Do you ever feel like it's hard for students to transition from their other academics and into music class? I know I have. I find it helpful to incorporate fun and engaging warmups at the beginning of class. This can both be teacher directed such as through chants, rhythms, and body percussion, or student directed such as through listening and drawing to music or worksheets.
Ideally, you are looking for ways to help students get their minds focused and engaged on music class and learning and away from whatever academics, recess, or snacks they just came from.
Idea: Music Bell Work
I aided in a math class that always did what they called "bell work". It was the first class of the day, and the students would either wobble in all bleary eyed, or entirely ecstatic from seeing their friends. Having them sit down and begin working on math was a challenge in itself, and so bell work, or essentially math warmups, provided an easy transition from the start of school to class starting.
Music Bell work can look as simple as you writing out a few music questions on the whiteboard and having students answer them in groups or on a piece of paper. This can be music math problems like drawing out two quarter notes and asking what musical symbol they equal. You can also ask students to identify the musical term for fast or slow, or if there is a specific instrument you're learning, like the ukulele, what are the string names.
You can also create a more structured activity that they participate in every time they come to music class. I created a Musical Bell Work activity for just that and I highly recommend it. It is little prep on your part, and once you have everything printed it'll last your students for many music classes. Engage your students for weeks by having them follow the instructions on each day's worksheet activity. Work together as a class to complete all 20 days on a Completion Chart, or have students mark their Completion Chart individually. Not only is it a great way to review previously learned material, but it is also a great assessment tool to see how your students are doing. Here's the link if you're interested.
Idea: Rhythms & Body Percussion
My students love coming in with a chant, a clap, a rhythm or a bell! This helps them to practice entering and even exiting the room properly, as you can integrate rules such as first lining up outside quietly and then leading them into the classroom through a four-count march or a steady beat clap. But don't stop once they have a seat! Keep the excitement going as you instruct them into different body percussion moves, such as knees, knees, clap, clap, shoulder, shoulder. This helps students begin to associate rhythm patterns in their mind as they work to keep up with you and the beat. It also keeps their bodies moving, which we as teachers know is so important for engagement within the classroom.
Idea: Drawing to music
This is an idea that I used last year with my upper grades and am planning on incorporating at some point this year. It is a great way to have your students enter into a calm environment where they know that they quietly grab their supplies such as a paper or whiteboard and colored pencils, find a seat, and listen and draw to the day's music selection. It is also very beneficial for introducing different genres of music, particularly old ones such as 40s or 50s music, classical music, or more modern music like Lofi. I always keep it instrumental as I don't want to distract students from their drawings. Afterwards, I will either call up a few students to share what they drew and why or I will have them share with a partner what they do. The latter is quicker if I have a lot of material to cover that day, but the former helps to build community within the music class.
If you would like a free resource to integrate this into your music class, you can get access to my freebie library by signing up to be on my email list here. It is essentially a paper that your students can use to draw, label the song title and artist, and write about how the music made them feel or what it made them think of.
Idea: YouTube
Last but not least is YouTube. Who doesn't love and appreciate the many games and ideas that YouTube provides! Just a quick search can get you thousands of results on games and activities that you can use at the beginning of music class. But to narrow your search a bit, here are some that I recommend/have used personally.
Lower grades:
Upper grades:
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