Recorder Karate Idea Bank

I did a neat beginning recorder lesson with fourth grade using the little plastic pumpkins as music notes on a staff drawn on a laminated file folder.

Each group of four students had a file folder staff and three pumpkins. First they put all their pumpkins on B, then all the pumpkins on A, then all the pumpkins on G. Then they had to notate the pattern B-A-G. They played this pattern on their recorders at the end of each line of "Skin And Bones." I created a Band-In-The Box arrangement for them to play to.

They loved it! It was so successful, the fifth and sixth grades wanted to do it too.

P.S. My principal happened to observe this lesson, and she told me she hoped that when she died she would be reborn as a music teacher because it looked like such fun!