Put Your Hands Together!


Hi all! This is Amy from Music a la Abbott.  I hope you all enjoyed the previous two posts from Karla and Kate: I love Karla's ideas for surviving the end of the school year (proud to say, I'm one week into summer vacation) and Kate's ideas for reflecting on the year and looking forward.  I debated many different things to blog about today.  Some of my ideas were on pacing, transitions, engagement rates, scaffolding but like I said, I'm on summer vacation!  So, I decided to focus on something fun: Hand clapping games.

Before I share a few of my favorite hand clapping games, let's talk about why hand clapping games are important.  We know that hand clapping games are important for their musical purposes but also for all their non-musical reasons as well.  Hand clapping games have been researched and proven to help with motor skills and motor planning, crossing the mid line, bilateral coordination, visual tracking and socialization.  {My O.T. (occupational therapists) love it when I teach the students hand clapping games because it's working their gross motor skills and that directly impacts their fine motor skills.  The classroom teachers love it because they see an impact in their phonemic awareness, rhyming, and tracking skills.}  Two other things that it's been confirmed to help with, and as music teachers is important to us is, sequencing & patterns and beat & rhythm.

Hand clapping games: Blog post includes great songs with hand jives for your music lessons!


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Celebrate and Reflect


Hi! It's Kate from Kate's Kodaly Classroom. I have been a little bit absent from the blogging world recently, but am so glad to be back on the Kodaly Corner!

If you haven't read Karla's latest post for surviving the end of the year, make sure to check it out! There are so many great ideas and reminders for surviving the wonderful and incredibly chaotic time of year!

The end of the school year is one of my favorite times of year for so many reasons... kids and teachers are excited for summer vacation, celebrations are happening left and right, field days, performances, graduations... it really is a wonderful time. It is also around this time of the year that I make a conscious effort to reflect. I believe that reflection is one of the most important things we can do to grow and develop as teachers. I know that our schedules in May and June are JAM PACKED, but I truly believe an hour with a latte and a notebook can make a huge difference in your professional development and growth. So, for my post today, I am going to share with you some helpful hints for (drum roll, please!)...



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Ideas to Survive the End of the School Year

Hello!  This is Karla from CMajorLearning.  Can you believe it is the end of the school year already?  On one hand, it seems as though this year has flown by and on the other, it has lasted forever!  As I end my school year (Canal Winchester Schools has 13 days left as I'm writing this), I'm looking for ways to survive!  Here is my list of the top 10:




Sing Sing Sing!  Yes, this may seem obvious, but keep the kids singing and making music together.  Pull out the favorites of this year or your personal favorites to sing with the students!  Something with lots of repetition is good so that they can learn it quickly and then be making music.  If they are singing, they can't be talking at the same time!
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