As students move to in-home, virtual learning, they may not have access to music classes like they used to. For this blog, I will provide some at-home activities you can do with your students to keep them active in their music-making abilities.
Wheel of Fortune
(Photo description: image includes an example of the “Wheel,” along with the letter board and scoreboard.)
Items Needed:
- Customizable wheel (can be paper or digital)
- Decide Now! App
- Whiteboard or paper
- Writing utensil
- Music playing device
Wheel of Fortune Is a great way for your student to work on adding and subtracting, as well as spelling, learning names of songs, and music artists. For the purpose of this activity, I created the “wheel” using the app Decide Now on my iPad. What’s great about this app is you can choose different colors and edit it whenever you need to. Plus, it’s fun to spin. If you don’t have the app, you can be creative and make a paper wheel. If you are familiar with the popular television show, you will know how the rules work. Encourage your students to add/subtract up their “dollar” amounts each round. You can adjust the “dollar” amount to smaller amounts depending on abilities.
As for the topics, you can use anything. I suggest using familiar songs and artists, as well as new songs to expand your students’ musical range. Furthermore, using musical terms would be a great way to test spelling, such as crescendo, staccato, legato, arpeggio, etc. Have fun with the game!
Moving and Grooving to the Music
There is nothing better than moving and grooving to a fun beat, especially after sitting in front of a computer screen all day! Dancing is a great way to loosen up any stiff muscles from sitting at a screen, get your heart rate up, and just have fun. Challenge your students to create a fun dance routine and have them teach the whole family. This will get the creativity flowing and give your student a sense of ownership of a project. Here is a fun Spotify playlist with songs to move to.
Virtual Christmas Caroling
With the current restrictions set to keep us safe, we have to ditch the traditional way of Christmas caroling. But alas, I present to you: Virtual Christmas Caroling. Zoom is a video chatting program that makes it easy to connect with others, and during the holiday season, they are allowing unlimited timed calls.
For the Zoom calls, you will need:
- Device with video and audio capabilities
- Laptop, smart phone, iPad
- WiFi connection
- Speaker
- Optional: a festive background
In order to create a Zoom call, you will need to make a free account. Simply give your email address and create a password, then you’re good to go.
First, you’ll want to start a meeting by pressing the “New Meeting” tab on the home screen. You also have the option to schedule a meeting, as well. For this purpose, we will be doing a new meeting.
After you have started your meeting, you will need to locate the “Information” button at the top left corner of the screen. Once you have found it, you will see all the meeting information. The important link you need is the “Invite Link.” You will then press “Copy Link” and then share that link with the person you are wanting to have the meeting with. Once they click on it, you will begin your meeting! You can have the whole family join in from different devices.
Now is the fun part! I have shared my favorite Christmas songs in the Spotify link (below) that you and your family can use to sing with. Be creative with the songs—whether that be creating a dance routine, lip syncing, or dressing up—have fun with it. It’s a great way to be connected and still share the Christmas spirit with your family.
Leave a comment down below if you and your family try any of these fun activities.
