My passion is bringing the unique experience of music to students and foster the same passion about music making in them.
The reason we teach music is because music is one of the most basic experiences of the human race – the same neurological and physical traits that enable language enable music making, and for almost all people music has deep connections to other emotional and intellectual aspects of life. As a music teacher, I’m aware that I alone am the decisive element in the classroom and I have the power to make a student’s day better or worse through the music we share. Whether teaching Band, General Music, or Choir, I believe a great music teacher must be a great musician themselves first and foremost. It inspires and energizes me to help young people at all ages reach their musical potential.
A sample from lessons I have created and taught from the past seven years:
Elementary
All my elementary music lessons focus on being tuneful, artful, and beatful. I think it’s important that students be moving and engaged for each lesson! I like to use a blended approach to General Music using several different methods like Orff, Artie Almeida, Dalcroze, and Feieraband. I have five years teaching K-5 full time at Woodlawn Elementary. I also had the experience of substitute teaching for elementary grades k-6 General Music all over Southwestern Ohio over where I have gained valuable ideas, insight, and experience.
Lessons for Kindergarten and First Grade:
Kindergarten and First grade are learning about steady beat and rhythm. I am teaching them to differentiate between their four different voices as well as use their head voice for singing. We are playing a variety of classroom instruments as well as doing a large amount of movement and feeling the beat. Students also learn bout same and different and using a visual representation for sound among many other concepts in music class.
Lessons for 2nd Grade:
Second Graders learn to improvise and compose simple rhythmic and melodic patterns. Students in my class are practicing singing using their head voice and playing a wide variety of instruments. They are learning to identify and apply the elements of music using appropriate vocabulary and recognizing form in music. Students doing a large amount of moving to music and dances.
#1 Lesson Plan – program rehearsal with enrichment activities
#2 Lesson Plan – program rehearsal with enrichment activities
Lessons for 3rd Grade:
Third Graders are learning to play instruments with proper technique, starting recorder, identifying and listening to music forms, and using appropriate vocabulary for identifying elements of music. They are also reading, writing, and performing music up to sixteenth notes as well as using a large amount of movement. They can also practicing singing with their head voice, among many other concepts. For 3rd grade I came up with new lessons each week focusing on world music. Each week we did a lesson about music from different countries including Japan (using drums and boomwackers), India (using dance), Egypt (using Orff instruments), and a fun lesson I created on acapella and beatboxing, to name a few.
Third Grade Acapella and Beatboxing Lesson Plan
Lessons for 4th Grade:
The 4th graders I teach learn the instruments of the orchestra as well as practice using the head voice for singing. Fourth grades do a large amount of movement to dances. They also play a variety of classroom instruments with proper technique including mallet instruments, drums, and recorders. Students also practice reading, writing, and performing using notes up to sixteenth notes among many other concepts.
OBSERVATION 2021 Fourth Grade Lesson Template
2021_2022 Post Conference Formal Observation
2021-2022 – Jennifer Kuhn (OH1488718) – Formal Holistic Observation (10_07_2021)
4th Grade Lesson Plan – Star Wars Recorder Note and Rhythm Review
4th Grade Lesson Plan – Recorder
4th Grade Lesson Plan – Recorder and Peace Like a River activity
Lesson for 5th Grade:
In fifth grade, students learned the instruments of the orchestra as well as performed on instruments including the ukulele, mallets, drums, and recorders with proper technique. Students also learn about music genres and practiced justifying their personal preference for certain musical pieces. Fifth graders did a large amount of movement as well as recognizing and identifying music form, music elements, and reading music notation up to sixteenth notes among many other concepts.
5th Grade Lesson Plan – program rehearsal and instrument activity
Middle School
Middle School classes I taught each had a song of the day or a ‘Do Now’ that emphasized a time period we were learning about or a musical term. Students were able to suggest songs they listened to for a special Friday drawing out of a basket. I would draw a song each Friday from the suggestions basket and, after looking at the lyrics and approving it, that song would get played. The students really enjoyed this and it opened their mind to new genres of music.
Lessons for 6th Grade:
The 6th graders I taught at Magsig Middle School were learning music notation. I was able to use resources like Quaver Music and Noteflight and also created and used many different music games and learning stations to really make it fun and enriching.
6th Grade Lesson Plan – Stations activity on Time Signature and Meter
Lessons for 6th Grade Ukulele:
The 6th graders I taught at Princeton Middle School were finishing a unit on Japan when I arrived. Having recently been to Japan, I was able to tell and show them my experiences with just how amazing the music culture and history is in Japan. We also learned Sakura on Orff instruments. I then did a rotation to teach them Ukulele for the remaining 5 weeks.
6th Grade Lesson on Japanese Music
Introduction to Ukulele Workbook
Lesson for 7th Grade:
The 7th grade students I taught at Magsig Middle School were learning Music History starting at midevil times going all the way to modern music. For this class I came up with presentations each day that were enriching that would make the history of music exciting to them. At one point the students were able to do a presentation on a composer of their choice and present it to the class. I also created a project with the that involved them coming up with their own form of notation which really got them thinking outside of the box. This was also a great class to use technology as formative assessments. We used website like Plicker and Kahoot to review and prepare for tests over the time periods.
A sample of slides from presentations.
Lesson for 8th Grade:
The 8th graders I taught at Magsig Middle School learned about music etiquette, lyric analysis, and music as a career. They also spent their final weeks making a music video in groups that required picking a song with lyrics that were approved by me, story boarding their ideas and organizing the location and times that they were going to film during class. It also required me to know how to use the available technology to make their music video a reality and be able to share it during their final day in class.
8th Grade Project – Lyric Analysis
8th Grade Lesson Plan and activity – Concert Etiquette
6th, 7th, & 8th Grade Choirs:
The choirs I taught at Magsig Middle School were preparing for their Spring concert with the theme of happiness. During this time I held solo auditions, rehearsed music, accompanied the choirs on piano, and communicated with parents about dress rehearsal and concert times. I also coordinated with the performance accompanist. Experiencing a concert with a group of students was truly a special shared experience and an unforgettable experience.
High School
Lesson for Piano Keyboard Lab:
During my time teaching Piano Keyboard Lab I was able to really sharpen my skills on differentiating. Each student would come in with a different background in music so I became quick at making sure each student was where they needed to be in their piano binders, One of the piano bells added a new student to the class each week for several weeks in a row, so I was constantly using my quick thinking to start some students from the beginning on piano, while others were already progressing to the grand staff with two hands. Another challenge that I took head on was that one of the piano bells had many students that had English as their second language and many spoke very little English. I learned lots of creative ways to make sure each student was able to understand each assignment and assessment as well as my instruction each day.
Lesson for High School Concert Band:
Not only did I have the amazing opportunity assist for the Scarlet and Grey High School bands at Princeton, but I also had to opportunity to substitute consistently for weeks/months for beginning and Middle School band at Hamilton Schools. During this time I was able to stay up on my instrument fingerings and repair skills. At Princeton, I had the opportunity to do sectionals each day (which I loved ) with different instrument sections and occasionally help with things like fund raising organization, innovatory, and making copies for music parts and scores. I also had to opportunity to conduct and teach band (including Jazz) throughout my two years substituting at bands all over Southwestern Ohio: Centerville, Lebanon, Springboro, Hamilton, Winton Woods, and Princeton – just to name a few!
Lesson for High School Music Technology:
Music Technology is a project based music class. It involves teaching students about a genre of electronic music or music production (for example, and then showing them how to create their own using a variety of software programs like Garageband and Ableton Live. This class is an amazing class for creativity and also for differentiating. I spend most of the class period going around and helping students get their projects to sound the way they envision. The students that are doing well are given extensions so they are able to more unique and creative effects to their projects and songs. The students who have been absent or are struggling I am able to go around and get them caught up. I have experience using Ableton Live, Garageband, and Soundation.
Jennifer Kuhn 