Classroom Experiences

This page is dedicated to experiences that students have in my classroom. These are not polished performances, but learning experiences where students use their minds and skills to create music. Please also visit the Lesson Plans page and Performances page for more listening samples. Please note that only audio is available to protect student privacy.

Here is a sample of a Junior Kindergarten lesson. Students are singing, creating sound effects with instruments, and moving with scarves to showcase the different animals in the song.

Here is a sample of a Junior Kindergarten lesson. Students are singing, moving to the steady beat, and playing simple rhythms on tubano drums.

This is a sample of a Kindergarten lesson. In the lesson titled "Five Silly Turkeys," students explore vocal timbre and singing. The original song is called "Five Little Chickadees," but words were changed based on a book called "Five Silly Turkeys." This lesson also features me singing and playing the ukulele to teach this lesson.

This is a sample of a 1st grade lesson. In this lesson, we explore our speaking voice and singing voice. The video below is a clip from the first part of the lesson. In the lesson, I am wearing a safari hat and showing students a butterfly and caterpillar puppet. The butterfly and caterpillar puppet each read part of the story, "Waiting for Wings" by Lois Ehlert. This audio clip is just an introduction to the lesson, not the entirety. Later on, I also give the students vocal samples, and we discuss how we all begin with "caterpillar voices," but as we learn and grow, like caterpillars, we one day develop a singing, or "butterfly" voice.

Here is a sample of a 2nd grade lesson. In this lesson, students learn a simple chant in rhythm. They then play the rhythm in canon with rhythm sticks and a balloon.

Here is a sample of a 2nd grade lesson. In this lesson, students are singing and playing instruments. I introduce this lesson with puppets of each animal in the story.

Here is a sample of a 3rd grade lesson. In this lesson, students are playing a solfege game. Students are asked to sing back solfege as a warm-up. Then students practice ear training by listening to a simple melodic pattern on a xylophone, and have to sing it back on solfege. When the students get it wrong, they sit down, and the students remaining "win."

Here is a sample of a lesson where my 8th grade students are leading my 4th grade students in question and answer on drums. This lesson occurred on our annual "4th Grade Shadow Day," when the 4th grade students visit the middle school classes for the day.

Here is a sample of my 5th grade class singing "America" or "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

Below, you will find two clips of 5th grade students singing songs from the St. Louis Symphony's "Link Up" program. Students are singing a classical work from Beethoven's 9th Symphony, "Ode to Joy" and a Spanish song called "Oye" in preparation for the Archdiocesan Song Festival.

Here is a sample of a 6th grade Vocal Ensemble practicing for a Christmas performance.

Here is a sample of a 7th grade class practicing "Ensemble I" from the World Drumming Curriculum.

Here is a sample of a 7th grade class practicing question and answer on drums with a lesson from the World Drumming Curriculum. Students improvise their "answers" using simple rhythms.

Here are some samples of original compositions from 8th grade students. In this lesson, students were instructed to construct an original multi-layer work to include complementary rhythms with the option of adding melody.