Hi! I'm Mrs. Hylton! In music class, we sing, move, play instruments, explore musical traditions, and discover how music works. From our first steady beat to reading and creating our own music, every activity helps us grow as musicians.
Pick a door and see what we're learning!
Our district teaches and assesses to the national arts standards. Everything we do in the music room, and every game and tool on this site, is tagged with one of these four.
Exploring musical ideas through creativity.
Students explore, improvise, compose, and experiment with rhythm, melody, and sound. Through guided discovery and purposeful play, they learn to express their own musical ideas.
Building musical skills through active participation.
Students sing, move, play instruments, and develop music-reading skills. Through practice and collaboration, they build confidence, accuracy, expression, and an understanding of musical notation.
Listening, understanding, and appreciating music.
Students develop critical listening skills as they identify musical elements, recognize patterns, interpret expression, and discuss what they hear. They learn to appreciate music from different styles, cultures, and traditions.
Discovering how music relates to the world around us.
Students explore connections between music and history, culture, other subjects, personal experiences, and everyday life. These connections help them recognize music as a meaningful part of their lives and communities.
A new puppet visits the music room each week, and each one helps teach many musical concepts during its visit. Tap a puppet to hear what it's got to say (turn sound on first).
Listen to the pattern, clap it back, then see it written down. Each level is one grade's rhythm, using the takadimi syllables we say in class. Pick your grade.
This is where you stop echoing and start making your own music.
Pick the notes your grade is working on, click squares to place them, press play. Your melody gets written in solfège underneath.
Six areas students experience in my K-5 music room. They overlap on purpose: a folk dance is performing, responding and connecting all at once.
Steady beat, note values, rests, rhythm syllables, time signatures, and rhythm games.
Solfège, pitch, the musical alphabet, staff notation, melodic patterns, and reading real music.
Orff instruments, percussion, recorders, ukuleles, and making music together.
Singing games, folk dances, creative movement, body percussion, and musical play.
Tempo, dynamics, timbre, musical form, active listening, and expressing what we hear.
Composition, improvisation, music history, cultural traditions, and connections to other subjects.
Six ideas that shape every lesson in my music room.
I believe students should experience authentic musical notation from an early age. Through rhythm, melody, vocabulary, and musical symbols, students develop a foundation that prepares them for future music-making.
Students learn through singing, movement, instruments, and play. I connect these experiences to musical concepts through clear explanations, visual examples, and purposeful application.
Musical understanding develops over time. I introduce concepts gradually, revisit them regularly, and build upon previous learning so students develop lasting knowledge rather than isolated experiences.
Predictable routines, clear expectations, and focused instruction create an environment where students can succeed. Movement, creativity, and fun are equally important in keeping students engaged and excited about music.
All students deserve meaningful musical challenges, regardless of ability. Through differentiated instruction, adaptive participation, and accessible musical experiences, I encourage every student to grow as a musician.
My goal extends beyond elementary music class. I want students to recognize musical patterns, understand notation, appreciate different musical traditions, and enter future musical experiences with confidence and curiosity.
It means your child can hear a rhythm and clap it back, sing a tune in their head, and eventually read music the way they read words. We build it the same way reading gets built: lots of sounds first, then symbols, one small step at a time. First grade claps ta and ta-di. Fifth grade reads syncopa off a staff.
Because students learn by doing first. Every game on this site builds a skill we then name and write down. I want students to leave music class wanting more, and I want them to be able to read what they sing.
Clap a short pattern and have your kid echo it, then switch. Sing a song and stop before the last word so they finish it. For older kids, have them hum a melody they made in Song Maker and see if you can sing it back.
What each grade is working on this quarter, and when their program is. Swipe to find yours.