Recorder Mega-Set

My first year of teaching, I struggled with teaching recorder.  I wasn't sure what repertoire would work best, plus, most of my students knew nothing about reading music (sadly, this is the case in many schools).  Later, at my new school, I was challenged with way too short a class (30 minutes, really?!) and a heavy population of SPED students, and, yet again, students who knew very little about reading music.

This combination of experiences has lead me to develop a lot of my own resources when it comes to teaching recorder.  I'm sure I still have more learning to do and more challenges to face down the road, but so far, this has been the most successful year.  My 4th graders have had uninterrupted recorder work (both 3rd and 5th have had to work on massive Spring musicals - but we're getting there) and their progress is really making me quite happy.  I'm going to have to design a whole new set of recorder stuff for them as they move into 5th grade (I'll have taught them for 3 consecutive years at that point).

 I've bundled everything I've used in the past two years or so - and, voila, here's my Recorder Mega Set.  If you're like me, you're already looking forward to next year's music plans (especially musical/performance rep and choir rep, whew) and I hope you'll check out this set as you plan your recorder stuff.  It is designed to take many months, I would say an entire semester.  I usually do recorder from mid-Feb to late April.  Recorder isn't ALL we do for that time period, but it does take up a majority of the time.

Here's what's included in the bundle:

Teaching Resources (3):
1. Parent Information Note (English and Spanish) - This is what I send home in early January - it has worked well for the last few years
2. Beginning Recorder Song Progression - This is the progression of songs I use with beginning recorder students (3rd grade)
3. Recorder Group Jobs - I do use Recorder Karate in that I give out belts for each song (I haven't included the belts in the download because I don't want to take away from that product) so we have the Recorder Doctor and Recorder Sensei jobs

Recorder Jobs

Repertoire (12 printable songs to send home with students - I also keep a class-copy in folders so they don't have to bring the music back and forth and I don't have to print a million copies):
1. Hot Cross Buns
2. Babylon's Falling
3. Gently Sleep
4. Merrily We Roll Along
5. Closet Key
6. Au Clair de la Lune
7. All Through the Night
8. Hop Old Squirrel
9. Lucy Locket
10. Starlight, Starbright
11. It's Raining
12. Chickalileelo

Students have responded well to the format of these songs (rhythms - add pitch - put on staff).  Some students can move straight to reading from the staff (in fact, I encourage this as the "goal") but so many of them need music broken down into steps.

14 Teaching PowerPoints - These PowerPoints are designed to take the students step-by-step in learning the song.  They also reinforce rhythm reading and solfa.  Three of them include printables which I use to assess students and can also be used in place of the PowerPoints.
1. Hot Cross Buns (printables)
2. Babylon's Falling
3. Gently Sleep
4. Merrily We Roll Along
5. Closet Key (printables)
6. Au Clair de la Lune
7. All Through the Night
8. Hop Old Squirrel
9. Lucy Locket
10. Starlight, Starbright
11. It's Raining
12. Chickalileelo
13. Old Ark's a Moverin (printables)
14. Old MacDonald

Hot Cross Buns Printables

3 Lessons that incorporate other orff instruments, movements, and games while including recorder parts:

Hosisipa Lesson

Old Mr. Rabbit Lesson

Kreely Kranky Lesson

11 Recorder Worksheets and Teaching Aides
B-A-G Recorder Patterns Level 1 PowerPoint

7 Mad Minutes (B/A/G, B/A/G/E, B/A/G/E/D, C/B/A/G/E/D, D/C/B/A/G/E/D, lines, and spaces)

3 Assessments (lines, spaces, lines and spaces)

11 Recorder Games

Bunny Matching Game

Fly and Trashcan Matching Game

Icecream Matching Game

2 Recorder Dice Games (BAG and BAGE)

B-A-G Tent Game

3 File Folder Games (BAG-IT, CAGE-IT and Earn Your BADGE)

2 PowerPoint Games

1. B-A-G the Bunny

 2. Recorder Chicken Game

You'll save over $9.00 if you buy the bundle, verses downloading everything individually.  Have fun and HAPPY EASTER!