Did you know that Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach has music? Yep! While it's not filled with music, if you have a student who is reading the book, here are a few sections you might want to discuss!

• Chapter 24 - The grasshopper is a violinist and his body serves as the violin. You can use this to start a discussion about the sounds that grasshoppers make and/or talk about violins.  In the same section, "chords, harmonies, [and] tunes" are also mentioned. You can discuss these terms with your student(s) as well.
  
• Chapter 26 - The grasshopper plays the Funeral March. Let your student listen to it (Movement III here) and see if he/she is familiar with it!
• Chapter 39 - The grasshopper ends up playing in the New York Symphony Orchestra. Does your student know about this orchestra ? What about the harpist in the New York Philharmonic?

I haven't seen the movie....if you've seen the movie, be sure to let me know in the comments if the fiddle-playing grasshopper is in it!

-Barbara

I posted a teaser about this on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook (are you following me?). A music family in my studio recently received some River Stones and we got to play some fun games with them! The idea to use them for musical games came from the mother....isn't it so wonderful to have music parents who are involved (in a non-overbearing way!)? We decided to call the game "NoteSteps." I think it's a cute name!

Here are some of the ideas we came up with:

• One student (or teacher or parent) plays a musical instrument (we called this person the "piano guy") and the other students step to the beat. This could be done on one stone (stepping in place) or walking from stone to stone.
• "Piano guy" plays. When the tempo gets faster, the steps get faster. When the music gets slower, the steps get slower.
• Students step to the quarter note, half note, whole note, etc. This could be done to music, a metronome, or a steady beat from a human. :)
• Stones can be labeled with different note values. When the student stands on that stone, s/he must step that rhythm. You could do this where the student changes stones every measure of four beats. Then, the student standing on the quarter note would take four equal steps in place, the student on the half note would take two steps, etc.

You could use stickers or tape shapes on the floor, pieces of paper taped to the floor, chalk outside, etc. in place of the stones. This would be a fun activity for families to do together as homework or supplemental music practice.

What kind of active music games do you enjoy?

-Barbara

You can make this easy clay necklace (although it's taken me several tries...haha) with any kind of stamp you'd like. It's inspired by this necklace, which I saw on Pinterest, and I decided to try to adapt it into a music craft.

Supplies:
Clay (I used white Sculpey)
String (long enough for a necklace)
Stamp (I used a pretty old stamp that appears to be from Inkadinkado)
Ink (I used this ColorBox ink or something similar in black)
Skewer or something to fold it over to make the hole
Something to trim the sides with (you could use a ruler)
Glaze (I used Sculpey satin glaze)
Brush (for glaze)

Step 1: Roll out your clay. Make sure it is plenty big for the stamp with a good amount left at the top to fold over later.

Step 2: Ink your stamp, then stamp the clay.

Step 3: Trim off the excess around the bottom and sides of your impression. Then trim the top to make it straight(ish). You might need to take a little more off the top, depending on how much extra clay you have. You can also smooth out the sides if necessary.

Step 4: Fold the top of the clay over skewer to make a hole for the string to go through. I left some blank clay at the top where the fold went. Press clay down from back enough to stick, but be careful not to mess up your design.

Step 5: Bake according to package directions.

Step 6: After cooling, glaze your piece according to package directions.

Step 7: After your glaze has dried, insert the string. You can add hardware to the string to give it a more finished look, you can make it long enough to slip over your head and knot, or you can tie a temporary knot in it so that you can remover it (be careful not to lose it!).

Do you think you'll try this? Be sure to tag me on Instagram, Tweet me, or leave a link in the comments so I can see!

-Barbara

P.S. There's another stamped clay project over on my old blog.

Valentines Day is coming! Below is a roundup with 3 ideas for your lessons leading to this holiday.

1. Teach your students about Baude Cordier's "Belle, bonne, sage" (image to the left). You could discuss this in lessons, at a studio party, and/or include it and/or a link in your studio newsletter.

2. Here is a really cute Circle of Fifths worksheet from Sara's Music Studio. Sara even has a fun idea for including candy hearts when practicing/teaching using this worksheet.

3.Speaking of candy hearts, here is is a printable from Keyboard Kids Club to use with candy hearts for dictation practice. You could also use it for note reading practice (for example, have the student put the heart on middle C).

Do you do any fun activities for Valentine's Day? Or have you found any cool ones online that you'd like to use but might not get to? (I might be guilty of that...haha)

-Barbara