Manipulatives In Middle School Music
By Lauren Murphy, General Music VP 6-12
So many of our general music students are tactile learners. Here are a few
inexpensive hacks to help meet the needs of these learners that are often
neglected in the music classroom. If you have a home room you might even be
able to enlist their help with creating some of these materials for use in your
classroom:
Page Protector Sleeves: Page protector sleeves are dry
erase friendly and a frugal way to make a classroom set of
white boards. I have one set with large staves printed on the
pages with in. I have bingo boards printed for note
identification exercises.
Piano Boards: My teaching partner got me hooked on
these. We purchased small wooden slats and black felt and
created octave manipulative keyboards. During my
keyboard unit we started each day in a circle on the floor.
Students analyzed the piece they were learning that day to
determine hand placement. They would place glass fish tank
beads on the key for their thumb and pinky. It makes it very
easy to see that the entire class is starting with the correct
hand position.