Curated OER
The Ultimate Instrument!
Third graders identify the four instrument families of the symphony orchestra. They listen to the instruments and compare the similarities and differences of each of the four families. They design and create an instrument that belongs to...
Curated OER
Nepalese Drum on a Stick
Students create a two sided percussion instrument designed to look like a damaru drum from Nepal. They locate Nepal on a map and conduct research on Nepal and the damaru. Students then create a damaru drum using a small plastic container...
Curated OER
Chinese Instruments
Students explore Chinese instruments. For this Chinese instrument music lesson, students listen to a performance by Liu Fang and describe the sounds they hear. Students classify western and Chinese instruments according to their...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Instruments from Various Cultures
After a review of orchestral instruments and instrument families, learners make their own. They listen to the song "Simple Gifts" and identify the instruments heard in the piece. Then they draw an instrument of their own invention,...
Curated OER
Note Names and Note Values - An Interactive Smart Board Lesson
Using the Note Names and Values SMART notebook file, review the whole, half, quarter and eighth note with students. Students sing "Apple Tree Song." They add body percussion, and then instruments. Students use the SMART apple tree, they...
Curated OER
Kodaly Beat Lesson
Introduce rhythmic beat and melodic beat with a upbeat activity that asks young musicians to clap the beat to their favorite nursery rhyme. To introduce the rest beat, class members use small drums or other percussion instruments to play...
Curated OER
Catch the Gullah Beat: Rhythm and Percussion
Students explore the Gullah culture. In this social studies lesson, students construct and play instruments similar to those of the Gullah people.
Curated OER
Rock Music
Students create percussion instruments using limestone and other rocks. They use instruments to perform a song.
Curated OER
Percussion Fast and Cheap
Students explore percussion. In this percussion lesson, students examine body percussion, drumstick percussion, beaters percussion, drum percussion, stick percussion, washboard percussion, and shaker percussion by using everyday objects...
Curated OER
A Stomping Good Time: Using Found Instruments and Invented Rhythms to Make Beautiful Music
Students work in small groups to use everyday objects to create performances inspired by the work of STOMP. They create a system of notation to document the music and movement of a 2-minute performance.
Curated OER
9 Easy to Make Musical Instruments for Kids
Students create various musical instruments out of everyday and recycled items.
Curated OER
Chinese Percussion Music
Students investigate Chinese percussion instruments and ensemble performances. They play compositions with Chinese percussion instruments such as small gongs, large gongs and drums.
Curated OER
Sound/Pitch
Students explore how pitch changes when using instruments that are plucked, blown, and hit. In this sound and pitch lesson, students blow across the top of bottles that are filled with water to create sound. Students use recorders...
Curated OER
The Percussion Family
Second graders complete a unit to learn about the percussion family and African and Latin drumming. In this percussion lesson, 2nd graders complete 9 lessons to learn about the percussion family. Students learn to use shakers and sticks,...
Curated OER
World Percussion Instruments
Fourth graders study percussion instruments from various world cultures. In this percussion instruments lesson, 4th graders listen to percussive sound sources, learn playing techniques, and create compositions for instruments they...
Curated OER
Elementary Lesson Plan - Instruments
Fourth graders identify two different types of mallets, discuss how percussion instruments are played, recognize that there are many types of mallets that produce different sounds on percussion instruments, and work in small groups to...
Curated OER
Music - Lesson 3 - Orchestra
Second graders study the four families of orchestral instruments and patriotic songs in this unit of lessons.
Curated OER
Your Song
Young scholars create instruments to demonstrate their understanding of how the science of vibrations is used to create sounds.
Curated OER
Our Class Band
Young scholars play percussion instruments that have been divided into four groups and perform to 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm'. In this percussion performance lesson, students identify percussion instruments divided into four categories....
Berklee College of Music
Create Your Own Afro-Latin Groove
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.
San Francisco Symphony
Instrument and Visual Appreciation of Art
There are a lot of great ideas to be found here. To better understand the connection between art and history, learners research several music and art pieces, then relate them to major social events. They study the lives and works...
Curated OER
Teaching Dynamics
Second graders discuss the sounds of rainstorms. In this rainstorm lesson, 2nd graders listen to the story Down Comes the Rain and they discuss the change in sounds they hear in a thunder storm. They use percussion instruments to create...
Curated OER
Lesson Plans for 2nd grade Japan Unit
Second graders explore the music and dance of Japan in this five lessons unit. Aspects of Janpanese and American culture are compared. The food, holidays, clothing, and the school day of the two countries are discussed.
Curated OER
Dancing the Colors of Birds
Students explore colors through storytelling and dance. For this visual arts lesson, students view the painting "Bird and Cornstalk Rug" and identify three colors. Students express how the colors make them feel through the rhythm of...