The backbone of Latin American music is the beat! Young musicians work on blending Afro-Latin rhythms and beat patterns before incorporating the major pentatonic, minor pentatonic, and blues scales in their own compositions.

Contemplate what music learners listen to and why they listen. Can they find poetry within music lyrics? Specifically hone in on blues lyrics and ruminate upon the social issues prevalent in the themes. Particular song lyrics coincide...

The story behind the Star Spangled Banner sets off this singing and music instructional activity. Emergent singers study facts about Francis Scott Key and his famous song, they then discuss and practice singing the first verse paying...

Anyone who has worked with small children know that color identification and color mixing can be fun! This simple idea has a lot of potential. It suggests to mix food coloring with corn syrup to provide an opportunity for color mixing...

Explore the extraordinary creatures of the ocean! Learners create Florida Blue Crabs (imitation of course) using blue paint and their hand prints. This is a cute supplementary project perfect for an ocean-themed unit or preschool...

Students apply the principles and concepts associated with energy and the transfer of energy in an engineering context through the designing and making of a musical instrument. After the accomplishment of the design, students must...

Mitch Weiss and Martha Hamilton's Rooster's Night Out, a retelling of a classic Cuba folktale, launches a cross-curricular study of Cuban cultural traditions. Class members draw the characters from the book, participate in math and...

Students create auditory musical patterns. In this patterns instructional activity, students create a pattern using their hands, feet, dancing, and snapping their fingers.  Students use a recorder to recreate a pattern.

Students study the sounds of New Orleans jazz, its origins, and its influences. In this jazz music instructional activity, students listen to various jazz songs and discuss the songs. Students use the worksheet 'Jazz: the Universal...

Students research and listen to a variety of American music genres and create a written comparison between three of the styles.

Students explore poetry through jazz, rap, and hip hop music. They discover the common threads that run through the poetry and music. Students design their own lyrics to a jazz, rap, or hip hop selection and share their songs with the...

In need of a quick art project to chase away those winter blues? In just six steps you'll know how to instruct learners on creating winter scenes using crayon resist. 

Students engage in a instructional activity which takes something constructed by the class, that would be normally classified as just sound, then work together to make what can be perceived to be music. Students construct a basic...

Students explore power and the symbols of power in West African music. They discuss the music of West Africa and compare it to African American music of today. In addition, they investigate musical instruments of Africa, identify the...

Students research the Great Depression Era and its effect on the world. They create a multimedia presentation over the Great Depression from many angles.

Fourth graders identify the cardinal directions by listening to a song entitled, "Stand," and by reviewing the lyrics to that song. They notice the cardinal directions that are posted around the classroom. They perform the motions as...

Students study Bearden's style of collage and create their own collage that reflects their neighborhood. They are read "The Block" and poems about neighborhoods and write one about theirs.

Students analyze various kinds of music.  In this music instructional activity, students listen to music clips to determine the kind of music each clip is then they participate in a class discussion about the music and prepare a...

Students discover the political parties of our country by participating in a role playing activity.  In this U.S. Government lesson, students visit several different classrooms that each represent one of the political parties in the...

Students work with a family member in placing all of the music notes on a staff board. They try to match the rhythm on the rhythm board and show their completed song to the teacher.

Students analyze song lyrics and discuss Faust theme in musical history. In this thematic activity, students view a film clip and create a song lyric, poem or short story developed around the Faust theme. Students perform or present...

Students explore the sounds of the estuary. In this wetlands lesson, students discuss how to simulate the sounds of nature. Students write and record a musical score featuring the sounds of the wetlands.

Students estimate measurements in real world problem situations. In this estimation lesson, students read the book Pancakes, Pancakes and estimate how many cups equal a pint, quart, and gallon. Students test their estimations by...

Students explore the element of "line." For this beginning art lesson, students listen to the book Harold and the Purple Crayon, then describe the types of lines Harold drew. Students identify straight lines,  jagged lines, curvy...