Do you teach a preschool choir?

If so, you know that preschoolers are musical explorers. They love to sing, dance, play, move, and experience music with their whole selves.

It’s normal to feel a little burnt out after the year we’ve just had. It’s normal to feel tired or frustrated or lost. But what have you learned? What strategies will you keep? How have the events of the last year changed us as teachers, as musicians? What will we do differently going forward?

Games and musical activities are a fun and engaging way to introduce and reinforce new musical concepts and develop musical skills like listening, singing, expression, coordination, and internalizing a sense of steady beat.

Today, I'm sharing a few of my favorite musical games and activities for elementary music classes, children's choirs, and elementary group classes.

Today, I’m sharing a collection of children’s choir anthems composed by women.

After all, March is Women’s History Month and over the years, it’s also become a time to celebrate women in music.

If you’re looking for some inspiration for your planning this year and seeking ways to include more diversity in the voices you share and represent, here are 36 children’s choir anthems written by women composers to help you get started.

Advent looks a little different this year, doesn’t it?

In the midst of a global pandemic, we know what it feels like to be a people walking in darkness, waiting for the light. We know what it feels like to hope for something and long for peace in the world.

This year, Advent takes on new meaning for us. But that doesn’t mean we have less to celebrate.

Whether you're gathering via Zoom or in person (6' apart), here's a fresh, creative resource you can use with your children's choir this season.

Several years ago, I put together a list of my Top 50 Favorite Anthems for Children’s Choir.

But there are so many wonderful anthems out there for children’s voices, who can stop at 50?!

You know I can’t.

So today, I’m sharing the sequel you’ve all been waiting for: 50 more favorite anthems for children’s choir.

This list includes mostly unison and two-part music, with a few 3-part pieces for those of you with older elementary choirs and/or larger groups.

This year has brought some unprecedented challenges and the global pandemic has changed the way choirs and musical ensembles gather and make music together. Many choirs moved to online rehearsals this spring, using Zoom or Facebook Live to stay connected and try to continue making music the best they could. But with the technology we have available to us and unpredictable internet speeds at home, we’ve all learned that it’s really not possible to sing or play together in real-time.

Today, I’m sharing some helpful digital tools and resources that can be used in online choir rehearsals (synchronous or asynchronous) or in-person, if and when you’re able to return to that. You’ll find digital tools, game ideas, teaching strategies, and curriculum resources that were designed especially for distance-learning situations.

Last week, I shared the first post in a new series I’m putting together this summer: Music by Black Composers: 105 Sacred Works for Organ.

As I mentioned in that post, I believe it’s important to listen and learn from the African-American and Black community during this time, to ask ourselves: Are we honoring all the voices that have contributed to our field? Are we celebrating the diversity of composers in addition to diversity in styles?

If you work with a children’s choir or youth choir or are looking for a few simple pieces by Black composers to introduce to your adult choir in the future, here’s a list of anthems to get you started.

These are strange times we’re living in.

Who would have thought that we’d find ourselves worshipping through a screen — together, but apart, that congregations would scatter, events would be canceled, and choirs would not be able to sing?

And yet, for the safety of our friends and neighbors and community members, here we are. Each in our own homes, flattening the COVID-19 curve, but missing the connection, the fellowship, the joy that comes with making music together.

I’ve been thinking about creative ways you can connect (and sing!) with your choir virtually and today, I’m sharing a round-up of 19 ideas (for adult choirs and children’s choirs) that you can start using right away.

If you walk into an elementary classroom, you might notice that everything is color-coded: signs and charts on the wall to labels on bins to pieces of tape marking certain spots on the floor.

This is because colors are easy for most young children to recognize and differentiate between.

But in music, our baseline is black and white, the colors of standard notation. When first introducing music-reading, it can be challenging for young students to recognize patterns and organize the content visually when everything is black and white.

For this reason, color can be a helpful tool when teaching music literacy and developing music-reading skills. “When we use color in a systematic way it can help students retain information better than just using black and white.” (source)