A Snowy Music Class with Rhythm

Winter-themed music, movement, and books combined to create an interactive learning environment during a recent Primrose music class.

As first-graders arrived for their music class, they were greeted in the hallway by a song from their teacher. Then, one by one, they marched into class and found their spots, all to the beat of the song. 

Students took turns answering questions about their day, each other, and even the weather, then played an interactive game, all with their singing voices engaged. 

Students listened while their teacher read “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats and accompanied the book with sound effects. “She played the xylophone,” said Lucy Edmiston. 

After the story, the room was transformed into a winter wonderland with imaginary “snow” covering every surface. The students moved around the room following the actions described in the book. They took steps, crawled, made snowballs, had a snowball fight, and even built a snowman.

“We listened to music, and we did whatever movement it said to do. My favorite part was pretending to have a snowball fight,” James Sullivan said. Lucy added, “My favorite was making snow angels.”

Then students worked on patterns they created from the story. “Peter was playing in the snow. He was dragging his feet and playing with the big kids,” said Lucy. 

The students moved around the room by dragging their feet for the single “drag” beats and by taking quick steps for the double “walk-walk” beats as their teacher called out the pattern for them to repeat. Then they took turns at the smartboard arranging similar patterns using graphics of single or double footsteps and their matching musical notes. 

With so much variety in one lesson, there was something to keep every student engaged and active as they learned about rhythm, beats, musical notes, and patterns.

“The game was my favorite part of class today,” said James.