Curated OER
Reading: A Talk on the Effects of Music on Our Brains
In this reading an interview transcript worksheet, students read the transcript from an interview with Daniel Levitin who was a psychologist interested in the effects of music on the human brain. Students then answer 10 true and false...
Classics for Kids
"Mars" from The Planets
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,...
Orlando Shakes
Les Misérables: Study Guide
A writer has the responsibility to defend the less fortunate members of society. At least that was the view of Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables. The novel is the subject of a study guide from Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Learners...
Teaching Adapted PE
Locomotor and Object Control Stations
Develop children's basic locomotor and object control skills with an invigorating Adaptive PE lesson. A series of four, timed stations engaged the class in playing a game of Twister, walking on a balance beam, throwing bean bags, and...
Education Closet
West Side Shifts
Combine math, language arts, music, and dance with an activity focused on "America" from West Side Story. After listening to the song, learners compare the film to Romeo and Juliet, analyze the song's meter, design choreography, plan...
Curated OER
Rap Music and Hip-Hop
Students explore rap and hip hop music. In this music and culture instructional activity, students experience the music of Will Smith in order to work on language and communication skills such as rhyming words, writing, and public speaking.
Curated OER
Musical Whole Numbers
Fourth graders participate in a musical chair activity in which they practice identifying whole numbers. For this number sense lesson, 4th graders listen to a song and must get in the order of the number they hold on an index card when...
Curated OER
Prairie Scales and Prairie Smoothies
Sixth graders explore the animals that live on the prairie and identify differences between amphibians and reptiles and the adaptations each have made to live on the prairie.
Curated OER
The blues highway: An integration of music with geography
Learners analyze the movement of the blues from rural Mississippi to urban Chicago and how place and the environment affected the development of the blues. They define the blues, where it originated and how and why it moved to Chicago....
Smithsonian Institution
Songs, Sounds and Stories from the Georgia Sea Islands
American music is the result of the influence of many cultures, including the traditions brought by the African slaves. Young scholars study the polyrhythms, the call-and-response format, and the vocal improvisations of the Gullah...
PJ Library
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Teach children that just because something is old, doesn't mean you have to throw it away with a reading of Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback. Engaging children with an arts and crafts activity in which they patch the holes in...
Novelinks
Sense and Sensibility: Final Assessment: Movie Maker
Assess your class's understanding of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility with a fun and creative final project. Using what they have learned about the novel's characters, they create presentations featuring music and images that best...
Concordia College Archives
Introduction and Student Inquiry
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...
National Park Service
Lesson 3: Resistance
During the time of slavery, resistance was a way of life for the men and women held in bondage. Using music as evidence of their fight against oppression, learners explore how enslaved people fought back. Writing prompts round out the...
National Park Service
Lesson 2: Hope
There's hope in music. Pupils discover what gave enslaved people hope by examining lyrics and music during their time of bondage. A series of prompts helps individuals investigate songs of enslaved people. The cumulative assignment...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
ABA Form in Music
Patterns happen everywhere, in music, math, and language! Fourth graders listen to the "William Tell Overture" visualizing the patterns that they hear. They then discuss and write an ABA poem that matches the ABA form found in the music...
Curated OER
Skip Counting to Music
Your youngest mathematicians skip count by 2's, 5's, and 10's as they sing along to a Hap Palmer song that helps them remember the patterns. Students practice in whole group and then individually with the worksheet provided, using the...
JSplash Apps
Music Tutor (Sight Reading Improver)
Elegant in its simplicity, this app accomplishes precisely what it sets out to do: improving the user's sight reading of musical notes. Taking the concept of flashcards to the next level, the designers also add in the element of sound so...
Curated OER
A Pentatonic Scale Activity
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...
Bierbaum Elementary School
Practicing Patience
As teachers, we have a lot of patience. Our scholars, on the other hand, may need some support. Give your pupils the emotional intelligence instruction they desire with a lesson designed to teach patience through grand conversation,...
Lauren Kitchin
Singing in the Classroom
Those new to the Kodály Method of music instruction, as well as experienced educations, will find everything they need in a resource designed to launch a five-week vocal music program. Packed with warm ups, games, activities, and...
Curated OER
Conversation Lesson – Music
Students discuss the type of music they listen to and discuss a set of music related words put on the board by the teacher. In this music lesson, students work in pairs to discuss words and complete an activity asking questions of...
Curated OER
Moving and Grooving with Tempo: Diversity of Learners Adaptation
Students with logical/mathematical intelligence keep count of the tempo of each song and of the number of different movements that they can create to go with the folk songs heard.
Curated OER
Music Around the World: United Nations Week
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...