Read More:
First Day of Elementary Music Lesson Plans

Music engagement requires vulnerability on the part of us and our students, specifically when it comes to specific performance tasks such as singing or improvising. Because we learn by actively musicing, it's possible for the performance aspect of our classrooms to cause nervousness in some students. When we compare music learning to a traditional math class, this difference is highlighted well. When students learn math in a traditional classroom, they often sit at their desks while the teacher talks about math. When it’s time to show their knowledge, students often write down an answer on a worksheet. If a student has trouble with a specific math skill, their peers won’t know. In contrast, in an active music room students perform musical tasks to show their knowledge. The emphasis on authenticity can also cause anxiety for some students who can be concerned that if they don’t perform a skill well, everyone will know. We can help minimize threats and distractions by scaffolding skills well and lesson planning with intention so students aren’t put in a vulnerable position before they’re ready. When it's time to do a skill like singing or improvising, we can practice as a whole class, we can inner hear answers in our heads, we can practice with small groups, and then with partners all before necessarily asking students to perform alone.

Read More:
Improvisation Tips for Elementary General Music

We can offer students choice, make learning active, and scaffold tasks strategically to engage more student interest.

When we learn a new skill, we need a combination of challenges to move us forward and assistance to help us meet those challenges. Thoughtful practice over time and internal motivation are both necessary to create lifelong musical learners. How can we partner with students so they’re self-aware and motivated to persevere as they build musicianship over time? Because we see (on average) ages 5 - 11, the answers to this question will change as our students change with age, interest, and life experiences.

Students can be involved in the creation of goal setting and evaluation in the classroom! In preparation for an informance or another sharing event, students can think about what an excellent final product would be, and come up with a list of criteria to know they’ve reached the goal. Class-created rubrics can be helpful to get the whole group of musicians on the same page.

Learn More:
Active Embedded Assessment in Elementary General Music

As we work toward an aural picture of musicianship, there are many ways we could achieve our desired outcomes! We could listen to field recordings. The teacher could demonstrate. We could listen to peer ideas. We could inner hear our desired vocal sounds. We could mime playing the instrument while inner hearing. We could map out the form of our arrangement on the board. There are many possibilities to provide an aural and visual image of the final musical goal!

When we’re clear on our long-range and short-term learning goals, we get clarity on how much room we have for individual choice within those learning parameters. For example, if students are asked to perform a B section with rhythmic building blocks using patterns containing and beat and beat subdivision, there are many options embedded! Will students perform on text or on rhythm syllables? Will they clap the rhythms as they speak? Could they put the rhythms on body percussion? Will they add movements for each rhythm item? Will all cards have two beats or will some have four? Will students come up with the rhythms or will we provide them? We can consider what parameters we will set as teachers and what freedoms within those parameters students will have after we clarify our specific learning goals.

Read More:
The Ultimate Guide to Lesson Planning in the Music Room - Part 1

Why should students be interested and engaged in our learning tasks? Is it to see their class score on a behavior chart? Is it the threat of punishment or potential for a reward (both two sides of the same threat-based coin)? Thoughtful practice over time and internal motivation are what create lifelong musical learners. We can help deemphasize stickers, charts, pizza parties, and competition by emphasizing student progress, effort, and improvement. Instead of “Yessss your class is winning the good behavior competition between the 3rd grade classes! One step closer to free choice day in music!” we can try “I think our class rondo sounds even more expressive after today’s class! Let’s compare the audio I just recorded with what I recorded three classes ago and see what we think. After you listen, talk to your shoulder partner about what we can do next.”

Our classrooms aren’t isolated contexts. Elementary music students have a lot to learn from each other, and it’s important that they leave our classrooms able to listen and collaborate with other people.

In an active music classroom, information is shared from teacher to student, student to teacher, student to student, and students to community. This is an important part of deemphasizing the teacher as the source of all musical knowledge, and reframing the teacher’s role to the musical guide while the students construct their own knowledge. Students can work in small groups to figure out how to play a melodic pattern on barred instruments by ear. They could create a group ostinato. They could brainstorm ideas for a B section. They could discuss the meaning of the text in a song, book, or story.

Like us, young musicians can have conflict when working in groups. What are the expectations for listening to ideas? What are the expectations for trying those ideas? Creating rubrics or checklists for students to work toward in small groups can be helpful to establish boundaries and goals.

Musical skills are built, not born. Despite the wide-spread myths around innate talent and creativity, our students become better musicians when they are motivated to thoughtfully practice over time. All of us are motivated to keep learning when we feel we’re making progress. One of the teacher’s jobs in the UDL classroom is to help students approach challenges through mastery-oriented feedback.

When students encounter challenges to things like pitch matching, we can give them specific supports such as vocal sirens, inner hearing the melodic contour while moving, or singing with a friend. Instead of “Grace, you have such a beautiful voice!” we can try “Grace, did you hear how your voice changed after we did the sirens together?!” One implies an innate ability. One implies building skills over time through strategic support and self-awareness.

In preparation for an informance or another sharing scenario, students may be working on a whole class ensemble arrangement of (just as an example) Engine Engine Number Nine. In this arrangement example, as one group is moving like a train, one group is playing a steady beat on tubanos, and one group is playing the rhythm of the words on rhythm sticks, it’s possible to get off from the steady beat. When that happens, we can say something like “hmmmm let’s do that again and listen across the room while we perform. When we’re done, we’ll tell someone next to us what we notice.” Students perform the arrangement again, discuss with their shoulder partner, then share a few comments with the class. If steady beat matching is identified as a problem, students can brainstorm solutions that the teacher writes on the board (inner hear and pretend to play your part, play quieter, watch the other groups, etc.). Students choose their strategy, then discuss whether or not it helped the ensemble.

Listen to More:
Rhythm vs Beat Arrangement for Engine Engine Number Nine

We can create safe learning environments where students create goals, explore freedom within boundaries, and get process-oriented feedback from us.

Students differ in how engaged they are in specific tasks and how aware they are of their behavioral reactions to emotion. We can build in checks to strategically help students monitor their behavior, motivation, and engagement. The more we circle back to these internal motivation checks, the more opportunities we provide for students to be successful.

It can be challenging for some students to wrestle with their current musical skill level in comparison to where they want to be. It’s possible for students to act out of frustration when musical tasks are beyond their reach the first try.

It can be helpful for students to have checks with group or independent work so they’re not alarmed or panicked when time is up. This idea is one I adopted from my Orff level 1 instructor, Alicia Knox. When student group or individual work time is nearing its end, the teacher plays an attention-grabber (bell, clap, chimes, etc.) and students hold up fingers for the number of minutes they still need to complete the task. The teacher scans the numbers quickly, then shares how many more minutes (if any) students will work before moving on with the lesson. When we ask students what they need, we give them an opportunity to mentally check in on their own musical progress and make an statement on what they need next.

As we work on individual or group assignments like compositions, it can be helpful for students to create their own goals for independent work. When working on a composition or other extended project, students can turn their paper over and fill in the blank to two simple prompts: “Today I ___ (write what was worked on)____. Next class I will ___ (write the next steps)___.” Students can also discuss these goals with a shoulder partner before writing. This helps keep the whole class focused on the next steps.

Read More:
An Orff Arrangement for Bluebird Bluebird

We all have times we feel sad, nervous, or angry in music class. Managing responses to emotions may come easier to some students than others, but there are ways we can help all students move toward managing their emotionally reactive behavior.

When we feel uncomfortable, anxious, or embarrassed, it’s normal to behave in a way that helps us avoid those feelings. Often that behavior isn’t conducive to the classroom environment we want to build. For example, students might react to these feelings by throwing mallets, yelling, shutting down, using comical voices or gestures, attempting to leave the learning space, or using hurtful words. Other guidelines in this post have mentioned the importance of scaffolding musical tasks and offering choices so students are challenged appropriately. We can also help students clarify their wording from “I’m not good at music” (a thought that can trigger an unproductive emotional behavior response) to “I didn’t play the 16th notes the way I wanted this time, but what if I try with a slower tempo?” (a thought that can move toward more positive and musical behavior).

I taught a particular musician who found it incredibly difficult to go through class without verbal outbursts. These were harmful to the learning environment and I wanted to partner with the student to see how we could find alternative ways of expression. The first step was simply helping this musician see what I was talking about when I referred to “verbal outbursts.” We came up with a system where the musician would keep track via written talleys for the number of outbursts in the class. There was no punishment for more talleys and no reward for fewer talleys. At the end of class the musician would share their numbers with me quickly before going to baseball practice. In those conversations, we mostly talked about what the student thought about class that day, and how baseball was going. The outbursts lowered dramatically in those weeks, and my relationship with the student improved.

Read More:
Upper Elementary Classroom Management for Music Teachers

We can help students monitor their thoughts and behaviors by incorporating regular check-ins and opportunities for reflection.

In this post we’ve discussed many different angles for providing multiple means of engagement in Elementary General music.

Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list! The purposes just to get us thinking about some practical applications of Universal Design for Learning in elementary general music.

As teachers we are learners first. When we learn about a new framework for education we have an opportunity to try on new ideas, new philosophies, and new practices. Sometimes we also get to connect those new philosophies to actions that we’re already doing in the classroom. Most of us we are likely already implementing some of these UDL ideas, so perhaps we decide to highlight those practices moving forward. Perhaps there are some things that we could tweak just a bit to enhance the types of engagement we offer.

If you have thoughts about Universal Design for Learning or this particular pillar of multiple means of engagement I would love to hear from you. You can drop a comment below, shoot me an email, or find me on instagram.

Boler, V. (2021, March 2). Multiple means of engagement in elementary general music (UDL in music part 2). Victoria Boler. https://victoriaboler.com/blog/udl-elementary-music-multiple-means-of-engagement

When we refer to an “Orff arrangement,” we typically mean that the song or rhyme uses barred instruments. However, that may not be all there is to making something “Orff.”

The Orff approach is a play-based process that centers around student choice and creativity. Simply using an “Orff instrument” may not necessarily mean that the students are using the instrument to expand their musical knowledge in a way that puts the learner’s needs first.

How teachers apply this philosophy can look very different from classroom to classroom. However, there are a few things we can expect to see in an Orff-inspired approach:

• Mixed media: students speak, play instruments, sing, and move to express musicality.

• Musical Choice: The teacher gives an amount of control over the musical elements in a piece. For example, students might improvise or arrange a section, create movements, decide the musical form, or choose instrumentation.

• Collaboration: Though individuality is celebrated in the Orff philosophy, students also spend a lot of time working in small groups or making musical decisions as a large ensemble. Every voice is valued!

Here’s an example of how the Orff approach can be used with the song, Bluebird Bluebird. All the resources for this arrangement (the score, worksheets, and visuals) are available as a free download.

Students will have the most success with this arrangement if they have the following concepts and skills already in place:

• Knowledge: steady beat, rhythm, rhythm vs beat, ta and ta-di, ta rest, half notes, sol and mi, la, do, and re.

• Skills: pitch matching, barred instrument techniques, auxiliary percussion techniques, improvisation, arranging, dictation, rhythmic and melodic reading

In my curriculum, this combination of knowledge and skills happens at the end of 2nd grade, or the beginning of 3rd grade.

You can read more about my curriculum outline here, and get the templates for your own classroom in The Planning Binder.

The goal of the arrangement is for students to compose with the full pentatonic scale. This score has several musical elements happening at once. However, everything could be taken out except the song and glockenspiel, and the objective would still be accomplished.

Here is the full score.

You can get the score below, along with all the other resources for this arrangement!

This song is made of a main melody, a harmonic outline, two ostinati, and student compositions.

Process these parts however works best for your situation! If you’d like a starting point, I’ve included some ways my students have found success with these elements.

This is the version of the game I use:

Students stand in a circle with their hands above their heads to form “windows.” One student is the bluebird. The bluebird flies in and out the student windows while the rest of the class sings the song.

At each “take a little partner,” the bluebird taps the closest student on the shoulder. The three students follow behind the bluebird and the game begins again. Each repetition of the song, the head bluebird chooses three more students until the whole class is in the bluebird line.

Since students have knowledge about do as the “home” pitch, they are ready to play the bass xylophone part.

Using the idea of “home” and “away,” students play the tonic and dominant pitches. This image of birds flying away and coming back home is helpful to reinforce the harmonic concepts.

I would also have the class help me transfer it to standard notation after students have played the progression a few times.

As with any mallet part, it’s a good idea to consider starting the learning process with body percussion. Students can stomp for tonic and snap for dominant.

We’ll use this same body percussion designation in the composition process too. It helps to spiral concepts through a variety of different uses!

I tend to teach these parts aurally, and use the notation as a reference in later lessons.

I chose alto xylophone instead of soprano because in the sound pyramid for this ensemble, we don’t need much more treble apart from the glockenspiel. By the same reasoning, the tubano sound will add more low frequencies to balance out the piece.

Students can also come up with their own ostinati based on the text! Most of the time each student comes up with some ideas, and then we share out as a class.

When I notice a pattern that will work with the existing rhythms, I casually verbalize my decision of the pattern we’ll use (speaking the rhythmic syllables of the pattern, not the name of the student who created it).

In a nutshell, this glockenspiel part is the whole purpose of the arrangement. It is also the part of the process that really makes it “Orff!”

I chose glockenspiel because the high pitched, ringing sound seems the most bird-like. I also like that the glockenspiel timbre and register cuts through the rest of the ensemble.

The composition involves a few more steps than the other elements. Here is how I prefer to approach this sequence:

• Step 1: As with most mallet parts, we begin with body percussion.

  • With a partner, students create rhythmic compositions and arrange them for body percussion. All the rhythmic compositions will end the same way to add a more unifying structure.

  • As they think about their body percussion assignments, they follow notation on the board. This is a simplified version of the bass part. Using it as a guide will ensure that their glockenspiel melodies work smoothly with the harmonic progression.

  • The only requirement is that students play the first beat of each measure on the designated note (either “home” or “away”). This enforces the physical sensation of their rhythms and the harmonic progression, even if they don’t necessarily correspond to all the pitches they will use on barred instruments!