Rap a Tap Tap Book and Improvisation Activity

This was a lesson posted in my Patreon community two years ago. My students love this book and has a lovely connection to the famous tap dancer, Savion Glover! Click here for the slides and please note, this will force a copy.

Enjoy! 

Leroy Anderson's The Typewriter

 One of my most favorite pieces of symphonic music is The Typewriter by Leroy Anderson. I love much of what he wrote!  

Click here to get the Typewriter Listening Glyph on google slide.  This will force you to make a copy. 

We will be using plastic bottle caps on a hard surface and sliding the caps on the yellow arrows. The bell will be played by me or a chosen student on my desk bell. The black "splat" is really a placeholder and does not signify something to be played. 

I love this recording- there are many! 

Enjoy! 

Ribbon Choreography Made Easy

For some people, using ribbons with classes is great fun and exciting; for others it is painful; what to do with these things? To create easy and fun ribbon choreography, use these cards (I actually have about 10 pages of these.. use your imagination to create new patterns). First, determine the form of your piece, have students listen and brainstorm the mood of the piece and use a word wall or create a list of movements that reflect each section of the music. Perform with movements. Show ribbon choreography cards and have students determine how to move ribbons that reflect the mood of each section. Display cards in order of performance and then get ready! It often works well (particularly if you have a piece in rondo form) to have different groups of children move during specific sections of music- one group moves for "A", another for "B", and so on. Play the music and move and groove. This makes coming up with ways to move the ribbons easy peasy and the kiddos love creating! Have fun with them!