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! 

Footprints/AKA I Got a Letter with Building Bricks Game

 Footprints - a song based on "I Got a Letter" but modified for a game to play for rhythm reading and assessment! 

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A post shared by Aimee Pfitzner 🎶 (@aimee_ofortunaorff)

Footprints full slide set - click here for a copy! 

Enjoy!

Using iconic or rhythmic notation, various voices, elemental forms, movement, non-pitched percussion, barred percussion, movement, and improvisation, this is a "kitchen sink" lesson using everything in the classroom you CHOOSE to use. You can use this with your first graders to upper elementary, varying the complexity included in the lesson. You can get the full slide set with all of the visuals on my Patreon community.  Add your favorite book about winter and voila! A lesson with no prep!

Enjoy!

Candy Making Machine

Using Eric Chappelle's The Add On Machine, and a book about candy as well as some included videos featuring a candy making factory, students create movement to create their own candy making machines. Perfect for any time of year but especially those holidays where candy is featured (Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, etc.) this activity is not specific to holidays or celebrations and is inclusive of everyone. Click here for the slides.

Enjoy! -Aimee

March from the Nutcracker Stretchy Band Activity

 Yes, I love the Nutcracker! There is so much fun to play with that is also a ballet and.. CLASSICAL music that children have most likely heard before! 

Here is a fun stretchy band activity for you and your students to enjoy! 

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Please note this will force a copy- click HERE!

Enjoy!

Run Big Old Turkey, RUN!

 This is a fun game I watched during a morning meeting last year when I was visiting a Kindergarten class. I loved it so much I had to create a song for us to sing to go with the game! This would work well with the children's book, Run Turkey Run! This is also a good one for prepping half note (see measure 4 of the song). 

For a copy of the slides, check out my Patreon site! 

Creepy Carrots

I struggle with all the Halloween themed things I used to do and no longer include as I have students who do not celebrate Halloween. I love spooky season and incorporate spiders, monsters, and other "Halloween-adjacent" activities into this time of year but always with a curricular focus. And if I don't have it, I make it. My third graders learn recorder every year and this year's group is just a wee bit behind other years, for whatever reason. Wonderful singers, and wonderful musicians, just not picking up on recorder as quickly as some other groups. So, I needed a quick piece to put together and have always loved the book, Creepy Carrots! Get the full slide set, with the animated book, here (free!). I wrote this yesterday and did the activity with two classes, who walked out the door singing the tune- love when that happens! Easy, accessible, and diversified for students who need to work on EG or BAG passages, or they can play everything, BAGE! 

Enjoy!