What are the musical elements that characterize a school's fight song or its alma mater? Class members listen to examples of fight songs and alma maters from various schools, play a listening game, and then create a list of the...

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...

Little ones can listen and follow along with the images to practice making rhythmic patterns. They clap and play to a variety of simple beats. This is a great way to build coordination, listening skills, pattern recognition, and music...

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...

Middle schoolers learn about the artist Canaletto, play a vocabulary game, and create a landscape using collage technique. Background information on the artist is provided along with instructions for the game and vocabulary words to...

Engage young mathematicians in learning about fractions with this cross-curricular math and music instructional activity. After listening to and repeating different beat patterns, children realize that musical notes are just another way...

Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....

Chopin was a lovely composer who played the piano masterfully. Third graders are introduced to Chopin, his piano sounds, triple meter, music patterns, movement, and the waltz. They listen to his music while hearing the story Butterflies...

Two lessons focus on making a beat. Using popular African American music of its time, scholars listen and analyze the rhythm then recreate it with hands drums, and cups. 

Students listen to Japanese folk songs to get inspired to create a writing piece about Japan.  In this writing lesson, students use primary and secondary sources to add information about Japan. 

Fourth graders explore ballet. In this dance and music humanities lesson, 4th graders practice ballet positions and play a card game using French ballet vocabulary. Students count beats in rhythm patterns and listen to classical music...

Here's a packet of music activities designed specifically for children with autism. Kids learn greeting, echo, and repertory songs, as well as rhythmic patterns to play rhythm instruments.

Any age of elementary student can demonstrate their understanding of the connections of elements of art and music by creating their own slit song. You will investigate and study the Melanesian Slit Song with Kindergartners through Junior...

Your class can build strong, well-represented opinions about the music they hear. They listen to, and share thoughts about, a piece of classical music. Then they write a piece of music or a poem, and analyze their peers' work and their...

Music is a universal pleasure, but writing about it can be a little trickier. An informative handout discusses common types of music writing assignments that one might encounter in a college-level course. Individuals read about musical...

The perception of rhythms by reading and the ability to auditorily discriminate these rhythm patterns by listening to them performed by the teacher is practiced here. your learners will work to create an eight-beat long rhythm pattern.

Smart Solutions is the theme of a unit created to meet the needs of English language earners. Through a series of lessons, scholars follow a routine—move, speak, and listen— to cover topics including stores, shops, celebrations, pets,...

Students analyze how repeated body movements and shapes can represent and extend patterns. In this pattern analysis lesson, students discuss patterns in dance, math, and everyday living. Students demonstrate a dance using a sequence of...

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...

Students compose music using Islamic patterns. In this cultural arts activity, students examine Islamic art and analyze the patterns. Students incorporate various Islamic patterns into a musical composition.

In this patterns learning exercise, learners look over ten strips of musical patterns and then decide which pattern at the bottom of the learning exercise would the next pattern to follow each of the ten strips. Students cut out each of...

Use a familiar song and adorable baby animal pictures to teach youngsters about genetic variation. Begin by listening to "Twelve Variations on 'Ah vous dirai-je Maman,'" which you will need to find online (there are several versions...

Eliminate all doubt when it comes to sentence structure with nine thorough lesson plans. Whether you want your young writers to vary their sentence structure or shore up their knowledge of conjunctions and semicolons, these lessons are a...

Music aficionados hone their skills by listening to music and then answering several questions intended to guide their experience. They analyze sound rhythm, pattern, and volume.