Welcoming Students with Music

      Play music as students (participants) enter, exit, or return from lunch or breaks to set the desired learning atmosphere and get them ready to learn.

      Play calming Baroque-era music to set a relaxed and supportive learning atmosphere and welcome students as they enter the classroom.
      Sound Suggestions:
            Relax with the Classics, Volume 1 or Volume 2
            The Four Seasons
            Baroque Music for Learning and Relaxation

      Play energizing Mozart music as students enter the class to prepare them for an active and
focused learning session.
      Sound Suggestions:
            Mozart Effect: Strengthening the Mind (best choice for adults)
            Mozart Effect for Children: Tune Up Your Mind
            Mozart Effect for Children, Volume 2: Relax, Daydream, & Draw
            Mozart Effect for Children, Volume 3: Mozart in Motion

      Play music at a mid-level tempo to stabilize energy levels and create a help students get into
the rhythm of learning.
      Sound Suggestions:
            Dance of the Renaissance
            Emerald Castles
            Ventana al Sol
            Primitive Future

      Play lively music for an exciting welcome back after break, recess or lunch!
      Sound Suggestions:
            Hooked on Classics
            Earth Tribe Rhythms
            Funny 50's
            Oldies for Kool Kiddies

      Use music to activate memory with energizing learning experiences.

      Play an upbeat music selection and read vocabulary words for a new unit in rhythm to the beat.
       Sound Suggestions:
            Hooked on Classics
            Earth Tribe Rhythms

      Play "Musical Challenge Chairs" by adding a twist to the traditional game-when the music stops and students sit, the person left standing must answer a "challenge question" about the lesson or unit you are working on.
       Sound Suggestions:
            Hooked on Classics
            Mozart in Motion (Selection 1)
            Earth Tribe Rhythms
            Deep Breakfast (Selection 1)

      Vary the Musical Challenge Chairs game by having students stand in a circle and pass an object or koosh ball around the circle while the music plays. When the music stops, the person holding the object must answer a challenge question.
       Sound Suggestions:
            Hooked on Classics
            Mozart in Motion (Selection 1)
            Earth Tribe Rhythms
            Deep Breakfast (Selection 1)
            1988 Summer Olympics
            Oldies for Kool Kiddies
            Funny 50's and Silly 60's.

Use music "just for fun" to energize students and enhance attention.

       "Take Off" on a new unit with an attention-grabber! Play selection 5 of Galaxies---the sound of a take-off-and when it has gotten off the ground announce that you are "taking off on a new adventure of exploring" (the unit title).
       Ask students to move from one area of the room to another and back but tell them they can't walk---they must get there some other way (skip, crawl, hop, limp, slide). Play upbeat music while they do this.
       Suggestions: Hooked on Classics, Earth Tribe Rhythms, Funny 50's and Silly 60's, Oldies for Kool Kiddies

       Play an upbeat selection of music and exercise or dance for 30 seconds to energize student energy levels.
       Sound Suggestions: Hooked on Classics, Earth Tribe Rhythms, Funny 50's and Silly 60's, Oldies for Kool Kiddies.

       CELEBRATE! and end the day with a fun song as students leave and give them a high five as they go out the door. Sound Suggestions: Oldies for Kool Kiddies, Funny 50's, Earth Tribe Rhythms, Hooked on Classics, Mozart to Go!, 1988 Summer Olympics

© Sound Directions created by Chris Brewer, 2002. All Rights Reserved.

About Chris Brewer, MA FAMI

     Chris Brewer, MA FAMI is a musician, trainer and author with a masters' degree in Music Therapeutics. Using her knowledge of the powerful effects of music, Chris teaches how to integrate music throughout the curriculum as a an exciting way to learn academic content and how to create a positive, upbeat classroom using music as a classroom management tool. She has taught for over 20 years in various settings including numerous university programs, public offerings and school inservices. Chris has written eight books including Rhythms of Learning and Music and Learning: Seven Ways to Use Music in the Classroom.

     In the health field Chris seeks to find ways to use music to enhance medical environments. She has developed a Pain Management program using vibroacoustic music--music that you feel as well as hear. Chris is also Fellow with the Association of Music and Imagery, using her music skills to assist people in getting to the AHA! of discovery in their lives.

     Chris owns LifeSounds, dedicated to facilitating music use throughout the curriculum. Through LifeSounds she provides teachers and corporate trainers with
- how-to ideas for classroom music use
- dynamic training for music use techniques that make learning more effective and motivating
- research and articles on music use in the classroom
- a catalog of CD's with instructions on how to use them to teach
- information on use rights for corporate trainers
- a catalog of Usable Music with use rights for corporate settings

     Chris' website is located at www.musicandlearning.com and offers a wealth of information and
ideas.

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