Curated OER
Butterflies Fly!
Chopin was a lovely composer who played the piano masterfully. Third graders are introduced to Chopin, his piano sounds, triple meter, music patterns, movement, and the waltz. They listen to his music while hearing the story Butterflies...
Smithsonian Institution
Braiding Rhythms: The Role of Bell Patterns in West African and Afro-Caribbean Music
Africans transported to the Caribbean as part of the transatlantic slave trade brought with them a rich tradition of music and dance. Four lessons teach young musicians the rumba clave rhythm, cascara rhythm, and the 6/8 bell patterns...
Curated OER
Developing Writing Skills Through Japanese Folk Music
Students listen to Japanese folk songs to get inspired to create a writing piece about Japan. In this writing lesson, students use primary and secondary sources to add information about Japan.
Smithsonian Institution
African American Music: Let’s Sing and Play Clapping Games
Two lessons focus on making a beat. Using popular African American music of its time, scholars listen and analyze the rhythm then recreate it with hands drums, and cups.
Curated OER
Music Lesson Plan for Teaching Children with (Severe) Autism
Here's a packet of music activities designed specifically for children with autism. Kids learn greeting, echo, and repertory songs, as well as rhythmic patterns to play rhythm instruments.
Curated OER
Music in Words
Your class can build strong, well-represented opinions about the music they hear. They listen to, and share thoughts about, a piece of classical music. Then they write a piece of music or a poem, and analyze their peers' work and their...
Curated OER
SIGHT READING RHYTHM PATTERNS
The perception of rhythms by reading and the ability to auditorily discriminate these rhythm patterns by listening to them performed by the teacher is practiced here. your students will work to create an eight-beat long rhythm pattern.
Curated OER
Music and Emotion
Students identify the various emotions created by different types of music. They Identify role of music in creating various emotions for film and television . They observe and practice various ways of playing percussion instruments. They...
Smithsonian Institution
Jamaican Song, Dance, and Play: Experiences with Jamaican Musical Traditions
Young musicians experience song, dance, and play of the Jamaican culture. Scholars listen for and recreate beats, they play tunes, make up original dances, and play a game that challenges pupils to pass stones to a specific beat.
Curated OER
Jewish Folk Song: Ya Ba Bom
Singing is a wonderful way to express an idea of any kind. This lesson is written expressly for use in directing a high school chorus. They work on using four-part harmony, expression, and melodic intervals while singing a Jewish folk...
Curated OER
Create a Music Carnival
This outstanding lesson will encourage your students to combine their knowledge of rhythm, pitch, tone and color with their imaginations to create original compositions about animals. They create a music carnival to "Peter and the Wolf"...
Curated OER
Ballet and Classical Music
Fourth graders explore ballet. In this dance and music humanities instructional activity, 4th graders practice ballet positions and play a card game using French ballet vocabulary. Students count beats in rhythm patterns and listen to...
Concordia College Archives
History and Musical Aesthetics
What are the musical elements that characterize a school's fight song or its alma mater? Class members listen to examples of fight songs and alma maters from various schools, play a listening game, and then create a list of the...
Classics for Kids
"Mars" from The Planets
Gustav Holst's The Planets provide young musicians an opportunity to examine how composers can create a suite: a collection of smaller pieces grouped to explore a single topic. After listening to "Jupiter," they examine "Mars" in detail,...
Curated OER
Global Music Patterns- Islamic Art
Students compose music using Islamic patterns. In this cultural arts lesson, students examine Islamic art and analyze the patterns. Students incorporate various Islamic patterns into a musical composition.
Curated OER
Patterns in Dance and Math
Students analyze how repeated body movements and shapes can represent and extend patterns. For this pattern analysis lesson, students discuss patterns in dance, math, and everyday living. Students demonstrate a dance using a sequence of...
Education Closet
Equal Rhythms
Engage young mathematicians in learning about fractions with this cross-curricular math and music lesson plan. After listening to and repeating different beat patterns, children realize that musical notes are just another way of...
Curated OER
Transferring Rhythmic Patterns From Music to Movement
Students identify and demonstrate movement elements in relation to musical notation. They clap to rhythms, beat on drums, match musical notes to speech patterns and use the rhythms of the their names to create a dance.
Curated OER
Grade 2: Music/Valentine's Day
Play and sing a Valentine's song with your second graders. They'll follow along allow as you demonstrate how to sing and keep a steady beat on non-pitched percussive instruments. While the music instructional activity has a Valentine...
Curated OER
Line and Pattern
Young scholars create a silhouette of a simple figure and repeat it to create a pattern drawing with rhythm.
Smithsonian Institution
The Birth of an Icon: Learning and Performing the Origins of the Drum Set and Early Jazz Drumming in New Orleans, Louisiana
Bass drum, snare drum, tom-toms, cymbals. Perched behind their drum sets, wielding their drum sticks and wire brushes, drummers lay the grove and are the heartbeat of a band's performance. A dynamic instructional activity introduces...
Guam Community College
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Spruce up a class reading of the children's book Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback with this fun series of activities. Starting with a list of reading comprehension questions and key vocabulary to address during a teacher read...
Curated OER
Looking at different cultures and how music from differing cultures changes movements, meaning and mood
Each of the three dance lessons included here will get your class moving. The first lesson allows learners to explore how music and movement differ in meaning depending on cultural context. Lesson two gives them an opportunity to create...
Curated OER
My (musical) Valentine
Get out those bells, sand blocks, and sticks! Your kindergarteners use their singing voices to ask and answer friendly questions while keeping rhythm. They take turns in a group and in pairs singing questions and answers while keeping...