Home
Mission
Blog
Professional Development
Launchpad
Plans
Community
Help
Drum Background Tracks - 24 loop tracks at various tempo!
By Jason Litt
Get your class on beat! Included are 24 background tracks with ethnic flair -- tablas, bongos, electric kits, and drum sets for your kids to jam with. The 24 tracks vary from 95 bpm all the way to 125 bpm (there are 6 different tracks with 4 different tempo)
Want a sneak peak? Give the preview a sample of some of the tracks!
I use these in my class for Orff, Boomwhacker, Rhythm Sticks, Dancing, Movement, or singing activities. The tracks go for about 1 minute each, but you can manipulate a longer track by having it stay on repeat for as long as you wish
Have fun!
Animated Vocal Exploration ("Pastoral" - L. van Beethoven)
By Jason Litt
In this charming resource for your little ones, your students will see a bumblebee navigate his way through the powerpoint presentation, up... and down... and UUUUUUUUUUP, and downnnnnnnn, and all around!
Have your students mimic the movement of the bee (autonomously animated) throughout 10 different slides and assess their vocal exploration!
For extensions and variations, have them try it with
Up, Down, All Around (Melodic Direction)
By Jason Litt
Your Kindergarteners and 1st Graders may understand high and low (although they may think it's loud and soft, but this is why we teach them), but can they identify it which way it travels through non-traditional notation?
In "Up, Down, All Around!", your students get a brief introduction of melody, the most important aspect of a song or piece and will venture into the lesson where they will learn to identify melodic direction.
They will be given a multiple choice selection of 3 answers and then asked to identify which answer is UP, DOWN, or is a melody that STAYS THE SAME. Advance the slide and the correct answer will illuminate green!
_
You can play this one of several ways
_
Play some classical music in the background, and you have a win-win!
Body Percussion Warmups (40 exercises!)
By Jason Litt
No need to have drums, recorders, or even auxiliary instruments for this one! If you don't have access, are traveling to rooms, or want to give a change to your curriculum try "Body Percussion Warmups"!
There are 10 warmups in each level with CLAPS, SNAPS, STOMPS, and SNAPS, all indicated on the powerpoint slide. Count your kids off with a few prep beats and watch them go!
Also terrific for reading in some of the younger grades who are not familiar with standard notation and need a warmup to reading using these icons.
Use the included background tracks (90bpm to 110bpm) or put on your favorite music so the kids can jam along!
Here are the 4 levels:
Steady as you Go! (Identifying and maintaining steady beat)
By Jason Litt
Steady Beat is one of the cornerstones of early childhood music whether you are playing with your Pre-K, Kindergarten, or even First Graders. Have them rise up to the challenge of “Steady as you go!” an amalgamation of classical music designed to have students become steady beat MASTERS!
You will assign students to play either body percussion to show steady beat (head, shoulder, lap, feet, etc) or even a drum, auxiliary percussion instrument, or anything else you can find.
You will then play the audio example of various pieces of classical music by clicking on the “heart” and watch the kids try to find the steady beat – only to be interrupted as the music abruptly changes every 20 to 30 seconds!
Students will have to start over and find the steady beat again as they transition into the next piece.
Have a terrific time finding that beat!
All about SOLFEGE MEGAPack! (9 Solfege Resources 20% off!)
By Jason Litt
Looking for a load of Solfege resources for your kids? Look no further to keep all of your kids engaged through this semester and next!
In this All about SOLFEGE MEGAPack, you will receive 9 resources of the most popular Solfege themed lessons on Mr. Litt's Music Room TeachShare at a 15% discount when bought all together here...
DO have a great time with this. It'll be a RE of sunshine in your day... make sure you make a cup of TI to wash out any scratchy throat you may have. Thanks for purchasing from MI ;)
Boomwhacker WHACKY PACK (8 resources of arrangements/games/songs/warmups)
By Jason Litt
Looking for a load of Boomwhacker resources for your percussion kids? Look no further to keep all of your kids engaged through this semester and next!
In this WHACKY PACK, you will receive 8 resources of the most popular Boomwhacker themed lessons on Mr. Litt's Music Room TeachShare at a 15% discount when bought all together here...
Rhythm MEGAPACK (18 Rhythm Lessons Grades K-5)
By Jason Litt
Looking for a load of rhythm lessons? Look no further! All of the Rhythm lessons you need to run your K-5 curriculum are in this MEGAPACK! Receive these 18 rhythm lessons in one comprehensive file that is sure to be hits during your lessons throughout the year!
Included are lessons and their corresponding grades:
_Upon extracting, make sure you extract each folder to the desktop to link up any associated sound files.
_
Hi-Low Rally Race (* Distance Learning Approved! *)
By Jason Litt
Working with your kinders and first graders on high and low pitches? Got a little bit of space in your classroom? WIth Hi-Low Rally Race, you can put two hula hoops (or taped off areas) in your classroom and designate one a "high" area and a "low" era.
You will play a short example of a melody (8 examples included) that's pitched high or low and students will walk "briskly" :) to the corresponding area which they think the pitch is -- high or low
You then advance the slide and show the correct answer!
Also works well for Distance Learning if your district has applied that. Just upload it to your Google Classroom and have the kids self pace it at home
Have fun with this!
By Jason Litt
Reviewing solfege with your kids? This may be the game format you're looking for!
An authentic jeopardy game board with categories for "Give me a Hand", "Take a Look", "Scale it!", and "Extended Solfege" on the title slide. Students can elect to pick $200, $400, $600, $800, or $1000 answers. After clicking on the amount, the answer will appear on the next slide.
Give me a Hand - A description of the hand sign and students will have to guess which syllable
Take a Look - Students will see the sign and have to guess which syllable
Scale it - The following and preceding notes in the solfege scale
Extended Solfege - Lowered and raised versions of common solfege
A text answer will first be visible, but if you advance the animation, the solfege sign/syllable will enter the slide if your kids need a hint. Students (keeping in true Jeopardy! fashion) can answer in the form of a question
"What is a Do?"
"What is a Ti?"
"What is La?"
After the money is awarded (You can split sides of your class, boys vs girls, class vs class, however you want it!), there is a link in the bottom right hand corner to go back to the title screen and game board.
After extracting the ZIP file, make sure to install the Jeopardy! font included, or else you'll see random characters all over -- not good eats!
Email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com or leave a comment if you have any questions. Happy Jeopardy...ing!
By Jason Litt
Reviewing solfege with your kids? This may be the game format you're looking for!
An authentic jeopardy game board with categories for "Give me a Hand", "Take a Look", "Scale it!", and "Extended Solfege" on the title slide. Students can elect to pick $200, $400, $600, $800, or $1000 answers. After clicking on the amount, the answer will appear on the next slide.
Give me a Hand - A description of the hand sign and students will have to guess which syllable
Take a Look - Students will see the sign and have to guess which syllable
Scale it - The following and preceding notes in the solfege scale
Extended Solfege - Lowered and raised versions of common solfege
A text answer will first be visible, but if you advance the animation, the solfege sign/syllable will enter the slide if your kids need a hint. Students (keeping in true Jeopardy! fashion) can answer in the form of a question
"What is a Do?"
"What is a Ti?"
"What is La?"
After the money is awarded (You can split sides of your class, boys vs girls, class vs class, however you want it!), there is a link in the bottom right hand corner to go back to the title screen and game board.
After extracting the ZIP file, make sure to install the Jeopardy! font included, or else you'll see random characters all over -- not good eats!
Email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com or leave a comment if you have any questions. Happy Jeopardy...ing!
Rhythmania! - Identifying modified notation (Primary Music)
By Jason Litt
This is a terrific lesson for your younger kids in Kindergarten and 1st grade who aren't familiar with standard notation just yet! In Rhythmania, students are given two separate rhythms on the powerpoint. The teacher will play the rhythm back (embedded mp3 files included) on the powerpoint and the students will have to identify which rhythm the teacher played.
I cut out "1" and "2" cards and have the kids hold it up, or you can have them answer as a class, write it on whiteboards, or even race to see who can get it first! After the answer is locked in, advance the slide to see the correct answer!
In this lesson, you will see 7 different examples all of different "Levels". They are named levels like "3rd grade level", "high school level", "pro level" and such to get the kids thinking as it's a huge challenge. And of course, if they get it correct, how smart do they feel? :)
Have fun with this and if you have any questions or comments, please leave 'em below!
By Jason Litt
Are you as hungry as I am? Let's eat! Identify rhythms in proper nouns with this fun activity. Students will see a food (or foods!) and their corresponding word (or words!) and given two plates on each slide. Have the students identify the syllables in the food and match it to either rhythm on plate number 1 or plate number 2. After kids lock in their answer, advance the slide and reveal the answer! Most are eighth and quarter note rhythms, but some have eighth note triplets and 4 sixteenths group in the examples You can also play it as an assessment and have kids work individual or in teams. There's a powerpoint and PDF included in this package and there are 13 sets of foods go through and can last up to 30-45 minutes depending on what pace you go in the activity. Have a great time and of course, BON APPETITE!
By Jason Litt
A fun activity to play with kids of all ages! Check out these Italian names and guess whether it’s a PASTA or a COMPOSER! See how many you get right! Some of these are quite tricky while others are pretty obvious :)
By Jason Litt
Based off the hit Windows 3.11 game we all knew and loved, Solfege Sweeper is a progressive game where one slip can end you up on the dreaded mine! This will have your kids reading and mastering solfege in NO TIME! Students will see a grid of 40 squares on the home page. Each square contains either a link to a solfege syllable.... or a mine :) I select one student at a time to pick a number. I'll then click on the number and it'll advance to the designated slide. If it's a solfege syllable, we add that solfege syllable to the Building Board on the home page. The teacher will click "Back to Game and Building Board" and put the solfege syllable they just received on the board. As for the solfege syllable they earned, you can cut out the included syllables (make a bunch of copies!), write them in dry erase, or have a student keep tabs on the side. Students will now sing the solfege syllables back in order. Then we repeat! See how it gets progressive? ;) AND what a great way to do a composition. Heck, you should get your piano involved too! ...until the mine! There are 5 mines in each game, and once the mine is hit, it's GAME OVER! At the end, you can tally up how many syllables the class amassed. Compete against other classes, or themselves! There are 5 files in the pack and each one is completely different (all the syllables are mixed up and of course, so are the mines) Syllables included are DO, MI, SOL, and LA. Have fun with this and let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment!
By Jason Litt
So you've finally covered all of the instruments and their respective families! How's about an interactive game where the students identify the instruments in the order they hear them? Look no farther than Instrument Drag n' Drop! Students will listen to the musical examples (some synthesized and some real samples!) and be given 3 instrument choices (some all in the same family, some in different families, and some within the same range). After listening to the musical instruments, students have to put those instruments in the order that they heard them. If you're using an interactive whiteboard, students can drag the instrument to the answer box below after they are finished listening the example. The teacher will then advance the slide to display the correct answer! There are 10 examples included in this lesson along with 10 corresponding sound files. Although designed for an IWB, students can play on personal dry erase boards or can even split the class up boys vs girls, team 1 vs team 2, etc, and have a race to identify the correct answers in the correct order first first. Have a great time with this and if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below! Happy Instrumenting!
By Jason Litt
Here's a great way to group together all of your Boomwhackers for a game all the kids will enjoy! In "BOOM! - it's a Mystery!" students will read standard elementary school literature while playing it with color coded notation on their boomwhacker (this can be teacher or student led). After the song is completed, students can guess what song it was -- on the following slide the answer is revealed. You can construct this in a game format, use collaborative grouping, or any other method for your class. This can be also used for performance as well (if you're well versed in accompanying the kids, feel free to tickle the ivories!) You receive 12 songs in this pack. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com. Have a great time!
Turn up the Aux! (Identifying Auxiliary Percussion Instruments)
By Jason Litt
Percussion instruments are anything that you either hit, shake, or scrape, but that's not limited to just drums, rhythm sticks, and Orff instruments! Want to see how well your kids can identify which instruments are which? Try "Turning up the Aux!" where a musical example will be played of an auxiliary percussion instrument. Students will see three different instruments and will have to select one of the instruments they think matches the musical example. On the following slide will be the answer! In this 10 question game, you can play this any way you want -- boys vs girls, team vs team, individually, or have students write answers down on whiteboards or even come up to the board to interact with the powerpoint. Have a great time with this and leave a comment below if you have any questions!
Who am I -- Identifying Music Terminology!
By Jason Litt
Was that Presto or Largo? Staccato or Tenuto? Forte or Piano? Use "Who am I" to reinforce the music terminology you've been working on in your class! After a brief review, 6 musical examples will be played with all examples ascribing to either Presto or Largo, Staccato or Tenuto, and Forte or Piano. Students can do this in a variety of ways: -- On whiteboards and dry erase markers -- Through collaborative grouping or partner activity (using pre-cut cards as an idea -- On a SMARTboard or brightlink -- As a race (maybe boys vs girls, side A vs side B) After the example is played, you can advance the slide in the powerpoint to reveal the answer! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the Q&A or email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com!
It's just Formality! - Identifying Form in Music
By Jason Litt
Introducing your students to musical form? It's just Formality may be the answer! After a short introduction and review about musical form (with a video illustrating musical examples), 8 form examples are played Students are to identify the form by using the letters "A", "B", and "C". Some are easy, but some can get really challenging! They'll see a blank slate on the screen with the number of letters in the form. All form examples are a maximum of 3 measures (so you can even teach this to your little ones!) Students can write it on whiteboards, use cut out cards, use an interactive SMARTboard/Brightlink pen, collaborative grouping -- it's up to you! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the Q&A section or email me: jasonlitt@gmail.com Have fun!