[melany44]

Hi everyone,

I really like the idea of using music in the classroom. What are appropriate types of music to play when students are working?

I was curious about the use of centers. Should I use these on a daily basis or only on Fridays? Where can I find ideas to create my centers?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks. (New teacher)

[klperry]

My 5th graders absolutely love the Peanuts jazz music. I got a CD from Borders for about $11. I see Amazon has a Shroeder's hits CD for 6.97

I also use classical music, I just buy cheap compilations from Walmart. We have a western musical CD, we like that on Fridays. I don't know the name of it, but it has the song that used to be in the "Beef, it's what's for dinner" commercial. I also got the classical CDs for kids from Scholastic with bonus points. My kids look at me goofy at first, but they get over it and love the music after the first week. Most days I have music on when they come in the room, if I forget, they remind me. I also used a Simon and Garfunkle cd for a poetry lesson last year, and from then on everyday those kids wanted to hear "I am a Rock" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" every day!

I have a schoolhouse rock cd I got from walmart too, they like that too, but it's not my favorite for quiet time, they like to sing along.

p.s. Debbie Diller's book Practice with Purpose (also at Amazon) is an awesome resource for workstations (as opposed to centers) and it's worth checking out!!

all of the time and the kids love it. If you just start off your year with the music the kids respond to it and get used to it. And like klperry mentioned they will remind you if you forget to turn it on. I agree with klperry about they types...pretty much any thing you like and is obviously appropriate for school! As a side note...sometimes on Friday's kids have brought in their own CD's and we'll listen to a song or two at the end of the day. Music is great for Transistion time too, for instance "By the end of this song all supplies need to be put away and students should be in line".

I would also love Center ideas. I struggle to keep them up. I would like to know from someone who finds centers successful how they manage centers as far as placing the students at them, rotating, and how often do the students do a center before you change it.

[ilteacher]

I use music a lot in my room. For worktime, I usually play classical...baroque mostly. There is research that shows that the beats per minute in baroque music correspond to the heartbeat of humans and therefore is a soothing music.

I use it during transitions a lot. I took the Quantum Teaching course and they suggested tying each subject into a specific "theme" so that when kids heard the music, they knew what was coming next and could prepare. It really works! It does take some time at the beginning of the year to get them used to the different "themes" but they love it. Plus, you can have fun with the music. I've used a lot of TV themes...Flintstones for history, Mission Impossible for math, Ocean Man from the Spongebob Movie for science....it's great. I also have "Clean-up" music. They know when they hear it, they stop everything and clean-up.

[melany44]

Thanks for responding. I think i'm going to try the music in my classroom. Any other suggestions on the use of workstations (much better name, thanks)?

[jedgar]

Managed Independent Learning Centers is something I found online looking up center ideas. It is really hard to find information on centers int he upper grades. I to would love more information. Debbie Diller's book is good but it is better to get actually examples. Especially in the area of scheduling centers.

I used my music font on my computer and printed out large pages of the symbols (2 per symbol), had them laminated, and now students can learn symbols by playing the matching game (flip them upside down and try to find the matching pair).
I also have Music Instrument Bingo (comes in a red plastic briefcase) HUGE HIT!
I also have music dominos.
ComposerOpoly.
I had Guess Who? Games donated to my classroom and printed out 15 mini pics of composers (3 for each game) and replaced the original faces with the composer's faces.


Also, instead of students fighting over what center they start with, and just going around the room, I pass out premade index cards with the center numbers in random order. I pass them out as students come it, and they have to follow the order on their cards!