Kelly Riley's Music Classroom

Last year, as second graders, my students composed simple do-mi-so songs and used SMART Notebook software to print and share them (see my post about that project here). Now that those students have learned the extended pentatonic scale (s, l, d r m s l d’), I needed a creative way to get them to [...]

Here are this year’s second grade compositions! To read about the process and download the planning worksheet and SMART Notebook file, please read this previous post. After printing a copy of their own composition for each child, and rather than using even more colored toner to create a bulletin board, I decided to put all [...]

Below is the Google presentation, including all of the links from the OMEA/TI:ME conference session “Using Web Video as a Tool for Music Education” presented February 9, 2013 at 11:00 AM.   Some additional resources: KeepVid.com – paste a link to a web video, choose your file format, and download! Zamzar.com – free online file [...]

Below is the Google presentation, including all of the links from my OMEA/TI:ME conference session “Feeling Diminished? Augment Your Professional Development With Social Media” presented February 8, 2013 at 12:15 PM.   Watch the whole presentation below!

A couple of years ago I spent a ton of time creating a box full of rhythm dice games for my kids to use to review note names and durations. I wanted them to be easy to use and durable so that they could be used as a part of my own lessons or if [...]

At my school we have half-day kindergarten classes, and these students do not typically attend music, art, or PE class. Some kindergartners who need extra help with reading or with English language acquisition stay for an additional half-day of intervention in these areas. These students get 25 minutes of the special area classes every third [...]

Every year my school has a Holiday Sing-Along on the last day before winter break. All of the students gather in the gym for about 30 minutes to sing together and have fun while the room parents set up the classrooms for the winter parties. I created a PowerPoint presentation that includes the song lyrics, [...]

The photos below are of my classroom. Click on them to enlarge and read details about each one. After scrolling through, at the bottom of the page are some downloads and links to things from my classroom in which you might be interested. If you have any questions about anything, please let me know in [...]

One of the most requested DVDs in my classroom is Animusic. If you are not familiar with the Animusic DVDs (there are currently two, with a third in development), you MUST check them out. The DVDs feature musical compositions and computer animations in which theoretical instruments play themselves. It is a very cool visualization of [...]

Every so often, I get great emails from other music teachers. Usually, I’m really good about replying right away, but lately, I have been slacking in that department. Below are some of questions I have received, with my replies. ~Kelly Q: What technology do you have in your room?  It sounds like your kids do [...]