8th Grade Songs

Whether you have experience teaching music or not, this unit is for you. Have a small budget or no budget for teaching music? I have included ways to make music with your students for very little money. I have used this unit for 5 years teaching music and every year the students love it. This unit will give you a semester (or half a year) worth of material to use with approximately 2 periods of music per week.

What is bucket drumming?

Bucket drumming is a relatively inexpensive way to bring rhythmic practices into the classroom. This unit is designed to be accessible for all teachers to use, regardless of musical training. The use of familiar words helps both teachers and students learn simple rhythms together. The rhythms increase in difficulty and there are options for easy, medium, and hard rhythms. This allows for easy modifications and accommodations ensuring that students of all abilities are successful in this unit. I have taught variations of this unit with grade 6-8 students for over 5 years with success, and these lessons can be modified for other grade levels.

In my experience, students love bucket drumming and enjoy the lessons in this unit. One activity that you can use when you have a few extra minutes is the Elimination Game, and students LOVE it! It can be used as a great warm-up game and to reinforce the skills taught in this unit.

This unit includes games, lessons, and activities to help strengthen ear training, encourage active listening, develop rhythmic abilities, develop composition skills, explore creativity, and most importantly, to have fun! I have also included some helpful information to get bucket drumming started in your classroom. Included in this unit are lessons, games. activities, and rubrics where needed. There are a solid 21 – 31 periods worth of work included in this unit (possibly more).

Included below are the overall lesson plans and activities included in this unit. Most “lessons” can be used for multiple periods and the approximate number of periods is included in brackets beside the activity. I have based these periods on approximately 45 minutes each. These lessons include opportunities to read music, compose, and perform.

Introduction to Bucket Drumming (1 - 2 periods)

Elimination Game (1 period)

Elements of Music (2 – 3 periods)

Rhythm Cards (2 – 3 period)

8 Bar Rhythm Challenges (4 – 6 periods)

Let’s Compose! (5 – 6 periods)

Stomp Composition (6 – 10 periods)

If you have any questions, please let me know! Happy Bucket Drumming!

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Got Rhythm Sticks and that's all you got? Keep your kids busy from 2nd to 5th grade (and even older!) with Rhythm Sticks 6pack, an assortment of Rhythm Stick Read-a-longs!

In these resources, you will see the entire arrangements structured across multiple slides in coded colors with the corresponding repeats. There will be eight boxes that hold each beat along with one of three action icons.

• Sticks - Click your sticks together
• Quarter Note - Hit your sticks on the ground (or chair or desk or lightly on your lap)
• Eighth Notes (if applicable) - Hit your sticks on the ground (or chair or desk or lightly on your lap)
• Quarter Rest - Rest

Teach the entire thing line by line through a rote method and play through at the end!

Looking for a load of 2022 repertoire (that's clean!) for your bucket drums? Look no further to keep all of your kids drumming throughout the year!

In this megapack, you will receive 8 custom arrangements of the most recent popular music from the leading artists at a 20% discount when bought all together here...

All music can be found on YouTube (or Amazon music, Apple Music, Pandora, etc) as the accompaniment tracks and played in the background.

You can preview the music in the store by browsing through the bucket drumming arrangements (most are designed for upper elementary, middle, and can easily be played by high schoolers)

Have a great time with this!

For notation:

• All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish),

• The X notation that is stacked with quarter notes are played as shots (think like a marching band snare drum -- playing the drum and stick simultaneously as a rimshot or on top of each other -- whatever will you get you the best accent!)

• The X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

In TOTALLY TUBANOS, you will receive 6 great tubano arrangements you can do with your Tubano drums @ 20% OFF when purchased all together! For all arrangements, here are some notes about the drumming:

The notation on the first space F is a bass (middle of the drum) and the notation on the third space C is a tone (four fingers near the rim of the drum, pitched a bit higher)

At the end, wrap it up and put on a show! Want to layer it?

• Have tambourines or shakers play on specified beats (try 2 and 4)
• Have shakers play 16th notes all the way throughout or in specific sections
• Have half the class play 1st and 3rd measures, the other half play 2nd and 4th measures
• Do it in a round! :)

Use this in class, a concert, a parent showcase, admin, faculty and staff, whatever you wish!

The Video Game Bucket Drumming Bundle includes 9 Bucket Drumming arrangements all at 15% off!

Youtube links and mp3s can be found on the individual pages -- your kids will LOVE this, and at 15% off here when it's all purchased together, it's a win-win!

With the boy band crazy you grew up with, we now feature the BOY BAND BUCKET BUNDLE, a collection of six bucket drumming arrangements to popular Boy Bands from the 80s and 90s your kids will ask to play over and over again!

Youtube links and mp3s can be found on the individual pages -- your kids will LOVE this, and at 15% off here when it's all purchased together, it's a win-win!

(and how cool could you stage it for a BOY BAND concert?) :D

Looking for a load of Boomwhacker resources for your percussion kids? Look no further to keep all of your kids engaged through this semester and next!

In this WHACKY PACK, you will receive 8 resources of the most popular Boomwhacker themed lessons on Mr. Litt's Music Room TeachShare at a 15% discount when bought all together here...

• Here Comes the Boom (5 compositions)
• Here Comes the Boom AGAIN (5 follow-up compositions)
• BOOM -- it's a MYSTERY (Name that Tune with Boomwhackers)
• Boomin' Whackin' fun ain't Lackin (10 original compositions for boomwhackers)
• Boom along Songs (simple compositions for primary kids)
• Boom Oops Boom! (poison pattern/poison rhythm game)
• Boom it up Dynamically (working with forte and piano)
• Boomwhacker Warmups (18 8-beat warmups)

Looking to begin your Orff Chapter, need a few extra tunes to get your kids going, or rounding out your years with some resources? Check out the "Orff MegaPack" with 6 arrangements, warmups, and activities @ 15% off regular price as a bundle!

Included in this MegaPack are the following resources:

• Barz and Starz - Modeled after the "Rainbow Recorder" series, students learn 8 all-original Orff melodies set to colors -- White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Purple, Blue, Red, and Black. As the kids begin, simple rhythms and patterns are given but as they progress into the "Barz and Starz" system, melodic lines get harder with eighth notes, alternating hands, skips, and increased tempo. Student 'pass off' these compositions by playing them with the accompanied mp3s.
• Call it the Response - In this lesson, student swill hear a “Call” which is the first part of a musical phrase. They will then play a “response” which completes the short musical phrase. Their response may be a certain number of beats or maybe a certain rhythm (could be same or different than the call)
• Orff Arrangements
• Simple Orff Arrangements
• Advanced Orff Arrangements
• Orff Warmups

Looking to get back into the swing of things or begin with simple percussion techniques? Try out some of our BODY Percussion in the VARIETYPack, 7 full resources full of warmups, techniques, and songs as well!

Included are

• Body Jam 16 - Sight Reading Body Percussion with multi layered sections great for splitting A, B, C, and D groups
• Body Percussion Warmups - multiple slides of warmups to get your kids started off right
• ABC, The Jackson Five (Body Percussion Arrangement)
• Believer, Imagine Dragons (Body Percussion Arrangement)
• Dynamite, BTS (Body Percussion Arrangement)
• Uptown Funk, Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars (Body Percussion Arrangement)
• Thunder, Imagine Dragons (Body Percussion Arrangement)

Get your basketballs out for Rhythm Basketball and have some musical fun for the remainder of the year to keep your kids engaged (while displaying some true athleticism)

In this Rhythm Basketball JAMPack! you will receive 9 custom arrangements that are 20% off when bought all together with basketball notation for your kids to read along to

Your students will each have a basketball (can be regulation size or smaller) and bounce their ball on the ground each time they see a basketball icon. Each basketball icon is denoted as a quarter note. The rests are in between each ball for the students to hold the ball. Any smaller balls (grouped in two) will be played as 2 eighth note pairs and students will have to lower themselves a foot or two to dribble eighth notes on the floor. If you don't have basketballs, you can use a tennis ball, a kick ball, a dodgeball -- essentially anything that gives you a bounce and an accent as you hit it on the floor!

Included in this pack are:

• ABC, Jackson Five
• Believer, Imagine Dragons
• Can't Stop the Feeling, Justin Timberlake
• Fight Song, Rachel Platten
• High Hopes, Panic! at the Disco
• Imperial March, Star Wars
• Smooth Criminal, Michael Jackson
• Thunder, Imagine Dragons
• Uptown Funk, Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

All songs can be found on YouTube, Amazon Music, Pandora, or other streaming services

In this BTS Percussion Pack, it's all BTS all the time with 3 different types of lessons for your primary and intermediate musicians!

• Dynamite, Body Percussion
• Permission to Dance, Bucket Drumming Arrangement
• Dynamite, Bucket Drumming Arrangement
• Butter, Bucket Drumming Arrangement
• Dynamite, Rhythm Basketball

When purchased here all together, save an extra 10% off of each!

Introducing our NEW Accelertated Rock'n'Rollin'!

Accelerated Rock'n'Rollin' is designed for the beginning drummer in ages 13 and up, and even adults! The book is a combination of levels 1 and 2 which dives straight into reading music on the simplified staff with the abbreviations on circles (notes and moves students through reading drum music on the staff, learning note values, time signatures, and dynamics. In this book, patterns are called solos.

There are also a hand full of composing activities throughout the book. Remember that students should not be rushed through the book, and it is completely okay to keep students working on a certain section or pattern for a few weeks at a time until they’re comfortable.

To make sure they’re playing with accuracy, start off each pattern around 60bpm. You can adjust the tempo from there as they learn the patterns.

The book flows in the following order:

• Introduce the Instruments on a simplified 3-line staff.

• Moves to a traditional 5-line staff.

• Introduce notes as quarter notes on the staff, and changes cymbals to cross notes.

• Introduce Half Notes and Rests, Whole Notes and Rests, and Dotted half notes.

• Introduce Rudiments and Stickings.

  • From Book 2, “ROCK’N’RUDIMENTS” readies students to learn and play simple stickings in 4/4 and 3/4 times using Quarters, Whole, Halfs, and Eighth notes. These rudiments can be used for fills, and can be revisited later on. 

• Introduces beamed 8th notes (2 sounds in 1 beat.)

• Introduces Forte and Piano dynamics. 

Printing instructions are included on the first page, with a print authorization certificate on page 2. The book is pages 3-102 in the document. Duplication is Prohibited. E-mail us at: zsmusiceducation@gmail.com for more information.