Activity
Black History Month Report

Black History Month Report

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
As part of Black History Month, class members investigate in depth the life and work of an African American musician.
Worksheet
Music Fun

Practice Boards

For Students K - 8th
FACE it. Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit! (And so do girls.) Provide young musicians with music worksheets that enable them to practice musical notation. The six boards included in the packet are templates that focus on notes, rests,...
Handout
1
1
Music Fun

Musical Instruments

For Students 2nd - 12th
Membranophones? Aerophones? How about strings? Percussion? You need not be a music instructor to benefit from a packet of 24 worksheets that introduce aspiring musicians to the various instrument families.
Worksheet
Music Fun

Instruments to Trace Color and Label

For Students K - 8th
Handbells and castanets. Triangles and timpani. Trumpets and trombones. As part of their study of instruments, young musicians label, trace and color the parts of seven instruments. Also included in the resource packet are tracing...
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

The Birth of an Icon: Learning and Performing the Origins of the Drum Set and Early Jazz Drumming in New Orleans, Louisiana

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Bass drum, snare drum, tom-toms, cymbals. Perched behind their drum sets, wielding their drum sticks and wire brushes, drummers lay the grove and are the heartbeat of a band's performance. A dynamic lesson introduces young musicians to...
Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

The Common Civil War Soldier

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Imagine you are a soldier in the Civil War. What are you wearing? What do you need to carry with you? Examine the life of a person during the Civil War, from drummer boys to powder monkeys to musket-toting soldiers. Elementary...
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...
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...
Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Musical Harlem: How Is Jazz Music Reflective of the Harlem Renaissance?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Bring jazz music and the Harlem Renaissance to light with a lesson that challenges scholars to research and create. Pupils delve deep into information materials to identify jazz terminology, compare types of jazz and jazz musicians,...
Activity
Amani Project

Write a CoronaKindness Song

For Students 3rd - 8th
And the beat goes on! Finding a way to connect during the isolation imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic can be challenging. This activity from the Amani Project offers a way to stay close during a time of physical distancing....
Activity
Amani Project

The 5 Elements of Music

For Students 3rd - 8th
A series of activities teach young musicians that they don't need a room full of instruments to make music. The second activity in the Amani Project has participants use their hands, feet, and voices to demonstrate the five elements of...
Activity
Amani Project

Make an Instrument

For Students 3rd - 8th
Create a little harmony with Amani Project! Young musicians create their instruments using found or recycled objects. As an introduction, class members first experiment with sounds they can make with their bodies (clapping, stomping...
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.
Worksheet
Music Teaching Resources

Intervals Worksheet 3

For Students 3rd - 6th
Young musicians are asked to name the eight different intervals pictured on a learning exercise that also asks them to identify the low and high notes, the half steps, and the distance between the notes.
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.
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...
Lesson Plan
Historic New Orleans Collection

Exploring Primary Sources: Music in New Orleans

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
Looking for a new and exciting way to teach young historians the art of primary source analysis? Jazz up your lesson plan with a resource that asks class members to analyze photos, travel documents, and letters written by some of New...
Instructional Video3:48
PBS

Math with Jake: Frequencies and Pitch

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Be an octave above the rest. A musician explains how to write music in different time signatures. An interesting resource continues to demonstrate ratios using the pitch of musical notes and hertz. Pupils use a pitch table and determine...
Activity5:34
PBS

Math with Jake: Ratios and Fractions

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
And the beat goes on. The installment of the Math at the Core: Ratios series introduces time signatures in music. A musician shows the relationship between different types of musical beats. Working in pairs, classmates create beat...
Lesson Plan
North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies

Using Drama to Address Social Justice Issues in School and the Community

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Artists, musicians, and dramatists have long been the leaders in the quest for social justice. To gain an understanding of the power of the arts to address social issues, class members listen to a reading of Drew Daywalt's The Day the...
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Braiding Rhythms: The Role of Bell Patterns in West African and Afro-Caribbean Music

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Africans transported to the Caribbean as part of the transatlantic slave trade brought with them a rich tradition of music and dance. Four lessons teach young musicians the rumba clave rhythm, cascara rhythm, and the 6/8 bell patterns...
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Jamaican Song, Dance, and Play: Experiences with Jamaican Musical Traditions

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young musicians experience song, dance, and play of the Jamaican culture. Scholars listen for and recreate beats, they play tunes, make up original dances, and play a game that challenges pupils to pass stones to a specific beat.
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Jazz In Oklahoma

For Teachers 9th - 12th
When considering the possible hot spots of jazz in the United States, Oklahoma isn't the state that first comes to mind. However, it is the birthplace of several jazz musicians that influenced the evolution of the genre and Oklahoma City...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Diggin' Deeper - Poetry Made Relevant: Poetry And Poetic Devices

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
What do Beethoven, Bob Dylan, and Pharrell all have in common? Works by these three musicians are used to launch a study of poetry. Class members listen to passages from the music and craft a quick write about how the music makes them...

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