"Oh you teach classroom music? Ohmigosh, that must be so much fun! That's not working, that sounds easy!" Excuse me while I look around for something to throw. But, all things considered, we are pretty lucky in our choice of subject matter - most primary-aged kids do love coming to music! And, whilst it is far from easy, it could certainly be much worse - we could be teaching maths. That being said, in every school, possibly even in every class, there will be students for who

Hello there, fellow Kodalyphiles! Today you're in for a mega blog that has been a long time coming. I have been looking a lot recently at doing themed lessons (having a central idea that links together several different songs and activities into one cohesive lesson - great for smooth transitions!) and as I was going through my song lists looking for possible themes I realised just how many great songs there are out there about chickens! Now my chicken puppets are some of my f

Prep music lessons can be a magical time - the children are young, with a vivid imagination and a thirst for knowledge. They haven't yet learned to be cynical about school or self-conscious in front of others. I therefore try to make the most of this golden window of opportunity and have them perform in front of their classmates and in front of me as often as possible so that they get used to it and it's no big deal later on. This means lots of solo-singing games - one of my