Mighty Musicians Piano Camp!

July 31, 2014 Jennifer Boster

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Our Mighty Musicians Piano Camp is now available in its entirety to purchase in The Teaching Studio Store! If you’re not familiar with these lesson plans, let me tell you a little bit about it!

Nichole and I wrote this class following the success of our Early Explorers preschool class. We wanted a similarly hands-on, creative class for children who were a little bit older than our preschool crowd, something that could involve a little more time on the actual piano. That is how Mighty Musicians came to be! We took a lot of elements from Early Explorers, added in some basic piano technique and simple pieces the students could play, and added in a composition element that is so, so great. This class is so much fun – it really captures the children’s imaginations and it is so fun to see them singing and moving and playing to all this great classical music. We have found that the music really leaves an impression on them!

This class is an AWESOME way to see if a child is ready for private piano lessons.

Some of my favorite highlights from this class:

Dancing with sunrise scarves to Grieg’s Morning Mood in Night and Day

Watching the students move like nocturnal animals to Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King as the music gets faster and faster and louder in Night and Day

The short and long composition craft that goes with Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in Traffic Jam

Clapping traffic rhythms in Traffic Jam

Successfully having each child learn some basic piano techniques and be able to go home with songs to play!

Singing our new lyrics to Simple Gifts and climbing up a mountain to Copland’s Appalachian Spring in Mountains and Hills

Playing our quacking ducks and singing along to Strauss’ The Blue Danube Waltz in Birds of a Feather

Seeing the children’s creative compositions!

The journey we act out to get to the musical fireworks show to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture in Forte Fireworks! Seriously that is my favorite part of this class, the music is so, so powerful and the kids get SO into it.

Just seeing the joy in the children’s faces as they experienced music!

I hope you will try out the Mighty Musicians Piano Camp for your next piano class, camp or event with your young students!

Included in this camp are the following lesson plans: Night and Day, Traffic Jam, Mountains and Hills, Birds of a Feather and Forte Fireworks. It also includes the Mighty Musicians Camp Planner, which includes 20 pages of camp planning forms and materials.

Includes sheet music, craft templates, 5 student take-home books, clipart and printable teaching resources, and much more! More information available here. 312 pages. Digital download. Available in the Shop or here in this post.

Mighty Musicians Piano Camp
Price: $46.00

Birds of a Feather Lesson Plan Now Available!

July 31, 2014 Jennifer Boster

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Now available for purchase in the Shop is the last lesson plan in the Mighty Musicians Piano Camp – Birds of a Feather!

For those not familiar with the Mighty Musicians class, it is written specifically for children ages 5 and 6 – they are a little bit older than the preschoolers, so they have a little bit longer attention spans but oodles of energy and creativity! This class is perfect for them because it is a nice introduction to piano lessons in a fun and active group setting. At each class, students learn to play a simple pre-staff notation piece on the piano. We also focus a lot on creative composition in this class, and at each lesson children will compose their own song! It is tons of fun.

I love this lesson! Using seven feathered friends, students are introduced to the musical alphabet and the names of the white keys on the piano.

Children will enjoy a creative listening activity and movement and dancing to Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake;” will sing a song, and learn a poem all about birds to help remember the notes on the piano; will be introduced to Johann Strauss’s famous “Blue Danube Waltz” and will learn some fun lyrics about our feathered friends; will decorate their own duck craft and have fun making it “quack” to the music; will play a pre-staff notation piece on the piano using the newly-learned notes on the keyboard; will compose their own creative piano piece; and will have fun learning all about the musical alphabet through song, play, movement, listening and art.

As always, it includes a printable take-home book to send home with each student. I love these take-home books! They include full-color graphics, overviews of concepts covered, lyrics to songs learned at class (so parents can sing along at home!), a pre-staff notation piece for the students to play on the piano, and more!

Here are a few little sneak peeks of what is included:

It is a fun class, that’s for sure! I hope you enjoy it! As always, you can purchase it in The Teaching Studio Store, or at the bottom of this post.

Includes a student Take-Home Book! 70 pages. Book is in downloadable e-book format.

This lesson plan is number 4 and the final lesson in our five-week Mighty Musicians piano class (or Day 4 in a week-long camp).

Birds of a Feather Lesson Plan

Forte Fireworks!

July 6, 2013 Jennifer Boster

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I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July this week! My family and I had a great day, including a breakfast at our church (where my husband and I played some rousing patriotic songs on the piano – so fun!!), a small-town parade, a barbecue with friends and then watching a few fireworks from our car. I am so grateful for our freedoms and for opportunities to celebrate them with friends and family!

It’s the perfect time to introduce our next Mighty Musicians lesson plan that is available for purchase! Forte Fireworks is a one-hour lesson all about dynamics.

This lesson is one of my very favorites and was one of the most memorable for the students. We use this as the culmination of our Mighty Musicians week-long camp. This patriotic lesson plan is a blast, as students explore fireworks, flags and more, and learn that music can be loud or soft! Students will march in a parade, play a matching game, explore dynamics using a variety of instruments, compose their own fireworks song, play a pre-staff notation piece, and go on a memorable musical adventure to “see” a fireworks show! Pieces that students will become familiar with include Handel’s Music For the Royal Fireworks, Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

The highlight of this lesson is our musical “fireworks show” activity, which was so much fun at our class! As we listened to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture we went on a musical journey using listening, singing, movement, and storytelling and ended up at an amazing musical fireworks show. I actually think that this song/activity really affected the students – they got so into the story and the movements that when we finally arrived at the fireworks show and heard those cannons go off, it was a really powerful moment. This activity really made the music come alive for these kids, and for me as well! Be sure to crank up the volume so children get the full exciting effect of the fireworks “cannons” at the end of this piece! Here’s a little preview of the song we sing and a great recording of this awesome piece.

Here are a few more previews of this fun lesson plan:

I hope you and your students enjoy it as much as we did!

This lesson plan is available for purchase in The Teaching Studio Store or right here in this post. It contains 50 pages (lesson plan, teacher’s guide, supplies needed, printable resources, student take-home materials, clip-art and more) and is in downloadable e-book format.

Forte Fireworks!: Mighty Musicians Lesson Plan
Price: $10.00

Rushing Water Lesson Plan & Giveaway!

February 20, 2013 Jennifer Boster

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This morning Nichole and I taught our favorite Early Explorers lesson plan and had such a fun time – and we are super excited that it is now available for purchase in The Teaching Studio Store so you can all enjoy it as well!

“Rushing Water” is a one-hour preschool music class all about water, from rushing rivers and streams to little raindrops. In this class we explore short and long sounds in music. We also learn through Bedrich Smetana’s “The Moldau” that music can tell a wonderful story!

We take a musical journey down a magical river, and through singing, movement and storytelling encounter castles, mermaids, waterfalls and more. Children (and teachers, too!) have a blast with this class. We also use raindrops and rivers to explore short and long in music in lots of hands-on and exciting ways. Today was the perfect day to teach this class, because here in Texas it was cloudy and rainy! I think those short musical raindrops were on the children’s minds as they traveled home from our class!

Would you like to teach this fun class? Our lesson plan is a 73-page downloadable e-book that comes with take-home booklets, templates, tutorials, all of the clipart/flannel board figures you will need, sheet music to four songs, a listening guide for “The Moldau,” and much more! We think you and your little students will love it! Here are a couple more previews and sneak peeks:

We would love to give away a *FREE* copy to a lucky reader! So comment and share away – receive one entry for a comment on this post, and an additional entry for each way you share about this lesson plan – whether it is Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, your blog, etc. Giveaway ends this Friday, February 22 at 10:00 pm Central time.

And for those of you who can’t wait to check out this awesome lesson plan, head on over to The Teaching Studio Store, where there are many great lessons available (and many more to come!!)

We have a winner!!

February 9, 2013 Jennifer Boster

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Thanks to all who entered our giveaway for our “Musical Valentines” preschool lesson plan! Congratulations to our winner….

…Amanda!!!

Amanda, please contact me and give me your email address so I can get you your free download today!

And for all you other readers, be sure to check out all of our preschool lesson plans available in The Teaching Studio Store (and look for more coming available very soon….the next of which will be our “Wondrous Winter” lesson!)

Here are a few sneak peeks at our “Musical Valentines” lesson plan….we think you will *LOVE* it! Happy Saturday!

Lesson Plan Added: Traffic Jam! (and our giveaway winner!)

July 22, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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We have a winner! The lucky reader who will receive a free copy of my “Night & Day” lesson plan is…

Congratulations dianne c! Please send me an email with your email address so I can get you your download link!

And I am excited to announce that there is a new Mighty Musicians lesson plan available for purchase today in the Teaching Studio Store!

“Traffic Jam!” is a lesson plan all about rhythm and beat in music. We learn that music is made up of a pattern of short and long notes, and that there is an underlying steady beat. Students are introduced to half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes in a fun way, we create our own Rhythm Traffic Jam by clapping and speaking the different rhythms. We listen and sing to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, we write our own 1st Symphony. We listen and move to another fun song about traffic. We use our fingertips to play a pre-staff notation piece on the piano. Here are a couple of previews:

Like our other lesson plans, this one comes with a fun student take-home book and many other great resources and take-home extras. It is 51 pages and is in downloadable e-book format. You may purchase it on this post, or visit my new Teaching Studio Store page!

Traffic Jam! Lesson Plan: Music Has Beat & Rhythm
Price – $10.00

Have a great day!

Mighty Musicians! (…plus a giveaway!!)

July 15, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Happy Saturday!

Well as some of you may have noticed, I haven’t been around a lot lately. I’ve been a bit busy….my friend Nichole and I recently wrote a whole new curriculum and taught a new music class for 5- and 6-year-olds. We call it Mighty Musicians and it was a big success! We are so excited to share it with you all, and I’ve been working like crazy getting these lesson plans all ready to go.

Our Mighty Musicians class is similar to the Early Explorers course (and I *promise* to have more of those lesson plans available soon as well!), but geared toward those 5- and 6-year-olds who are able to catch on and then apply the musical concepts a little more quickly than the preschoolers. This class is very fun, and it involves lots of singing and movement and creative play with the music, but it also has some basic piano technique elements involved to give those kids a great and fun intro to piano lessons! At each class, students get to play simple pre-staff notation pieces at the piano, and they also get to compose their very own songs! We learn about some famous composers and their music and just have a blast singing and moving and listening.

We have five lesson plans that will soon be available for this class (for either a week-long camp or a five-week course). Each lesson is for a one-hour session. Our plan is to get a new one up and available each week….so stay tuned!

TODAY, the first lesson plan, Night & Day: Music Tells a Story, is available for purchase on my “Lesson Plans for Sale” page, and we will also be giving away ONE free copy to a lucky reader!!

The format of the lesson plan is a downloadable e-book, which is awesome because once you purchase it you can print out as many copies of the pages as you need for your class. It is 82 pages chock full of awesomeness…aside from the actual lesson plan and teacher’s guide, there are plenty of resources, printables, songs, clipart, and visual aids, and it also includes a ten-page student take-home book! We think you’re going to love it 🙂

So a little about this lesson plan – we talk about how music tells a story! We do this all within the fun theme of “Night & Day.” We go over some basic musical elements, learn a little about Edvard Grieg and a couple of his famous pieces, sing and move to his music, improvise at the piano, write our own compositions using the musical elements we learned about, learn some basic keyboard topography and play a simple piano piece!

Here are some sneak peeks into the lesson plan and its contents –

So would you like to win a FREE copy of this lesson plan? Just leave a comment! You may receive ONE extra entry into the giveaway by posting about this giveaway on your blog or facebook page (leave an extra comment to let me know you did it). Giveaway ends on Friday, July 20 at 11:59 pm Central time. I’ll announce the winner next Saturday.

Giveaway Winners! & Lesson Plan Available for Purchase

April 17, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Thanks to ALL who entered our giveaway!! We have randomly selected two winners, who will each receive a free download of our Spectacular Spring! Lesson Plan. The two lucky winners are:

Congratulations, Mitmer & Dani! Mitmer, please send me your email address so I can send you your free lesson plan!

As for the rest of you, I am excited to announce that our Spectacular Spring! Lesson Plan is now available for purchase!

The lesson plan is $8.00 and may be purchased here:

or on the Printables & Downloads page.

Enjoy! I’d love to know if any of you use our lesson plan and how it goes. Stay tuned for more fun lesson plans made available (we are thinking the next one will be our Forte/Piano lesson plan, all about Transportation…..), and possible other giveaways!

Last day to enter giveaway!!

April 16, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Hi Friends! I hope you had an excellent weekend. We are so excited about how many people have entered our giveaway so far! Just a reminder that to enter the giveaway you need to leave an actual comment on the original post for each of your entries. You can have up to five entries.

Our Spectacular Spring! lesson plan will be up and ready to purchase tomorrow! We are working on getting the next one ready as well (so excited!). If you have not entered our giveaway, then enter enter enter! Today is the LAST day. Our two lucky winners will be announced tomorrow morning!

Here is a sneak preview of the contents of the our Spectacular Spring! lesson plan.

Well I am off to teach an Early Explorers music class! Today’s theme is “Down on the Farm” and we are going to learn all about keyboard topography.

Have a great day!

Giveaway!: High & Low Preschool Music Lesson Plan

April 9, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Happy Monday, everyone! I am super excited today to announce a giveaway here on The Teaching Studio!

First of all, I’d like you all to meet my friend Nichole:

Nichole is a wonderful teacher and a dear friend. For the past year she and I have been collaborating on and teaching preschool piano camps and classes together. We’ve spent hours planning, brainstorming, writing curriculums, making up songs, creating all sorts of crafts and visual aids, cutting out lots and lots and lots of paper (our husbands see us get out the scissors and lovingly roll their eyes), and enjoying teaching the joy of music to preschoolers. We have just loved it! Our curriculum has changed and evolved over the past year, and we are getting really excited about how much fun this class is!

The children who attend our class have such a great time. And they are really learning a lot! We love it when their parents tell us that their child has been singing the songs from class all day long! Or when we hear that they have told their parents all about what they have learned.

Well, we really want to share our class with YOU and make it possible for others to share our fun lessons with their own students. We have been working really hard getting our first lesson plan all ready so that others will be able to purchase it as a pdf download.

Because we are so excited about it, this week we are going to give away TWO free copies of our Spectacular Spring!: High & Low lesson plan!

Now, this is not just a little ol’ lesson plan. This includes a basic lesson plan, a teacher’s guide with lots of teaching tips and suggestions to help you prepare to teach your class, and about fifty pages (yes, fifty) of great resources (songs, clipart, printables, teaching aids, templates, craft tutorials, take-home booklets, etc.) to make your class super fun and memorable.

This lesson plan includes everything you’ll need to teach an awesome one-hour class about High & Low in music. Everything is based on the theme of Spectacular Spring! We will share a little more about our fun lesson plan throughout the week. For now, these objectives of our lesson plan will give you an idea of what it’s all about! It will be available for purchase next week.

To enter this giveaway, you can do one or more of the following (please leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know that you did it – thanks!):

Follow or subscribe to The Teaching Studio
“Like” The Teaching Studio on Facebook
Follow or subscribe to the Early Expressions Piano blog
“Like” Early Expressions Preschool Piano on Facebook
Post about this giveaway on your blog or Facebook timeline!

Giveaway ends next Monday, April 16 at 11:59 pm (CDT). We will announce our two winners on Tuesday, April 17. Ready….enter!