PUPPET SHOWS One way to capture the attention of your students in your classroom when preparing to teach a music lesson is by putting together a puppet show. Teaching a lesson through creative means will be fun for the students and when students are having fun they tend to forget that they are actually learning something. You may choose to bring your own puppets from home, purchase some from your local arts and crafts store or even create your own. If you are interested in something more hands-on for your students let them create their own puppets for the lesson that you are going to teach that day. Once you have gone over the lesson collectively as a class break your students up into small groups and have them use their puppets that they have created and go over the lesson again amongst themselves. *Some students tend to learn better when taught by their own peers. Not only have you just accomplished teaching a music lesson but you have also incorporated art in there as well, hopefully in the process you will have helped a student in your class discover their talent/skill for art which in the end is one of many ultimate goals.

FINGER PUPPETS  Another form of puppet shows is finger puppets. Finger puppets are definitely a visual that you could incorporate for the younger children, something that could not only fit on your fingers but theirs as well.  If you are going to use finger puppets I suggest that you bring your own from home or from a local crafts store as having such young children trying to make their own might prove to be more difficult task than with an older elementary classroom.  A plus side to using finger puppets is that you do not only have to incorporate them in your music lesson, using finger puppets for a math lesson might prove to be more of a success than you think.

This is another way for you to present a music lesson for the day. For example, say you were trying to teach your class the song “Little Bunny Foo Foo,” you could have one of the student’s in your class be the bunny, the fairy godmother and some of the other students be mice. You could bring costumes to class and have the students role play and act out the song for those not in character. Another example is the song called “The Wheels on the Bus,” with this song you could just about have full class participation. You would need someone to be the school bus driver, passengers on the bus, a mom, a baby and a set of passengers waiting at a bus stop to load on the bus with their money. You could have the students in the class fashion their desks into a makeshift school bus. You could also bring a piece of a costume to signify who the bus driver is. A bib for the baby. As a class you could also create a makeshift bus stop. Designate coins out to those playing the role of load-on passengers. DRAMATIZATION * The great thing about the lessons above is that without even knowing it you have incorporated much more than just teaching the kids another song, you have now introduced them into the world of fine arts. *With both songs not only do they get to explore their creativity but they get to have a hands-on perspective in regards to building props. *Last but not least, you have brought math into the mix with the song “The Wheels on the Bus,” you could definitely teach a math lesson that has to do with money in association with the song.

PROPS VISUALS D epending on the song that you are going to teach that day will depend on what props you bring to class that day. T ry to bring as many props as you can as it helps to liven up the teaching experience. Y ou could also have the students bring props from home as well incorporating full class participation. In addition to props visuals are helpful as well. For example say that you were trying to teach your class the seven days of the week. The best visual to bring in would be a calendar showing the seven days of the week. * “There are seven days, there are seven days, there are seven days in a week, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.”