203 | 5 Favorite Extension Activities to Boost Any Music Concept

In this episode of That Music Podcast, Bryson shares his five favorite extension activities that can be used with just about any concept in the elementary music room. From rhythm to melody (and everything in between), these activities are student-approved, easy to adapt, and built for long-term use. Whether you’re looking to streamline your planning, increase engagement, or bring a little more magic to your classroom routines, this episode is packed with practical ideas you’ll come back to again and again.

Episode Chapters:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:46 Post Office
• 3:35 King of the Mountain
• 5:18 Remote Control
• 6:26 Texting Sticks
• 7:46 Poison
• 8:53 Takeaways

Links and Resources: 

• The Elementary Music Summit®
• Elementary Newbie Guide
• Disabilities Guide
• Steady Beat Survival Guide
• Join Elementary Music EDGE™

Have questions or want to share feedback? Reach out to us at hello@thatmusicteacher.com - we’d love to hear from you!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:46 Post Office
• 3:35 King of the Mountain
• 5:18 Remote Control
• 6:26 Texting Sticks
• 7:46 Poison
• 8:53 Takeaways

Transcript

Bryson Tarbet: 0:00

Welcome back to that music podcast. Today we are diving into a teacher's secret weapon, those magical activities that help you go from just teaching a song once and then never using it again to being able to teach one activity and pull it out for concepts for years to come. The power of reusable extension activities is huge. That's what we're gonna be talking about today. You are listening to that music podcast with Bryon Tart, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher in the Elementary music summit each week. Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve. Show notes and resources mentioned in this episode can be found@thatmusicteacher.com. That's right. Today I'm gonna be sharing my top five favorite extension activities. These are tried and true gems that I've used in my classroom for a long time, and they're versatile enough that they can virtually fit any concept you're teaching. Honestly, some of these things, I teach the activity in first grade and we're still using them in fifth grade just with trickier concepts. And that's what really creates more efficient teaching because you're not teaching a new game. And when I say game, like I'm still doing music games, but like I'm talking about like like extension activities, right? You're not teaching a new one every single time you have a new concept, you're able to fall back on some that you can just change out the concepts and they still understand the game. For instance, like if you type into teach pay teachers. Uno, you're gonna find probably sight word, UNO or um, multiplication uno, right? Different things like that because most people know how to play Uno, and if you don't, once you learn it the first time, you can use it for different things. This is kind of that same thing, but using it for different strategies for extension in your classroom. These activities really allow for easy differentiation because, for instance, if you're doing a rhythmic activity with three different concepts, if you also have a d you know, you could, you could make it a little bit easier by only including two or make it a little bit more difficult by adding a forth, um, and it the, you think you would. Students get tired of it, but as long as you're not like using it constantly, that familiarity brings confidence, not boredom, believe it or not, because the students understand the the, the framework of what they're supposed to be doing, and all they have to focus on is the concept. It really takes a lot of those soft skills that aren't really necessary and kind of makes it so they really only have to focus. On the, the concepts themself. So let's do it. Let's dive right into my top five extension activities that you can use for pretty much every concept. First step, we have post office. So this is this, it's called post office.'cause essentially you're putting a bunch of index cards or whatever cards into an envelope. I don't know what it is, but if you put it into an envelope versus a a plastic bag, the kids love it more. I don't get it. Um, so this is, I use for, you know, rhythmic or melodic identification. So once the student knows a song or a chant, uh, let's say we're working on TAs and teachs for apple tree, I might give them cards that each card has two different beats on it. And they say, all right, you have all of the cards to write the whole rhythm for apple tree. You just have to put them in the, in the right order. Work with a partner and see if you can build those out and check your answer. What I like about this one is you can start it in a small group. You could do it in a partner, um, and then as you gonna get more difficult or get more into the practice phase, if you're kind of in codi land, um, then you could do it alone. Um, it's one of those things that really can be individual or group assessment. Another one that I absolutely love that I learned in Codi level one, um, with Julie Swank is King of the Mountain, and I use these for all different concepts basically. Um. Let's, let's do rhythm. The king of the mountain for the, for the sake of example, um, every person has a card in front of them that has a four beat rhythm. So maybe my four beat rhythm has ta ta tt ta. Um, so the goal is to be the king queen royalty at the top of the mountain. So you wanna be in that number one spot. Um, so that number one spot, they're going to say their card first. So I might say, TA ta tt ta. And then I'm also gonna say somebody else's card after it. Ttt and then that person, they're gonna say their card back and then another person. So we're kind of going all around the circle and the way that you get out, let's say somebody said my card, but I wasn't paying attention, or I didn't know they saved my card and I missed it. That means I go to the bottom point, I go to the last place in the line, and everybody that was below me moves forward one line. So the goal is to be in the number one spot. I love this because you can use it for simple rhythms. All the way up to super complex rhythms. And it's really good because you get student when, when everyone moves up, you, they get a different card. So they get a new rhythm, so they get a new chance of practicing. Um, and you can make this really, really simple of, you know, hey, if you miss a beat, it's okay. Um, or you could, you know, if you're in a little bit more advanced, you say, all right. If you, if you're a a, a beat late, you're out. Um, go to the end of the line and then kinda start over from there. It's a competitive activity. Um, make sure you set it up as a friendly competition, right? It's really engaging, um, and it really helps. It's a good opportunity for you as a teacher to use it as informal assessment and to kinda see where students are at with their rhythmic skills. Remote control is another great one that you can use for rhythmic stuff. Melodic stuff, whatever. Um, it's essentially, you know, let's say I have a song written. Um, or a song that we have that we've been practicing. We know this song. Let's, let's stick with Apple Tree. Um, I might on the board write, um, rhythm syllables, sofe text in your head. Um, but the person in, in the, that has the remote control, um, they're literally like, I literally just use like an old VCR remote that was left in my room. And they're pointing to the different category. So if they're pointing to, um. So we would sing, so, so me, so, so me. And if they moved it to text all your apples fall on me. And you see how we're changing it up, right? So it's giving us practice on either, you know, so if that's what we're working on, or rhythmic syllables, if that's what we're working on, or ideation, if that's what we're working on. Um, but it's also mixing it up because it's giving the students the opportunity. To be the leader. You can make this super simple by only having two options. You can make it super complex by having however many options you have. Um, this is a great one that you can use it for rhythmic stuff. You can use it from melodic stuff, and you can use it from pretty much like first grade on texting sticks. Take a little bit of setup, but once you have 'em, you'll have 'em forever. Um, so essentially you'll take one of like the popsicle sticks, like the kinda the, the tongue depressor size ones are a little bigger. Um, and let's say we're using, um. We're working on Soul Fe, so I'd have the soul fish ladders that they know. So if we only know soul and me, I would just have soul put a little space in me and essentially the students are going to be showing the melodic contour by texting, quote unquote, using their thumb to touch the different soul fish. So if I was singing an apple tree here, if you're watching on YouTube, I'm gonna use this, this pencil as the texting sick, I might go. Apple tree. Apple tree Will your apples fall on me? Right? So I'm literally showing them melodic contour on my. On the stick by moving my thumb up and down. This is great for just practicing it, but it's also really good for us as teachers to kinda look around and see how students are doing. It's a good informal assessment point. Um, again, if you, especially if you are, um, being a little bit more purist to the, the Kodi world, um, you would need different sets for different, you know. Different things, you know, or if there's, you know, different names you have them. Um, but honestly, they did not take, I, I created, was set for basically everything and they didn't take me terribly too long. And I have them forever because they, they don't get broken unless the student really is trying to break them, which has, isn't typically the case. And last but not least is poison. You can do poison, rhythm, poison, melody, um, but essentially you give them a pattern that they are not to repeat back to you. So let's do, say we're doing poison rhythm and the, the rhythm on the board is ta ta tick, tick, ta. So we'll practice that a couple times. Um, and then all say, all right, cool. We're going to do this now. So I'm gonna clap a pattern. If it's the poison pattern, don't clap it. But if it's anything else, pack it back to me. So if I go, they would clap back. But if I clap their poison rhythm, the whole goal is that they don't. There are two ways you can play this. Um, and I've done it both ways, depending on the class and depending on how competition is. Um, so option one is everybody stands up. If you, um, clap the poison rhythm, you have to sit down and you're done. And I've also done it where it's kind of the class versus me as the teacher. So if somebody claps the poison pattern, I get a point. If I clap the pattern point, the poison pattern, and nobody claps the back, they get a point. Depending on the class, feel out the vibe and feel which one's gonna work best for you. So these five activities, post office, king of the Mountain, remote Control, texting Six and Poison, I think are truly invaluable additions to your little teaching toolbox because it empowers you to have these different. Extension activities in your back pocket and your students know them and you're able to trade out the concepts. Like honestly, most of these, honestly, every single one of these I've used all the way from first grade all the way up through, through sixth grade, just changing out the different concepts and the difficulty level of the activities themselves. And once you teach it once, you only have to reteach it. It's so much easier. So I want you to think about how you can take some of these ideas and apply it to a concept you're teaching this next week. Don't feel like you have to do everything but feel like, you know, if you're doing a lot of rhythmic stuff, maybe do poison in a few different grades and a few different concepts. Or, hey, if you're really into doing a little bit of setup and you wanna do some texting sticks, great. Pick a couple different target grade levels that are concepts. Make out some texting sticks and see how it goes once you do it once. That's the hardest part. From that point on, all you're doing is reteaching and with the new concepts. With that being said, thank you so much for joining us for another episode of That Music podcast. It would mean the world if you left us a review. If you are listening on iTunes or if you're on YouTube, hey, subscribe and smash that like button, right? Uh, let us know what you like, what you want more of, and what you really hope to see in future episodes of that music podcast. With that being said, as always, thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of the students that you teach.