Teaching Elementary Orchestra

When planning out the Solo/Ensemble unit, I work backwards from the date of the festival itself.  Since we meet for small groups only o...

For the elementary orchestra students in our district, we create our own Solo/Ensemble festival each spring.  Since it's not an ...

I enjoy making the programs for each of my schools' concerts throughout the year.  I get the program information from the band and c...

For Music In Our Schools Month, I combined student quotes and pictures with quotes from some more well-known figures.  Here are the ...

  My first-year orchestra students compose several short pieces throughout the year.  They hand write their comp...

There's this great  set of downloadable monthly calendars with birthdays of famous composers and musicians that Music K-8 ma...

Here is a list of practice tips.  The ones on the left are geared toward first-year players, and the ones on the right I have use...

You can make a lot of handy classroom tools with a laminator and magnets :) The clefs and notes come from a package of musical sy...

The last thing that we do in full orchestra each week is the "Question of the Week."  I read the old question, share th...