Teaching Children

Full list of articles related to working with children of all ages.

  • First Instrument

    I am always pleased when the old standards come out in my early childhood child/adult groups. I’m not talking…

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  • It’s All a Charade (Part 2)

    Even revolutionary approaches can become rigid. Here’s part 2 of the story of a 3rd-5th grade class which encouraged…

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  • Color My World

    How much skill do you need before music is experienced as a creative activity?

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  • It’s All a Charade

    The Classic Party Game as Music and Movement Portal for 3rd-5th Graders Last week, I came across a passage…

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  • Tonality

    So, yes, the relationship between two tones is not necessarily black and white (see previous post). Tonality puts those…

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  • One Small Step…

    Whole and half steps are kind of like air. We tend to not pay too much attention to them…

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  • Ensemble Skills for 1st-2nd Grade (Part 4 of 4)

    This is the final part of a series on skills, goals and objectives for 1st-2nd grade Dalcroze classes. The…

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  • 1st – 2nd Grade Skills, Experiences and Objectives Associated with Pitch (Part 3)

    Here are more curricular lists for 1st-2nd grade. This time the focus is on pitch. Rhythm skills for kids…

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  • 1st-2nd Grade Dalcroze Skills and Experiences: Rhythm (Part 2 of 4)

    Second in a series of posts describing what a typical class might cover during the year. Now we get…

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  • Skills and experiences for 1st-2nd Grade Dalcroze: Movement (Part 1 of 4)

    The focus for this list is movement. In each Dalcroze class, I give a short warm-up at the beginning.…

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  • Letter to 1st and 2nd Grade Families

    note: here’s an end-of-the-year summary for the families of my 1st and 2nd grade Dalcroze classes. I refer to…

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  • Meter

    Part of a series of posts on the ‘musical subjects‘ I am working with in my classrooms and thinking…

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  • Musical Subject: Beat

    I enjoy working with the subject of ‘beat’. The phenomenon itself is so fundamental it can be a challenge…

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  • 7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: April

    Life caught up with me in April, so this is the first update for class activities in over a…

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  • 7-9 Year-old Dalcroze, 4/4/17

    This week’s activities: We first reviewed the notation and language for some basic rhythms for compound (ternary) meter: dotted…

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  • 7-9 year-old Dalcroze: 3/28/17

    Here’s what we did: Tempo and dynamics Follow ( 2 dotted quarters, 3 eighths, 1 dotted quarter) In this…

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  • 7-9 year-old Dalcroze: 3/21/17

    What can you do with 4 spots? The question is quite open, but the kids took it in the…

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  • 7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 3/6/17

    This was another very unusual class. The story from the previous week was very strong in their minds, and…

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  • 7-9 year-old Dalcroze: 2/28/17

    This was an unusual class in many ways. The girls’ love for dramatic story telling prompted almost an entire…

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  • Dalcroze: 7-9-Year-olds, 2/14/17

    Here’s what we did: Statue tag All students make a statue. One moves as long as she likes. When…

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  • Dalcroze: 7-9-Year-olds, 2/7/14

    Back to my own observations… enjoy!   Statue tag All students make a statue. One moves as long as…

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  • 7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 1/31/17

    This week, a guest poster: Laca Tines. She is a student in our methods class (you may have seen…

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  • 7-9 Dalcroze: 1/24/17

    Here are this week’s activities: Make a straight line with one hand and a circle with the other. Not easy…

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  • 7-9 year olds: 1/17/17

    Spinning Kids of a certain age often like to spin when they come into a classroom. I’ll leave it…

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  • 7-9 Dalcroze: 1/10/17

    Here is our first class of the New Year: If I move, students are still. When I stop, students…

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  • 7-9 Dalcroze: 12/14/16

    Here’s what we did: All move freely; I choose one person’s movement to play after which the class guesses…

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  • 7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 12/6/16

    Back Telephone The traditional game of telephone (whisper a phrase around the circle and see if it comes back…

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  • 7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 11/22/16

    7-9 Year-old Dalcroze; 11/22/16 Make a shape with curves. Make a shape with straight lines. This seemingly simple direction…

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  • 7-9 Year-Old Dalcroze, 11/15/16

    This weeks activities: Move to the music. At signal, stop and clap 4 times. At next signal, stop and…

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  • 7-9 Year-olds: 11/8/16

    Here’s what we did this week… Move to the music; when the music stops, stop and clap 4 times.…

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  • 7-9 Year-olds: 11/2/16

    We had a long break (4 weeks) after only a few classes. It was as if we had just…

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  • 7-9 Year-olds: 9/27/16

    The 4:45 group (7-9 year-olds) had their best session yet. Here’s what we did: Explore ways to walk (heels,…

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  • 7-9 Year-Olds: September

    Welcome parents and family members of the new Dalcroze class for 7 to 9-year-olds at the Lucy Moses School.…

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  • A Class for 5-6 Year-olds

    So many things can happen over the course of a Dalcroze semester that you can often get a better idea…

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  • Infrequently Asked Questions About Early Childhood Dalcroze Classes

    Aside from one or two perennials, I don’t get asked too many questions during my Dalcroze classes for young…

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  • Drawing Music

    For the past few weeks, you may have noticed your children leaving the classes clutching drawings. In the spring…

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  • Leading and Following, Up and Down

    Over the past few weeks the 4-5 year-old classes have been exploring several different aspects of musical experience that…

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  • Is my child gifted?

      There is one comment that I often hear from parents that still catches me off guard: “He really…

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  • A Basic Structure for 4-5 year-old Dalcroze Classes

    Hello Lucy Moses Summer Intensive 2013 participants, and anyone else interested teaching music to young children! As requested, here…

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  • Leading and Following

    Because music is often a social activity, the Dalcroze classroom is a great opportunity for kids to experiment with…

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  • Phrasing

    A phrase can perhaps be best described as a musical sentence. Phrases can be long, extending over many bars…

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  • Register And Scale

    Translating musical phenomena into verbal language can be tricky. Most adults are familiar with the use of the words…

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  • Exploring Meter

    A primary focus areas in the beginning of the year is the subject of meter. Meter can be defined…

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  • Curriculum Focus: Attention

    One of the most important aspects of the Dalcroze work is the training and development of attention. There are…

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  • What We’re Working On

    Parent: “What did you do in class today?”Child: “I was a cat.”Parent: “Oh.” It is difficult for children to…

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  • Reinforcing the Classwork at Home

    The Dalcroze classes are now in full swing (ok, pun intended), and the kids have heard and experienced music…

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