On Tuesday (9/2) in Mr. Weil’s 5th grade classroom, our main goal was to hit the next page in the book (page 7) and learn what breath marks are. Take a look at my lesson before proceeding on to get a better grasp of how a normal day begins for the 5th graders.

Weil 5th grade 9-2

Around 5-8 minutes into class, after all of the students have finally assembled their instruments and are silent, we begin. On a normal basis, we take a huge amount of time reviewing what we have already learned (such as new notes/fingerings and rhythms) and usually spend anywhere between 5-10 minutes learning a new topic. For specifically teaching this lesson on how to breathe during a breath mark, I actually had a lot of fun demonstrating to the class and seeing their reaction! I demonstrated a boring, long sigh of a breath, and then demonstrated what I like to call a “sneaky” breath, as if someone is sneaking around the corner to scare you! When someone scares you, it’s a shockingly quick breathe instead of a long, boring sigh right?! After my demonstration, I loved seeing all three classes reaction and instant connection to our “new topic” of the day. This day in particular was shockingly very fun to teach! Hopefully I can come up with other fun ways to get the kiddos more excited about playing their instruments!