I taught a music workshop this weekend. I ask people to stand up or sit down according to different ways they learned. When I made statements such as “I hate reading instruction manuals”, “I love lists”, and “I am good at puzzles”, different people stood up or sat down almost like popping popcorn.
People were grinning as they recognized how different they were in their learning styles from their neighbor. Then came the question: if we are so different from each other in how we learn best, what about the children we teach?
The answer is yes, each child is different in how they learn things best.
So how do I teach Primary each week and reach all different kinds of learners?
By teaching using different categories of activities. What does that mean?
- Do you have some activities that are movement based for the song?
- Do you have some activities that are visually based for the same song?
- Do you have some activities that require the children to put things in order?
- Do you have some activities where the older children can interact with each other?
In an attempt to help you find and use different categories of activities, we added categories to this blog! You can either go to the top of this page in the header OR you can look on the left hand side bar that says “Categories.”
The main categories right now are:
- Visual
- Movement
- Interaction
- Younger Children
- Older Children
- Nursery
- Teaching Principles
- News (often this is a monthly plan of what I might teach that month, or other types of news)
Hopefully this will make it easier to change up your activities so that you reach every learner in your Primary.
Natalie
Love it.
Jenny Bayles
This will be FABULOUSLY helpful! Way to go!
Kathy Gifford
Awesome! This will be so helpful. Thank you for sharing and teaching
Laura Bickmore
Sharla! I am LOVING your ideas, tips, techniques, and the knowledge you are sharing. I bought you book and am working on planning out the next month. I know you have a blank planning form in Appendix B, on pg 218, but I was wondering if there was a blank monthly song chart we could download? For now I am just going to photocopy it, or try to make a similar format in google sheets – but if you have one available I would love to know! 🙂
<3
Melinda
I am learning so much from you. Thanks.
Cathy Olsen
Would you use a different method each week or try to use a couple each week for the same song?
Sharla Dance
I teach two or three songs a week, but I teach those same songs over the next three weeks also. I use an activity the first week for a song, a different one for the next song that contrasts with the first, etc. The next week, I use different activities that contrast with what I used last week. It makes for a lot of variety for the children and a lot of enthusiasm for singing time. It’s always different (they don’t often realize they are learning the same song).