Curated OER
Primary Songs about Recycling
Students compose songs about recycling. In this ecology lesson plan, students use vocabulary and concepts related to recycling to generate lyrics for an original song. Students construct musical instruments out of discarded materials.
Curated OER
Protest Music Video
Students use iMovie to express the meaning and context of a protest song from the '60s or '70s. They explore different views of the protest movement and gain an understanding of the emotional and political overtones of the times.
Curated OER
Stand Up and Sing: Music and Our Reform History
Students examine events of historical significance in music. In groups, they are given pieces of sheet music and work together to try to determine the social and political conditions of the time based on the lyrics. They write their own...
Curated OER
Song Writing: Recording Your Song
In this music sales worksheet, students read advice on the how to sell the songs that they write. They read about producers, managers, demos, royalties, and agents. They design a pamphlet based on the information in the reading and as an...
Johnny Mercer Foundation
Project-Based Songwriting
Project-based learning in a music theory class? Take note. Young songwriters compose, record, copyright, and promote their original songs. They even design their own CD cover.
John F. Kennedy Center
Harriet Tubman: Secret Messages Through Song
A lesson all about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad introduces scholars to African American spirituals. By way of reading, speaking, and listening, learners discover, analyze, and decode African American spirituals. They...
British Council
Love Poems
Language learners write down the words to a song as they listen to it. They then work in groups to write a love poem using the words and phrases they wrote from the song. As a culminating activity, scholars read their poems to the class.
Curated OER
Music Composition
Are your learners ready to compose their own music? If so, this worksheet will help them do it. The sheet is broken into several staffs where they write the tune, riff, and chords. They can put them together to create a unique piece....
K20 LEARN
Diggin' Deeper - Poetry Made Relevant: Poetry And Poetic Devices
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...
Curated OER
Breaking the Code: Actions and Songs of Protest
Students listen to and discuss the purpose of protest music. They analyze an editorial cartoon related to Jim Crow and read questions from the literacy tests given to African-Americans. They work together to write a song about the...
Curated OER
MUSICAL ELEMENTS OF THE LITTLE PRINCE
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...
Curated OER
Folk Music
Students explore Folk Music in Iowa. For this folk music lesson, students discuss different types of folk music and how it relates to life in Iowa. They take the tune of a song and write their own lyrics to describe their life.
Curated OER
Understanding the Music of the Civil Rights Movement
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...
Center for Civic Education
The Power of Nonviolence: Music Can Change the World
Here is a fantastic activity through which class members discover how music has the ability to influence others in a meaningful way. After reviewing selected pieces and modern-day protest songs, learners will research other songs that...
Geography 360°
Poetry Writing
Put the tips and tricks in this guide into practice in order to encourage your pupils to blossom into poets. A wonderful reference material for teachers, this packet includes definitions of poetic terms and forms as well as step-by-step...
Curated OER
Rap Music and Hip-Hop
Students explore rap and hip hop music. In this music and culture lesson, 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
Learning Math with Music
Students work in groups to create their own rhymes and songs for an entire family of math facts. They record their math facts creations using an iPod and a voice recorder for future use.
Curated OER
Instruments Used in Folk Music
In this music worksheet, students read short excerpts about the instruments that accompany folk music songs. They write 5-10 paragraphs about the use of the banjo and mandolin in folk music and about their differences. They read...
Curated OER
American Music Styles: European Roots and African Influences - Lesson 3
Young scholars describe some of the characteristics of country and blues music. They see how country music rose to a nationally known music style. They write a two-paragraph essay on what they think country music be like in the next 100...
Curated OER
Music and Lyrics
Eighth graders analyze lyrics from songs from a variety of genres. In this musical analysis activity, 8th graders write an essay about their life plans in which they discuss the lyrics of U2's song, "One." They tell how the writings of...
Azar Grammar
Song Lessons: Father and Daughter
Paul Simon's "Father and Daughter" offers language learners and native English speakers an opportunity to study adverb, adjective, and noun clauses.
University of Northern Iowa
Additional Folklife Information
Use a packet packed with ideas for how to celebrate the traditions of your country, state, community, and pupils's families. Suggestions for how to draw on oral and material traditions, customs, beliefs, music, and stories all find...
Azar Grammar
Song Lessons: You Gotta Be
Des'ree's song "You Gotta Be" is used to model for language learners the forms that can be used to express necessity (must, have to, have got to). After examining the grammar in the song, the attention switches to a discussion of the...
Smithsonian Institution
The Vocal Blues: Created in the Deep South of the U.S.
Bring the sounds of the deep South vocal blues to the classroom with a Smithsonian Folkways lesson. In preparation, scholars listen to and count the 12 bar blues patterns in several works and identify the I, II, IV, and V chords as well...