Smithsonian Institution
Jamaican Song, Dance, and Play: Experiences with Jamaican Musical Traditions
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.
Midwest Clinic
Latin Rhythms: Mystery Unraveled
There is an indescrible energy to Latin American music—but if you know your music theory, it's not so indescrible after all. A thorough packet provides definitions for terms like bolero, charanga, shekere, and tumbao before listing...
Smithsonian Institution
American Sabor Crossword
How much do you know about Latin American music? A crossword puzzle challenges learners to answer 24 questions about the history, genres, performers, and instruments of Latin American music.
Curated OER
Patterns on Parade
First graders discover that patterns exist in sounds, movement, and objects. In this patterns lesson, 1st graders select two items from a group and produce an alternating pattern.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Smart Solutions: English Language Development Lessons (Theme 6)
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,...
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...
Curated OER
Rhythm in Language - Feel the SWAMP BEAT!
Students explore the rhythm of words. In this reading skills lesson, students read Bedtime at the Swamp and use rhythm instruments to find the cadence in the words of the story. Students listen for rhythm in other written text as they...
Curated OER
Listen to Music
Learners listen to, analyze, and describe music. They identify examples of music forms including such as motive phhrase, 4-bar phrase,
canon, and rondo. In addition, they perform a dance called a partner mixer and model the pattern for...
Curated OER
Music: Individual and Group Practice
Third graders, in groups and individually, perform various musical pieces on their instruments. After demonstrating how to play steady beats, they also play counter melodies to songs such as "Peace Like a River." While some students...
Virginia Department of Education
Sound
Add a little music to your next physics class. Pupils discuss how frequency determines pitch and take part in several activities designed to teach them more about sound, melody, resonance, and vibrations. They use materials to construct...
PBS
Discuss 22-year-old Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb”
Two poems by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman are spotlighted in a PBS lesson. Young scholars conduct a close reading and watch videos of Gorman reading her inaugural poem "The Hill We Climb" and "The Miracle of Morning." They...
Curated OER
6-8 Meter Madness
Students identify time signatures, the down beat, and begin to understand conducting patterns. In this meter patterns lesson, students identify the signs for 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 and play an excerpt from a song. Students use tennis balls to...
Curated OER
Rock the Rocky Road
Second graders keep a steady beat, pay attention to tempo and watch the conductor.
Curated OER
America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)
Students perform a song using correct rhythms, accurate pitches, and dynamic phrasing. They perform an accompaniment to "America" on Orff instruments.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Family Time: Extra Support Lessons (Theme 5)
Provide extra support with a unit that follows a teach, blend, guided practice, and practice/apply routine to reinforce reading, grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills. Reading and writing lessons include supporting details, story...
Curated OER
William Tell Overture: Finale
Pupils analyze the William Tell Overture for meter and conducting, among other musical concepts in a three-lesson unit. They practice conducting patterns and identify eighth and quarter notes and chord roots.
Curated OER
Geometric Sequences
Learners relate pattern and sequences to music. In this geometry lesson, students identify different scales using chromatic scales. They compare the different waves to sine waves and other trigonometric waves.
Curated OER
Rhythm In Motion
Sixth graders work independently and with a partner to demonstrate proficiency of steady beat, meter and basic note values while creating written rhythmic patterns for class performance. State and National Standards are addressed.
Curated OER
Play It
There are a number of activities here that look at representing data in different ways. One activity, has young data analysts conduct a class survey regarding a new radio station, summarize a data set, and use central tendencies to...
Power to Learn.com
Survey of Favorites
Upper grade and middle schoolers discuss their favorite TV programs, music, books, etc. Following a lesson on measures of central tendency, learners discuss random sampling. They conduct a survey and use charts and frequency tables to...
Curated OER
Country Singers Take Nashville
Students conduct research on a famous country music singer. In small groups, they conduct research, and construct and decorate a paper cutout of their selected country music singer.
Curated OER
Exploring the Self
Students examine a variety of songs, poems, and books exploring and analyzing the theme of self reliance and being true to one's self. They write a poem, essay, or letter that captures their true spirit and individuality and then they...
Curated OER
Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pioneer Life
Fourth graders complete a three-week unit about Laura Ingalls Wilder and pioneer life. They research the topography of Michigan in the 1870's, conduct Internet research, write journal entries, participate in polka and waltz dancing, and...
Curated OER
Monarch Migration
Third graders investigate the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. They experiment with various tools to simulate the mouth parts of insects, conduct research, record their observations of butterflies hatching, write a play, complete...