Even very young children can become good listeners with a simple classical music exercise.  A crucial aspect to improve listening skills is the self-discipline to be still and quiet.  By giving children a few minutes of quiet music time each day and rewarding them for how still they are, you can improve their ability in this area, which will improve listening skills on other occasions as well.

Select some classical music pieces that are varied and interesting, but very short (less than 45 seconds).  Seat the child comfortably and explain that this is music listening time.  Talk to the child ahead of time about the music.  If it will start out slow, then gets fast, mention that.  If it tells … Read the rest of this post…

Here are some fun musical variations on classic preschool activities. Your students are sure to love them.

1. Have a parade. Play some nice marching music and give each child a musical instrument toys such as a maraca, kazoo, triangle, bells, or whistle. March and play in time to the music.   This and musical “Follow the Leader” are some great preschool activities to get the kids up and moving on a rainy day.

For musical “Follow the Leader”, the children walk behind you carrying musical toys and play exactly the way you do. If you do two shakes with the left hand, they do too. If you do three shakes and a twirl with the right hand, the children follow … Read the rest of this post…

I’ve used this Dorling Kindersley book in class for children and young people. It’s gone over very well, and is a great book for teachers to have in the classroom, and to teach children. There are so many wonderful details in this book, so many fantastic photos and pictures. You could teach for hours. Children can pick it up and thumb threw the pages for a half hour just looking at the pictures, or they can use it to do a report on a specific topic.

Because the book gets into a wide variety of musical instruments, both Western, and non-Western, you can incorporate information from this book in many different types of lessons, social studies, history, American or European … Read the rest of this post…