Category: Lesson ideas

The piano links to this website, the bulletin board links to the Chrome Music Lab rhythm game, the cat links to bongo.cat, the ti-ti and ta white board links to this free game by Sillyomusic, and my Bitmoji links to a Peardeck asking students what their favorite song or activity from music class is.
I’ve seen some amazing virtual classrooms shared in Facebook groups recently…everything from a virtual classroom for “Carnival of the Animals,” in which students choose an animal and then watch a video for that piece, to a winter virtual classroom, with links to several winter-themed performances. You can be as creative as you want! Wanting to know more about creating your own virtual classroom? Check out this video by Katie Wardrobe from Midnight Music, which includes information about Google Slides and virtual classrooms, and this virtual classroom template by Glitter Meets Glue.
Are you excited about all of these ideas, but still worried about student participation with asynchronous lessons? Check out this blog post, about encouraging participation in asynchronous lessons.
I hope this is helpful to you, as you create your own asynchronous lessons. Happy teaching!

In a typical music lesson, students stand in a circle with hands held. One child is chosen to be the wolf and steps outside of the circle, and three students are chosen to be trees, and step inside the circle. After the song, all students ask, “Old Wolf, are you there?” The wolf might answer, “No, I’m brushing my teeth,” or “No, I’m reading a book.” The students sing again, and the wolf comes up with another answer. After the first, second, or third time through, the wolf says, “Yes!” and chases the children until he/she tags one. The students running away from the wolf can either touch a tree to be safe, or go to another safe zone, such as the chalkboard. The child who is tagged by the wolf also becomes a wolf, and the two wolves come up with an answer for “Old wolf, are you there?”This won’t work in a virtual or socially distanced classroom, though! In my virtual lessons, I use a wolf puppet, like the one found here (note: this is a referral link.) As we sing the song (with students’ microphones off), we dance! Then, at the end of the song, we freeze. Then, the wolf (whom I name Walter) turns around, and the students start dancing again. When Walter turns back around, all the students have to freeze again…and if they don’t, Walter calls one of them out!