Kindergarten Music Assessment

Steady Beat is one of the cornerstones of early childhood music whether you are playing with your Pre-K, Kindergarten, or even First Graders. Have them rise up to the challenge of “Steady as you go!” an amalgamation of classical music designed to have students become steady beat MASTERS!

You will assign students to play either body percussion to show steady beat (head, shoulder, lap, feet, etc) or even a drum, auxiliary percussion instrument, or anything else you can find.

You will then play the audio example of various pieces of classical music by clicking on the “heart” and watch the kids try to find the steady beat – only to be interrupted as the music abruptly changes every 20 to 30 seconds!

Students will have to start over and find the steady beat again as they transition into the next piece.

Have a terrific time finding that beat!

For your kindergarten or pre-K kids, here's a short exercise for them called "Pop(sicle Stick) Quiz"!

Students will have a 3 or 4 popsicle sticks arranged on the floor and will have to spell out the range of musical example they hear with the sticks in their possession.

With 9 musical examples, they will either arrange their sticks on the floor as an "H" for High or an "L" for Low

After the students have spelled out their answer for all to see, advance the slide and reveal the answer!

Tracking your students, classes, and sections of your groups have never been easier with music tracking powerpoints! Included are 10 files, all different templates of tracking such as leaderboards for classes, boys vs girls charts, a thermometer powerpoint, and various high score templates All you need to do is plug and play -- put names, classes, however you wish and save it as a different file! If you need any creative ways to track student or class progress, feel free to email or leave a comment. I truly hope this visual aid brings some flare to your classrooms!

Percussion instruments are anything that you either hit, shake, or scrape, but that's not limited to just drums, rhythm sticks, and Orff instruments! Want to see how well your kids can identify which instruments are which? Try "Turning up the Aux!" where a musical example will be played of an auxiliary percussion instrument. Students will see three different instruments and will have to select one of the instruments they think matches the musical example. On the following slide will be the answer! In this 10 question game, you can play this any way you want -- boys vs girls, team vs team, individually, or have students write answers down on whiteboards or even come up to the board to interact with the powerpoint. Have a great time with this and leave a comment below if you have any questions!

Learning about Woodwinds but don't have a lot of music examples to test the kids? Here's your answer! After a short introduction video about woodwinds, students will learn about the 5 main woodwind instruments, flute, clarinet, oboe, saxophone, and the bassoon. After they hear the timbre of each instruments, they will have to identify each instrument after hearing it played. You can do this a few ways! You can print a blank template from the powerpoint, laminate it, distribute to students, and have them mark as they go along and erase after they answer is revealed Alternatively, you can run the entire powerpoint (or PDF) and have them guess after the example is played. When their answer is ready, you will advance in the slide and the answer will be revealed! Included in the ZIP folder: All 15 mp3 files with woodwind examples are included (with 4 introduction examples) Font and instructions (there are very important so you don't have crazy characters all over!) Woodwind introduction video If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me! jasonlitt@gmail.com

Your Kindergarteners and 1st Graders may understand high and low (although they may think it's loud and soft, but this is why we teach them), but can they identify it which way it travels through non-traditional notation?

In "Up, Down, All Around!", your students get a brief introduction of melody, the most important aspect of a song or piece and will venture into the lesson where they will learn to identify melodic direction.

They will be given a multiple choice selection of 3 answers and then asked to identify which answer is UP, DOWN, or is a melody that STAYS THE SAME. Advance the slide and the correct answer will illuminate green!
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You can play this one of several ways
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• Individually by calling students to the board and pointing to the correct answer
• As a class by having them write down the answer on a white board, holding up an answer paddle, etc
• Race each other to the board to press the answer first and assign points (Team A vs Team B)
• Tell the students they have to beat a certain score of right answers (Oh, Mrs. so-and-so's class got 8 of them right, can you beat it?), and then play with one of the methods above!

Play some classical music in the background, and you have a win-win!

Getting ready for St. Patty's day, we bring to you Shamrock Rock!, a series of rhythm reading exercises for your elementary aged kids!

Each series of Shamrock Rock! has 10 rhythmic examples (in 4 different levels, 40 exercises in all) of quarter notes (1 four leaf clover), two eighth notes (2 smaller four leaf clovers in the place of one beat), and a quarter rest (pot of gold)

• Level 1 - Quarter Notes and Eighth Notes
• Level 2 - Adding in Quarter Rests
• Level 3 - 6 beat rhythms
• Level 4 - Split Screen (A and B part)

A link to music is provided for you below to listen to in the background while you perform these rhythms on boomwhackers, rhythm sticks, orff instruments, auxiliary percussion, body percussion, tubanos, handbells, or more!

2 Hours of Irish Jig Background Music!

No need to have drums, recorders, or even auxiliary instruments for this one! If you don't have access, are traveling to rooms, or want to give a change to your curriculum try "Body Percussion Warmups"!

There are 10 warmups in each level with CLAPS, SNAPS, STOMPS, and SNAPS, all indicated on the powerpoint slide. Count your kids off with a few prep beats and watch them go!

Also terrific for reading in some of the younger grades who are not familiar with standard notation and need a warmup to reading using these icons.

Use the included background tracks (90bpm to 110bpm) or put on your favorite music so the kids can jam along!

Here are the 4 levels:

• Level 1 - Quarter Note Rhythms
• Level 2 - Quarter and Eighth Note Rhythms
• Level 3 - Adding in Quarter Rests
• Level 4 - Six Beat Rhythms (with Quarters, Eighths, and Quarter Rests)

In Holly Jolly Rhythms, your kids will be challenged to body percussion like never before!

Students will see familiar Christmas characters and items along with body percussion that go along with the characters. They will use a series of claps, pats, stomps, and snaps indicated by clip art in beat boxes read from left to right
If everyone in class performs the body percussion PERFECTLY, you will move onto the next character… and then… A Present will drop into Santa’s sleigh if the students perform a certain number of the Holly Jolly Rhythms correctly!

You will control the amount of time the students can do this. You can put on a holiday song (2, 3, or 4 minutes long) or set a timer, and upon the conclusion, see how many presents they've amassed at in Santa's Sleigh!

It gives the kids an ending goal to get as many presents as they can along with aligning syllabic language to modified notation.

Have a great time with this a cheers!

Pre-K and Kindergarten's has a fundamental understanding of Steady Beat. With "Beat it!", students will hear 7 musical examples of a beat. Is it a steady beat or a beat that is not steady (and just random noises with no steadiness?)

Students will decide and choose the correct answer. The slide following the example will illuminate green for the correct answer.

Great for an individual mini-lesson (as part of distance learning!), boys vs girls, individual assessment, and more!

Teaching your kids about articulations and note lengths? This activity teaches them about the history of note lengths by using a parallel with morse code. I ask the students to draw 8 quarter notes on their whiteboards (or if you have clip boards or pieces of paper, that will suffice as well)! We then play 7 examples of notes with various articulations and the students have to write the staccatos and legatos below the notes as they hear them. The initial slide has plain quarter notes, but then after the example is played, you scroll through the animations and the articulations begin appearing as the students check their work. Kids love it! This can be used from K-5 and you may play each example as many times as you wish. For older kids, play the example on a few times for a harder challenge. Included in the .zip file are the powerpoint, the fonts for the powerpoint, and the mp3 files for the examples at the end

Included in these rhythm bundle are 25 resources that you can utilize in grades 3-6. Games, dictation, worksheets, races, and more are in this bundle as the resources discuss longer rhythmic patterns, sixteenth notes, triplets, and long durations of rests.

Definitely a semester filler in here, terrific for reinforcing your 2nd half of the year with some of your upper grades, and with 30% off when bundled together, it's a sale you can't beat!