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My music background started off when I was in kindergarten. All throughout elementary school I would go to music class. In fifth grade I began playing the clarinet in the band at our school and then in seventh grade I switched to the bassoon which I played for two years. In middle school I was also a part of choir for two years. In high school, I was a part of our vocal ensemble my freshman year and then led worship by singing in chapel my senior year. Last year in my previous college I was a part of the gospel choir on campus.

The background that I have in music has allowed me to know how to read music in both bass clef and treble clef. My background in singing has allowed me to hear the harmony in songs and it is easy for me to find the harmony immediately. In the classroom, both of these skills will be useful because if we are doing an activity with boom whackers, I will be able to help students read the music and help them figure out when they need to play. Knowing how to sing will also allow me to help the students when we are singing songs in class, and I can work with the students who are having trouble hearing and copying pitches. My background in singing will definitely influence my integration of music because I love singing and it is something that I think would be a blast to incorporate into class around any subject.

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In all schools, it is important for students to not only interact with music, but to have music education. Most people think that music education only serves as a purpose for students to learn about music when in reality, music helps students in many other different ways. Through music, students are able to make deeper connections, find further clarity, and cultivate confidence in both musical and academic aspects and life in general. One way that music helps students academically is that it greatly affects the brain. Learning music at a young age can help your child become a better reader because music helps distinguish speech from other sounds. Music also involves more parts of the brain than any other function and is known to help neurological disorders. Music also increases mental abilities and allows students to think critically. Organized music lessons have also been shown to improve student’s IQ as well as help them improve their test scores. Music education also gives students confidence when they are successful, which will not only help their academic performance but also give them confidence for life in general.

Another reason why it is important for students to have music education is because music is a major part of our culture. As Professor Kite stated, “We want students to be able to understand, participate, and create music to be educated consumers.” In order for this to occur, we need to teach music to our students. In our culture we listen to music all the time and music connects people as well as moves them. There are songs for everyone, and it is important for students to know how music works so that they can understand what they are listening to and be able to connect to people through music.

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Dawn-Dario Marianelli, Jean-Yves Thibaudet 

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Dawn-Dario Marianelli, Jean-Yves Thibaudet 

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Marianelli: Dawn (From "Pride & Prejudice" Soundtrack) - YouTube

The music objective that I would teach through this song goes along with standard FA 8.4.3.b which says, “Analyze and explain how the performer/creator uses composition and performance characteristics (e.g. dynamics, phrasing) to convey expressive content.” This song is in the movie Pride and Prejudice, and so after playing the song for the kids one time I would give them a short overview of the story and then have them go and research about the book. I would then teach them about the music elements legato and interval. In the beginning of the piece, the distance between the notes are very spread out, but then in the middle of the song the intervals are very short between the notes. Although the intervals throughout the piece change, in the entire piece there is legato, where every part is smooth and connected together. At the very beginning of the movie this song is played, and with it being purely piano and having legato, it creates a mood of peace and tranquility that gives the essence of the beginning of a love story and draws the listener in.

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Marianelli: Dawn (From "Pride & Prejudice" Soundtrack)

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"Zinklars vise" - Norwegian Traditional Song - YouTube

Zinklars Vise is Norwegian for Sinclair’s Ballad. I would play this song for my class and then teach them about the history of it which lines up with standard FA 8.4.3.d, “Connect music to historical and cultural contexts, the arts, and other disciplines through responding.” This song is about a war between Norway and Denmark. The Swedish king hired Scottish mercenaries to go and attack the Norwegians, but Norwegian farmers ambushed and killed a man named Sinclair and the men with him in August of 1612. This is a very passionate song that is basically saying that if anyone tries to attack Norway, they will never return home.

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"Zinklars vise" - Norwegian Traditional Song

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Flawless My Dear - YouTube

With this piece of music, I would teach the students about music elements and try to have them find where in the piece these music elements appear. This would go with standard FA 8.4.3.c- “Choose appropriate criteria (e.g., dynamics, tone quality) to critique expressiveness and effectiveness of a performance of composition with teacher guidance.” The elements that I would be teaching them about that are present in this song are articulation, and harmony. In this song, there is a lot of articulation with the violins at the beginning where there is a lot of separation and detachment between notes. This continues throughout the whole piece, but while this is occurring there is a calm harmony going over the top of it, and when the main melody appears in the song the harmony fits in perfectly with it.

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Body Percussion for Kids: Simple Ideas and Activities - Empowered Parents

A hands-on activity that I would want to do with my class is body percussion. On this website, I found lots of different songs that you would sing that also tell you to tap your fingers, stomp your feet, clap your hands, and lots of other different body movements. After the students have gotten the hang of body percussion, we could brainstorm as a class other body percussion movement we could do and make our own song. Once we made a song as a class, I would have the students try to come up with their own body percussion composition on their own. The music objective that I would be teaching through this activity is having the students get a chance to compose their own music as well as follow along to the melodies and do the body percussion movements. This music objective for this activity lines up with the standard FA 5.4.1 which states, “Students will compose, arrange, improvise, read, and perform music with melodies and accompaniments.” Through body percussion the students are learning how to follow along to melodies as well as will create their own music through the body percussion movements.

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Body percussion is an important part of music education in early childhood. What is it and how can you introduce young children to it?

Here are some simple tips and ideas of body percussion for kids.

What is Body Percussion?

Body percussion refers to the sounds which are made by body parts such as the hands, feet, fingers and mouth. The body is used like an instrument, to produce rhythmic sounds.

It may be used on its own, or along with music and dance. [ source]

What are the 4 Main Body Percussion Sounds?

There are four main sounds that can be produced with body percussion:

Clapping and tapping

Stamping (or stomping)

Patting and slapping

Snapping (or clicking)

Examples of Body Percussion

Here are some examples of body percussion sounds:

Clapping hands

Clicking fingers

Tapping fingers

Slapping knees

Stamping feet

Popping cheeks

Patting your head

Slapping thighs

Rubbing hands together

What are the Benefits of Body Percussion?

There are many benefits to introducing children to body percussion. It:

How do you Teach Kids Body Percussion?

Incorporating a body percussion lesson is easy and fun to do with preschoolers, toddlers and even older children. It can also be taught at home with simple activities.

Teach kids action songs with words that tell them how to move their bodies ('we all clap hands together...') and choose songs that are rhythmic and have a consistent beat to them.

The examples below are common children's songs and rhymes that your kids will already know, so it will be easy to follow along by substituting with body sounds.

Allow kids to make these sounds together, creating an ensemble so that the whole group is making the same sounds and therefore 'making music'.

Teach kids what percussion instruments are and how our bodies make sounds similar to these instruments.

Body Percussion Songs and Activities

Here are some simple body percussion activities to try with your kids at home or at school.

1. We All Clap Hands Together

Start introducing the body percussion basics through a simple, repetitive song such as this one. Replace any of the movements in the verses.

2. This is the Way We Tap Our Fingers

This is another well-known song you can replace the words of. It is originally a song about brushing teeth, washing hands and getting ready in the morning.

3. If You're Happy and You Know It

'If you're happy and you know it' is a favourite among kids. Start with the original first verse and then replace the actions as you go.

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you're happy and you know it,
And you really want to show it.
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

4. The Ants Go Marching

This last song is also great for creating body percussion as it has a steady beat, which makes it good for getting a group of children to follow the beat together.

Sing the words as normal and give your kids instructions for each verse, such as tap, clap, stomp or click to the entire verse.

The ants go marching one by one,
Hurrah, hurrah.
The ants go marching one by one,
Hurrah, hurrah.
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to suck his thumb,
And they all go marching down to the ground to get out of the rain.
Boom boom boom.

Here are the words to substitute for the rest of the verses:
Two by two: The little one stops to tie his shoe
Three by three: The little one stops to climb a tree
Four by four: The little one stops to shut the door
Five by five: The little one stops to take a dive
Six by six: The little one stops to pick up sticks
Seven by seven: The little one stops to pray to heaven
Eight by eight: The little one stops to roller skate
Nine by nine: The little one stops to check the time
Ten by ten: The little one stops to shout, "The End!" Source:
5. Play Sounds to Music

Another way to teach body percussion is to listen to music and tap, click, stamp or clap along to the beat.

This is a good way to learn to follow the rhythm of the music.

Play music with different tempos so children get used to speeding up or slowing down as they make sounds with their body parts.

6. Introduce Music Instruments

Many body percussion sounds closely resemble those of percussion instruments. Teach children to hear the similarities in the different sounds.

Play a musical instrument (or find the tune on YouTube if the instrument is not available), ask your kids to listen to the sound and then make that sound with their bodies. See if they can find a similar sound, then suggest one of these:

Triangle or finger cymbal - click fingers

Bang lightly on a hand drum - tap two fingers of one hand onto the palm of the other hand, or slap the knees

Bang on a timpani drum or listen to a gong - stamp feet

Hit rhythm sticks together - clap hands

If you have real instruments available, try playing an ensemble where some children play the instrument to the beat, while others use body percussion.

Or, play a tune that has an instrument playing the beat and use the body to make sounds along with it.

Read about the many benefits of musical instruments.

7. Play Clapping Games

Clapping games are great for teaching rhythm and building a child's coordination.

Here are some clapping games for all levels, from preschoolers to older kids. Substitute some of the clapping with tapping and clicking to use these songs for body percussion activities.

Those are just a few ideas for incorporating percussion into music and movement for kids.

For more ideas, try these music games.

Le Roux, A. 2011. Music in Early Childhood Development and the Foundation Phase. Le Roux: Pretoria

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Body Percussion for Kids: Simple Ideas and Activities

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Body percussion is an important part of music education in early childhood. What is it and how can you introduce young children to it? Here are some simple tips and ideas of body percussion for kids. Body percussion refers to the sounds which are made by body parts such as the hands, feet, fingers and mouth.

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You Are My Sunshine - BOOMWHACKERS & BELLS Play Along - YouTube

One activity that I would do with my students would be using boom whackers to play the song “You are my Sunshine.” Before the video is played, the music objective that I would teach the students would be about the different notes and rests. I would then do the chair activity that Professor Kite had us do and have my students clap along to beats. We would then play the song and clap along to the music when the cartoon character lands on the notes. After that, we would play the boom whackers along to the video. The standard that the music objective would line up to in this activity is FA 2.4.1.b which states, “Explore and develop musical ideas (e.g., melody, rhythm) with teacher guidance.” The students in this activity are able to explore the melody by both clapping along to the song and playing it with boom whackers as well begin to understand rhythm through learning about different notes and rests.

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🎵 DIY Water Xylophone Activity - Sound Science Experiment for Kids (kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com)

This activity would be super useful if you did not have enough money for xylophones at your school. For this activity you get at least six jars and fill them up with different levels of water, and then put food coloring in the different jars. The music objective that you can teach through this activity is about pitch and matching pitch. The standard that this activity’s music objective fulfills is FA 2.4.2 which says, “Students will sing and/or play instruments to a variety of music that includes music elements if rhythm, pitch, dynamics, and form.” This activity teaches about pitch in the sense that the glasses that have more water in them make lower sounds and the glasses that have less water make higher sounds. Not only could you have your students try to create their own piece of music with these sounds, but you could also use this as a pitch matching activity. You could play each jar and have the students sing back the note that was played. This would not only help them understand pitch, but also practice their singing skills.

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This app allows students to practice scales and being able to identify them, has rhythm exercises for students to practice tapping along to, a section on learning how rhythm works, and even teaches students how to sight read. It also has an introduction to chords and singing exercises.

The objective that this app fulfills is FA. 8.4.2.b “Develop and refine solo/ensemble performance skills (e.g. posture, technique, reading music) using guided self-evaluation and feedback from others.” The app Perfect Ear: Music and Rhythm allow students to learn how to read music and help with the technique of understanding music by practicing how to keep rhythm and through listening to scales and being able to identify them.

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This app allows students to explore the sounds of ten different instruments including things such as glockenspiel, guitar, trumpet, and saxophone. Not only will the kids be able to learn what the different instruments sound like, but they will be able to create their own music with the sounds of the instruments. They can also record themselves singing to go along with the music that they create. Kids are also able to mix the songs that they create and can control the volume of each sound that they use in their composition.

The objective that I would use to teach through this app is FA 8.4.1.d. “Present an improvisation, arrangement, or original composition. Explain how elements of music in the student creation are used to communicate expressive content.” This app will complete this objective by allowing students to create their own compositions. Once the students create their compositions, they can share them to the class and with peers and explain why they used the different instruments that they did and what they were trying to express.

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This app is perfect for practicing singing and ear training. One component is that it allows you to listen to notes and then you copy it back and it tells you if you are hitting the correct pitch. Another part that it has is where it plays a note and you have to tell if it is do, re, me, so, la, ti, do. It also has harder levels where it will play a note and you have to say the letter name of the note it is.

The objective that this app will teach is FA 8.4.2.c, “Perform (formally or informally) music of increasing difficulty using proper tone quality, phrasing, dynamics, and articulation. Demonstrate appropriate performance expectations.” Sing True will allow students to improve their tone quality when singing and help them become more confident and better singers. Sing True will especially be able to assist the students who are labeled as “tone deaf” and struggle matching pitches.

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Multicultural Music (teachervision.com)

This website has a wide variety of music including Chinese, Israeli, Mariachi music, and even Appalachian songs. This will be super useful as a teacher because not only does it have a lot of music, but it also has lesson plans to go along with the songs. It also has things such as how to make different instruments such as a Koto, an Asian musical instrument, and Chinese percussion that you could have the kids play along to. I would use this website when teaching about different cultures in history. For example, if we were learning about China in our history book, we could play the Chinese percussion it has on the Xylophone. Another way I could use this website is if we were learning about Native American tribes in our history book or for our state history, we could learn about their music style and how it affects their culture.

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Search | MakeMusic Cloud (smartmusic.com)

The purpose of this website would be to search any sort of music for any topic that I am teaching. One part of the website that I would especially use would be the holiday song sections. This includes things such as American songs such as Star Spangled Banner and even Christmas music. It also includes a section of folk music, classical music, and religious music. One way that I could incorporate the holiday music into a lesson would be about the Star Spangled Banner. We could learn about Francis Scott Key for a history lesson and then I could have the students write a poem of their own about America which would incorporate language arts.

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50 Best Classical Music Songs for Kids (weareteachers.com)

The purpose of this website is to use it for anytime I want to integrate classical music into the curriculum. The website has classical music from Beetoven and Mozart, and even pop covers of songs and classical music from Disney movies. One way that I could integrate this into a lesson would be if I was teaching science about flowers and photosynthesis. One song is called Waltz of the Flowers by Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky. I could not only play this song for the class, but also teach them the different music terms and have them write at least three music terms that they heard down on a piece of paper. In this way we would be learning about science and music.