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Activity
Quaver

World Percussion — Latin America Project Book

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
What's the most popular music style in Brazil? What about Cuba? Or the Dominican Republic? An immersive project teaches young learners about the salsa, the samba, and the merengue with research assignments and dance performances.
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Worksheet
Smithsonian Institution

American Sabor Crossword

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
How much do you know about Latin American music? A crossword puzzle challenges learners to answer 24 questions about the history, genres, performers, and instruments of Latin American music.
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Activity
Quaver

Large Coffee Can Bongo

For Teachers K - 8th
Want to make some music but you don't have the instruments? Get a start on your percussion section with a creative bongo drum project! Young musicians use a coffee can, packing tape, and colorful paper to create the perfect percussive...
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Activity
Kansas Music Educators Association

Games for the Elementary Music Classroom

For Teachers K - 6th
Perfect for music specialists, classroom teachers, and substitutes, a packet of 18 games includes complete lessons as well as short activities for when you have some extra time at the end of class.
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Lesson Plan
Concordia College Archives

History and Musical Aesthetics

For Teachers K - 12th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Concordia College Archives

Our School Song

For Teachers K - 12th Standards
Show your school spirit! Class members use instruments or sing along and employ what they have learned in the two previous lessons to perform their school's songs.
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Lesson Plan
Concordia College Archives

Introduction and Student Inquiry

For Teachers K - 12th Standards
Introduce young musicians to the history of and different styles of music with an inquiry-based learning activity that asks them to play detectives to determine the similarities and differences among the sheet music found at a series of...
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Unit Plan
General Motors Corporation

Jazz

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Over the history of the world, music has been at the heart of some of the greatest social and political movements. Scholars discover their musical roots as they dive into the sounds and emotions of renowned jazz players. They see how...
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Lesson Plan
Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Elements of Music—How do Composers Plan?

For Teachers 5th - 8th
The introduction to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and the finale of his Symphony No. 4 provide young musicians with an opportunity to investigate the music elements composers employ to develop the themes they want to create. They compare the...
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Unit Plan
Broadway GPS

ALADDIN: Broadway's New Musical Comedy

For Parents 5th - 9th Standards
Aladdin, Disney's Broadway musical comedy, is a magic carpet ride. Prepare your class for a field trip to the show with a study guide that is a treasure trove of activities, cultural connections, and background information.
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Unit Plan
iTheatrics and Broadway

School of Rock the Musical: Education Guide

For Parents 6th - 12th Standards
That old fashioned rock and roll comes alive as theatre arts students prepare to attend a live performance of the musical School of Rock. Packed with both pre- and post-production materials, the guide has it all. Rock on!
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Interactive
Hookshot Creative

Compose Your Own Music

For Students K - 12th
Channel the masters with an interactive music composition activity! Learners use the online tool to create their own masterpieces one measure at a time.
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Activity
Broadway Teaching Group

Acting the Song

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed
Get to know the meaning behind the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the legendary 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Groups of two take the roles of performer and questioner. Performers sing lines of the song while questioners interrogate...
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Interactive
Classics for Kids

Composers Timeline

For Students K - 12th
Take a quick tour through the last 350 years of music composition with an interactive timeline tool. As learners scroll through the years, they see which composers were born and working during the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern...
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Interactive
Classics for Kids

Composers and Their Countries

For Students K - 12th
How many of the world's greatest composers were born in Austria? Or Germany? Or the United States? An interactive map provides young musicians with information about prominent composers in the last few centuries, as well as the periods...
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Unit Plan
National Center for Families Learning

The Summer Fun Summer Learning Music Unit

For Teachers 1st - 8th Standards
Take note. Soul music. Gospel music. Country music. Summer comes alive with the sounds of music as program participants learn about various genres of music, create instruments, and write and perform songs about the facts and traditions...
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Unit Plan
Washington University in St. Louis

Teaching Jazz as American Culture

For Students 6th - 12th
Jazz and the City, Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, Jazz and Gender, Jazz and Literature, Jazz and the Arts, Jazz and Film. Here's a packet of unit plans organized around themes that reflect American culture. Each unit examines how...
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Lesson Plan
Classics for Kids

"Mars" from The Planets

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
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,...
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Lesson Plan
Explore Sound

Sound and Music

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
What causes sound? Groups of sound detectives use a variety of tools including ping pong balls, pasta noodles, raisins, rubber mallets, and a tuning fork to investigate what causes sound. The young Sherlocks conduct a series of...
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

Middle School General Music Unit Plans

For Students 6th - 8th
Here's a collection of unit plans for middle school musicians. Topics include the mbira, opera, rhythm and culture, music in Africa, music in the movies, music theory and notation, blues and jazz, and the ocarina. Definitely worth a look.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Music Lesson Plan for Teaching Children with (Severe) Autism

For Teachers Pre-K - 12th
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.
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Worksheet
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Fun Music Company

Treasure Island Clues: Intervals

For Students 2nd - 12th
You may know about A, B, and C, but now you can include "arrrrr" to the list of music notes to practice! Here is a fun pirate-themed activity in which young musicians determine the intervals of various notes in the treble clef to work...
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Unit Plan
Smithsonian Institution

The Music of the Mardi Gras Indians

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed
The traditions, costumes, and the music of the Mardi Gras Indians, African-Americans and those with African American or Native American Heritage are the focus of a unit that introduces class members to a little-known group that plays a...
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Worksheet
Music Teaching Resources

Identifying Major and Minor Triads 1

For Students 3rd - 6th
Here's a major and minor triads worksheet that asks young musicians to name the root, third, and fifth notes and the chord the notes produce.