Turn your classroom into a music studio as groups work together to determine why music sounds different when performed live versus a recording. After listening to some different music, each group picks a poem, creates a recording, and...

Jazz, Blue Grass, Hip Hop, Swing. Gospel, R&B, Ragtime, Disco. So many music genres born in the USA. After reading an article about the fate of New Orlean's Jazz after Hurricane Katrina, class members investigate the life cycles of...

Ancient people used musical pipes as early as the third millennium BCE. Young scientists explore the workings of musical pipes to better understand the relationship with frequency, length of pipe, and sound waves. They determine the...

Students demonstrate knowledge of musical instruments and the families of the orchestra. They acknowledge different voice types found in opera. Students interpret emotional expressions through listening. They compose sounds to express...

This lesson is intended for a music class but would be a great way to teach compare and contrast to any class. Kindergarteners dance the Hokey Pokey to four different styles of music and examine two paintings of Humpty Dumpty, then...

Budding musicians engage in an exciting lesson which has them make musical instruments out of ordinary household items. By using paper plates, plastic cups, rubber bands, storage containers, and wooden spoons they make a variety of...

Fifth graders experience performing arts by participating in a music performance. In this music history lesson, 5th graders practice playing notes on an instrument in class and discuss the challenges associated with making music....

How do a person's musical preferences influence the way they compose music of their own? Learners analyze the sound and lyrics of Alicia Keys in relation to musicians that came before. Jazz, blues, and soul music from the past are shown...

Students discover the United Nations through the use of musical examples and performance. This two day lesson requires two forty-five minute sections and delivers information about different cultures around the world. Emphasis is on...

Upper graders view the animated short, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and analyze how the music score was chosen to express the scene. They create an animation as they listen to a classical recording to experience the connection between...

Students explore painting their feelings as they enjoy this musical art activity. In this early childhood visual art lesson, students use paint to respond to music.

Pupils detect the waveform of musical notes to determine the code for the "safe" in this forensics simulation activity. They use a microphone and tuning forks along with Vernier EasyData on their graphing calculator to analyze five...

Students practice identifying different genres of music by creating posters.  In this music appreciation lesson, students research Duke Ellington and complete worksheets based on his style of music, Jazz.  Students collaborate...

Students identify the components of sound. They describe the relationship between pitch and frequency and explain the terms sympathetic vibrations and resonance. They perform simple experiments about the world of sound and explain the...

Learners explore different types of music. In this music diversity lesson, students are divided into groups to listen to an assigned type of music. Learners list characterisitcs of each type of music then assign a jelly bean...

Students examine protest music and songs from the Civil Rights movement. In this music of the Civil Rights era lesson, students listen to selected music before working in groups to determine who the music was directed at, what social...

Students explore popular music of West Africa. In this musicians lesson, students complete listening tasks that challenge them to analyze the music of Oumou Sangare, Angelique Kidjo, and Baaba Maal.

Students write and listen to rap songs. They discover how common themes in rap are indicative of the problems, as well as the empowerments, that can be seen in our urban cultures today. They discover how rap is actually an evolution of...

Students explore the music alphabet. They step up from any letter of the musical alphabet. Students practice stepping up or skipping from various letters within the musical alphabet.

Fifth graders demonstrate how to find their pulse and count the beats after a certain amount of time. In cooperative pairs, 5th graders use a stopwatch to keep track of their partner's heart rate in seconds. Pairs make a graph from their...

Engage little learners in this moderately developed three-lesson unit on the composer Camille Saint-Saens and his piece "The Carnival of Animals." Each lesson includes a listening, discussion, and an art project to engage your class in...

The famous Japanese tune, "Cherry Blooms" was composed using a pentatonic scale. Budding musicians explore the nature and theory behind the pentatonic scale as well as the East Asian music it is commonly used in. Multiple extensions are...

Students examine how American Jews affect music and entertainment. They identify problems between immigrants and their children. They relate the Jewish American issue to those of African Americans.

Students in kindergarten are introduced to various forms of music. As a class, they listen to the differences between singing and speaking. They practice matching pitches and using a good singing posture. They sing a song to end the...