Hello! Welcome to my blog!

interactive drumming

My aim with this blog is to help you become the best music teacher ever!  There are many free lessons and DVDs to inspire you and get you started, as well as lots of information on report writing, the National Curriculum and assessment.

Let me guess though – the thing you need THE MOST as a Primary Music Specialist is REPERTOIRE!!!  Everyone needs more repertoire, don’t they!  You want games and activities and easy ways to create compositions… You need ways to engage your children and create successful music lessons.

I would like to encourage you to have a FREE TRIAL of ACTIVE MUSIC – you can’t lose and you will be amazed at the amount of repertoire and new ideas that can really help you in your classroom music.

If you are considering the course on 28th June in Brighton, it would be great to see you – the day is very practical and amazing fun!

I would love to know more about you – your job, what you love and what you struggle with – so please feel free to reply to me and share your situation – and I will do my best to help.

Take care,

Sally

If you have always come to music teaching randomly, wondering what you should do next and exhausting yourself, trying to think of new and inspiring ideas, Active Music will give you order, calm, structure and creativity. It will give you happy and interactive children, an inner-knowing that you are giving excellent musical skills to your children and an impressed head teacher, not to mention colleagues!  It will also give you a long, uninterrupted summer holiday (if you were planning to spend it on writing music lessons!!)  I think that changes your life a bit!!!!

1-DAY KODALY-BASED PRIMARY MUSIC COURSE

IMPACT YOUR SCHOOL AND SEE GREAT RESULTS IN PRIMARY MUSIC!

‘Brilliantly useful’

FRIDAY 31st JANUARY 2014 – ACS HILLINGDON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

‘It’s mindblowing how many games there are to use in the classroom’

Come along for:

• Increased confidence in music teaching
• Increased knowledge of the Music National Curriculum
• Discussion about the NEW Music Curriculum in 2014
• How to teach music skills progressively
• 100 + of activities – songs, singing games and practical musical activities to teach immediately in the classroom
• Tips on how to work towards outstanding music lessons
• A refreshed love for music teaching

Receive a FREE singing games book and DVD of your choice – worth up to £34.99!

We have an ever-expanding repertoire of over 500 singing games and musical activities – but don’t worry, we don’t teach them to you all at once! We teach:

Singing game with xylophones

circle games,   name games

rhythm games,  pitch games

puppet games, instrumental games

Turn-taking games and many, many more! 

We then USE the games to teach musical skills such as notation and composition

WILL THIS COURSE WORK FOR YOU? WHAT DO OTHERS THINK?

‘Brilliantly useful – it’s mindblowing how many games there are to use in the classroom’ – ‘very engaging and practical’ – very enjoyable music course – great subject knowledge and pace – thank you’ – ‘excellent pack of resources and ideas’ – it has inreased my bank of songs, rhymes, games etc and improved my confidence’ – I like the many ways of using one song to develop musical skills’ – ‘I now have an overview of developing musical skills stage by stage’ – a practical approach to learning just as the children do’……

Course run by Sally Wagter, an experienced music specialist of 15 years, music trainer of 10 years and creator of 6 Primary Music Resource books and the Active Music Primary Music Teaching Scheme. Sally has a B/Ed (Hons) and a Professional Practice Certificate in the Kodaly Concept of Music Education accredited by Roehampton University.

Call Sally on 07963 431405 if you would like to attend or have any questions about the course,

For LASTING RESULTS IN YOUR CLASSROOM MUSIC, please join us on this fantastic one-day course.  Cost £99.00 per teacher.  FREE SINGING GAMES BOOK AND DVD. Call Sally on 07963 431405 or visit our contact page and send us an email.

VENUE

ACS Hillingdon International School 108 Vine Lane, Hillingdon, Middlesex UB10 0BE England

MUSIC REPORT TIME!

It’s report time and I bet you are not too excited about it!

Active Music

TRY THIS IS ONE LESSON:  You need class lists with tick-boxes.

RHYTHM – tap a 4-beat rhythm to the child for them to tap back. Repeat with 8 beats. Results give the sentences:

‘Sarah is able to  repeat a 4-beat rhythm pattern accurately’

‘Sarah is able to repeat an 8-beat pattern accurately’   or…

‘Sarah is learning to listen to and repeat 4-beat patterns.’

• PITCH – sing a 2/3/4/5 note phrase and ask the children to sing it back to you. If too hard, sing a phrase with less notes and try again. Some may sing back on totally different notes but PRAISE THEM ANYWAY and note that they are in need of more pitch-matching games. Results give the sentences:

‘Ahmed has good pitch-matching skills’

‘Ahmed is working on his pitch-matching skills’

• MUSICAL TASKS COVERED – Write a couple of sentences about what the whole class have been involved in muscially (repeat this bit for each report) – then about this particular child’s involvement in extra-curricular musical activities. Add any personal information you have.
• CONFIDENCE – From the pitch exercise you will also note their confidence to sing in public. Ask each child whether they LIKE music and what aspects they like. This makes a good end sentence to all music reports.

ALL DONE! THAT’S MUSIC SUCCESSFULLY DONE AND OUT OF THE WAY!!!