Music teachers, if you’re like me – you have to teach recorders at some point in your curriculum.  It takes a lot of time and patience, but it can be a wonderful learning experience for students.  As many of us, I use Music K-8‘s Recorder Karate framework for music learning.  The premise behind the book is that as students master skills, they earn belts for their recorder.  Great, right?  Yeah, until you have to put a belt on that recorder!  For years, I used ribbon carefully cut in 6 inch strips in all nine colors.  The students would tie their belt on the recorder and hope and pray it didn’t fall off!  This year, I had an epiphany!  You know those ever-so-popular Rainbow Looms?  You know them – look at every second grader in your school (those rubber band bracelets and necklaces).  Why not use the bands from the Rainbow Loom for Recorder Karate belts?  Love it!  I purchased each color (still searching for brown – they make it but my craft store didn’t have it in stock) as well as a little case to keep them organized.

As students play and earn a belt, they slide their belt onto the bottom of their recorder.

You may also be interested in Differentiating the Recorder