Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dance Showing Science Contexts of Movement: States of Matter

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders dance in different ways to show movement of states of matter. In this matter lesson plan, 5th graders make connected shapes with a partner, make flowing movements, travel rapidly, and more. 
Lesson Plan
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Rhythm and Art: Gesture Drawing

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students make connection between music and art. In this integrated arts lesson, students complete gesture drawing activities as they listen to Cuban, flamenco, classical, jazz, and contemporary music. 
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Let's Play Musical Shapes

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
Students practice recognizing shapes while using gross-motor skills. In this early childhood math movement lesson plan, students explore shapes as music plays and they walk the perimeter of large cut-out paper shapes by playing musical...
Lesson Plan
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Round and Dance Music

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders recognize a round in singing groups and apply to choreography movements.  In this rounds lesson, 3rd graders memorize movements with songs at specific places.  Students perform a three part round.
Lesson Plan
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Flip and Flop: An Adaptation Through Dancing Echoes with Shapes and Locomotor Movement

For Teachers K - 2nd
Dancers practice echoing through dance. They listen to a story "Flip and Flop" and then are put into pairs. One partner is Flip, while the other is Flop. Flip creates a shape by dancing, and Flop, the other student, echoes that shape by...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Note Names and Note Values - An Interactive Smart Board Lesson

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
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...
Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Theme and Variation

For Teachers 5th
The dance elements of body, energy, space, and time are the focus of a lesson on movement and theme. The class follows along as the teacher shows them a new dance that has a theme. They practice the dance, and then change one element in...
Lesson Plan
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Understanding the Music of the Civil Rights Movement

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students examine protest music and songs from the Civil Rights movement. For 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...
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Music and Art of the Harlem Renaissance

For Teachers 5th - 8th
The music of the Harlem Renaissance can provide a way for students to learn about musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong.
Lesson Plan
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Chance Art: Pollock, Cage and Cunningham

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners clearly identify commonalities and differences between dance and other disciplines with regard to fundamental concepts such as materials, elements, and ways of communicating meaning.
Lesson Plan
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Clerihew Dances III, 4 and 5

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders relate dance movements to chants. They tap out the rhythm of poetry on different body parts.
Lesson Plan
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The blues highway: An integration of music with geography

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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....
Lesson Plan
Carolina K-12

Affrilachia

For Teachers 8th Standards
What makes a culture unique? Learners research life in the Appalachia region of the United States. Poetry, music, and oral history create Affrilachia, the term used to describe the lifestyle of the area. African-American mountain culture...
Lesson Plan
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Honey Bees and Communication

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
Did you know that honey bees dance to communicate information? Do you know why bees use hexagons to build their hives? The Honeybee Man, Brilliant Bees, and Show me the Honey provide background information on how honey bees communicate....
Lesson Plan
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Lesson: An Exploration of Places and Spaces Part I

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The concept behind this lesson is fantastic. Learners explore how different locations and situations affect them as individuals, focusing heavily on the impact of the urban environment. They question how location can make them change...
Lesson Plan
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Slices of American Pie: The 1960s Through Music

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders examine political, cultural, and social movements through music. In this 1960s American history lesson, 11th graders explore the music of the decade in order to better understand the complexity of the time period....
Lesson Plan
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Music-Follow the Drinking Gourd

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders study the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd." For this dance lesson, 4th graders listen to the book by the same name, listen to the music, and in small groups create a short dance illustrating a stanza from the song.
Lesson Plan
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Adapting a Musical

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers transform literature into musical productions. In this integrated arts instructional activity, students discuss how musicals are written and produced. High schoolers then select literature they are familiar with to adapt...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Education Element of the Harlem Renaissance and Its Impact on the New Negro

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate African American history by researching culture. In this Harlem Renaissance lesson, students identify the teachings, music and art associated with African Americans in Harlem in the early 20th century. Students...
Lesson Plan
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Native American Music and Dance Activity

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students demonstrate keeping steady beat through practice exercises and stepping to the beat using instruments such as conga drums, tambourines and rhythm sticks.
Lesson Plan
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Music of the Civil Rights Era, 1954-1968

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students experience the aesthetics of music and learn about freedom songs that motivated the Civil Rights activists. In this music history lesson, students learn how music can motivate and move listeners. Students then describe how...
Lesson Plan
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Moving and Grooving with Tempo

For Teachers 1st
First graders recognize the variations of tempo in music as it changes. They repeat movements, define tempo and distinguish between fast and slow tempo while playing a teacher led game.
Lesson Plan
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Teaching the Musical Concept of Tempo

For Teachers K
Intended for an Autism class, this instructional activity teaches self-expression through music while facilitating an understanding of the concept of tempo. Pupils engage in a call-and-response song, clap, discuss, and sing keeping...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Connecting Literature, Writing and Music

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students assess the impact of music to portray emotions and tell stories. Examples are taken from the life of Rosa Parks and a piece of band music called "A Movement for Rosa". Evaluation is accomplished through in-class participation...