In my last post, I mentioned the MiniMusic kit by Paula Manwaring (Kjos Publishing) that I purchased while I was at the NCKP conference. You might remember that I also briefly spoke about the first musical opera concert I attended, and how much that concert has helped me. The photos and description of this curriculum on the Kjos Publishing website do not do it justice! So I decided to show you some photos I took myself. I think many of the materials included in the kit are great resources for group lessons and games with students of ANY age.
Here’s a list of what is included:
- Teacher Handbook with 9 months worth of weekly lesson plans.
- Student Workbook (you can buy these individually for your students from the Kjos website)
- Staff/keyboard scarf
- Music notes printed on transparency sheets (to be cut out and used on the scarf staff)
- 2-sided Bingo sheets: music symbols or musical instruments.
- Plastic markers for the staff and the Bingo sheets
- Puppet friends (to be cut out and glued on wooden craft sticks)
- 6 different kinds of flashcards, all printed on card stock paper and laminated.
Here’s a peek at what the Teacher Handbook and Student Workbook look like inside:
And here’s a close-up of the two-sided staff/keyboard scarf. It’s machine washable!
Here’s a picture of all the flashcards. They are all printed on card stock and laminated.
- Rhythm Cards
- Interval Cards
- Key Cards
- Note/Rest Value Cards
- Instrument Cards
- Musical Alphabet Cards
What sold me is that this is a flexible curriculum. I chatted with Paula at the Kjos booth after the showcase that morning, and she encouraged me to modify the lesson plans in any way I choose. As is, the lesson plans are quite theory-heavy, and personally I’d like to begin with plenty of movement and listening activities before jumping into the theory right off the bat. But, to be far, I haven’t looked at the lesson plans in great detail yet. I’m just so pleased to have found a curriculum that I can completely customize to my teaching style, needs, and goals! I’m really looking forward to seeing how this works with my students. 🙂
I might have to check these out! It looks helpful.
It sounds like you might be thinking of a younger class than what this might be targeting, though. I highly recommend the Music for Little Mozarts “Classroom Curriculum”. I use that with my preschoolers with a great deal of success.
How big are the flashcards in that kit? I like to use small flashcards in private lessons, and I like the intervals, etc. that this set includes. I prefer to use oversized flashcards in groups, though (8 1/2 X 11 or bigger).
Hi Rebecca – these flashcards are a quarter of the size of a piece of paper — about 4” by 6”. The print is fairly large on everything, though, so I do expect they’ll work pretty well in group settings.
I just want to tell you that I worked 30 minutes on a comment for this post, and your site marked it as spam – told me “We hate spammers around here” and deleted my post. 30 minutes! I wish I would’ve copied it to my clipboard, but I didn’t. That work is gone.
It probably marked it as spam because I included about 10 links of places where people who teach preschoolers can go to find FREE resources for teaching preschoolers. I really hate the internet sometimes!
Carolyn — I’m so sorry this happened to you! I have a few WordPress plugins that help me combat spam (otherwise I would get a lot of it), and one of those most have caught your comment because I don’t see your comment in my “Spam” comment folder. Again, I’m sorry! It’s happened to me before too. It’s not a fun feeling to know you lost all that work.
I am curious. How much aural training is included in the material. Are there movement activities as well?
Ellen — I haven’t had a chance to look at the lesson plans very thoroughly yet. I will probably post an update on this topic once I’ve given the method a fair try!
No way – I totally know Paula! We used to be neighbors and I grew up with her daughter. Small world 🙂 Her kit looks awesome, I am going to have to check it out. Thanks for sharing!
Small world, indeed! 🙂
So, it looks like it’s been a year since you bought this curriculum. I am considering purchasing it as well, and wondered how you are liking it! Do you have to customize all the lessons to include more movement, or are the lessons good as-is? Thanks for any advice you may have!
Hi Holli,
I love all the materials, but find I don’t really use the lesson plans. The lesson plans are very theory-based, and I’ve come to realize that my goal with young students is to allow them to experience a concept first, see the symbol next, and put a name to the symbol last. However, I am still glad I bought it because of all the great flashcards, the staff scarf, etc.
Hope that helps!
Hi, do you sell this minimusic kit?
Joan, the MiniMusic Kit is published by Kjos publishing and can be purchased from sheetmusicplus.com or Amazon (here: Minimusic Teacher’s Kit
).