Five Cross-Curricular Activities for Elementary General Music Classes Amy M. Burns Far Hills Country Day School aburns[at]fhcds.org
There are many times that I have read on various elementary music networks that elementary music educators are being asked to show how they implement cross-curricular connections. These connections can range from showing the relationship between math and music, reading and music, and integrating particular units studied in the classroom to music, and more. Whether one agrees with it, in all likelihood, you are already connecting other subjects into your music classes, even ones as young as early childhood. Here are five cross-curricular activities (and one bonus with tech tips!) for elementary grades that connect other subjects into your music classroom, while keeping your music objectives and standards at the center of your lessons.
draw the letter in the air making the sound and vocalizing to the direction that they draw the letter. For example, if the letter is V, and I show a picture of the letter V (see figure 1), I ask the students what the letter is and the sound of the letter. We then begin high, singing “V” as we trace the letter in the air. This reinforces the letter and its sound while you are having the students vocalize or perform a pitch exploration.
#5: Connecting Preschool and Kindergarten Letters and Sounds with Vocalizations or Pitch Explorations
Kindergarten curriculum includes learning to read and write sight words such as “the”, “at”, “I”, “am”, and “to”, to name a few. Many of the songs used in the Kodály approach or step three of Dr. Feierabend’s First Steps, “Simple Songs” include songs with these sight words. An example is the song “Teddy Bear” (see figure 2). After teaching this song through sound before sight, movement, sol-mi melodic body percussion, and
Tech Tip: Use the free educator’s version of Canva (https:// www.canva.com/education/) to create the letters so you can print them or display them on a screen. #4: Kindergarten Sight Words
If you begin your classes with vocalizations to warm up the class, or if you are following Dr. Feierabend’s eight-step workout found in his book, First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond: Revised Edition (GIA, 2020), then connecting letters and sounds come naturally. Whether I am correlating with the letter of the week in the preschool or kindergarten classrooms, or if I am subtly implementing the letters of the musical alphabet, I will begin my classes with a letter on the screen. The students then identify the letter and its sound. Then they
Figure 1: Displaying a letter for a pitch exploration exercise
TEMPO
Figure 2: Teddy Bear from https://kodaly.hnu.edu/song.cfm?id=877
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