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
Kindergarten Music Lesson
Singing, clapping, moving up and down with the melody, it all sounds like a great music lesson. Kinder-musicians sing three different songs to practice memory, speaking, and movement skills. They'll move to the melody, build memory with...
Classics for Kids
Introduction to Music: Symphony
Expose young elementary students to the works of one of the greatest musical composers, Ludwig van Beethoven. Using three progressive lesson plans to complete the unit, class members are able to distinguish low and high sounds, count the...
Curated OER
Kindergarten Music Time
Little ones are led through a series of rhythmic songs and chants while they march, clap, and use their tummies as percussive instruments. They work on singing in pitch, chunking, and keeping a steady beat.
Curated OER
Catch the Beat
Use this rhythm and pattern activity during transition times or on it own. Start by introducing a rhythm with 2, 3, or 4 beats; use your feet, hands, or entire body to demonstrate. Once learners have figured out the pattern, they join...
Curated OER
Math, Fractions, and Music
Young scholars discover the relationship between musical rhythms and fractions. They add musical notes together to produce fractions and create addition and subtraction problems with musical notes. Students complete worksheets and create...
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Arabic Folk and Popular Music: Egypt, Lebanon, and Spain
How many of us have actually listened to Arabic folk or pop music? Learn about the many facets of folk music common to Lebanon, Spain, and Egypt with this well-organized presentation. Islamic cultural influences are traced throughout...
Education Closet
Equal Rhythms
Engage young mathematicians in learning about fractions with this cross-curricular math and music lesson. After listening to and repeating different beat patterns, children realize that musical notes are just another way of representing...
Curated OER
Music Patterns
Little ones can listen and follow along with the images to practice making rhythmic patterns. They clap and play to a variety of simple beats. This is a great way to build coordination, listening skills, pattern recognition, and music...
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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
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
Exploring Pulse & Rhythm
When we play music, we count beats both high and low. This introductory music activity explores tempo and rhythm. Learners will follow along as they clap to the beat, they clap high in the air and low. A very good introductory lesson.
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Singing a round
Kids use their hands, bodies, and voices to explore the musical concept of a round. They say vegetable words while stomping and clapping out a rhythm in unison and then in a round. They then sing a round while maintaining a steady beat....
Classics for Kids
Hurry Up – Slow Down
Is your music appreciation class feeling a bit adagio this afternoon? Pick up the pace and get them feeling andante with a straightforward music theory activity. After defining several terms for musical dynamics and musical tempos,...
Curated OER
Reading Basic Music Notes
First graders develop skills in reading music notes. In this reading music lesson, 1st graders clap and chant rhythm patterns and learn music vocabulary. Students also match patterns by listening to the teacher perform the pattern.
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Musical Sounds
Students investigate music appreciation by completing worksheets. In this musical arts lesson, students complete worksheets in which they identify different musical instruments, the sounds they make and the family of instruments they...
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Music and Emotion
Young scholars 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...
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Musical Rhythm and Pulse
In this music worksheet, students examine the use of rhythm and pulse in musical pieces. They practice clapping beats that include rests in the given rhythm boxes. They compose their own beat in a rhythm box.
Curated OER
Music and Math
Young students are exposed to four types of musical notes - whole, quarter, half, and eighth. They practice clapping along with the notes on each slide. A little bit of math is mixed in with the music, in that each slide shows a pie that...
Curated OER
To The Beat
This activity is two-fold in that it addresses having youngsters get a feel for different rhythms in music and in practicing their underhand tossing skills. Gather all kinds of equipment to throw, such as: yarn balls, spider balls, and...
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Responding Syllables: Reading and Music
Shell Silverstein’s “Sick” provides an opportunity for kids to demonstrate their understanding of syllables and phonemes. The class creates a list of descriptive words used in the poem that have more than one syllable, and brainstorm how...
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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...
Curated OER
Playing Music
In this music vocabulary worksheet, students use a word bank of 6 words (sing, clap, play, tap, listen, dance) to fill in 6 sentences.
Curated OER
Exploring Pulse & Rhythm
Your class can actually sing and clap along with this slideshow! Discuss the concept of rhythm or pulse, as it is called here. Learners will then clap out the rhythm to the songs, Fre-re Jacques and Row, Row, Your Boat.