Lesson Plan
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Minuet And Canon

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders sing, move, pat, clap, and drum in this Music lesson about Minuets, Canons, and "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". The lesson is for the 3rd grade classroom and includes the use of J.S. Bach's famous Minuet in G and a...
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Spooky Notes

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders move to, sing, compose, and interpret various musical techniques through the use of "America", Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers", and a song called "Skin and Bones". Emphasis is placed upon identifying names and values...
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Composing Project

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students design, compose, and present short musical compositions for keyboard in this lesson plan meant for the high school choir class. This lesson can be adapted to any time frame, but the author suggests a considerable amount of time...
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Singing About Zoo Animals

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders sing a variation of "The Muffin Man" with lyrics dedicated to zoo animals. As a class, 5th graders sing the song as a round and maintain a stead beat and rhythm while singing.
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Up From the Streets: Hip Hop as a Recognized Art

For Teachers 6th - 11th
Students discuss the historical roots of Hip-Hop to the present as an example of an art form that arose from the street into popular culture. Emphasis is placed on in-class discussion and written reflections in this introductory lesson.
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Introduction to Ludwig van Beethoven

For Teachers 2nd - 4th Standards
"Ode to la Tortilla" and "Ode to Joy"? Sure! Use Gary Soto's poem to introduce learners to the ode format. After examining the descriptive words Soto uses, class members study a poster of Ludwig van Beethoven, suggest words that describe...
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students study the life and music of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They practice listening for the downbeat of a musical selection. They participate in a physical exercise where they march around in a circle and clap to the...
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Six Dynamic Designs for Arts Integrated Curriculum

For Teachers K - 12th
Students create a recipe for a certain aspect of a culture. They create a culture that has never existed before. They analyze either dance, history, geography, history or the future of space exploration. They compare and contrast...
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Pachelbel's Canon

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars warm up by playing rhythm and tonal patterns. They perform Pachelbel's canon and recognize written musical symbols such as cres., leggero, arco, Grandioso, allegro vivo, rall, div, poco rit, and legato. As the band...
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Learning Crescendo and Decrescendo

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders examine the sounds and notes for crescendos and decrescendos. They attend a concert by a symphony orchestra and when they return to the classroom they identify the crescendos and decrescendos in music they hear.
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William Tell Overture

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students explore the musical concepts of rhythm, melody, expression, and tone color in a three-activity unit about the William Tell Overture. They identify dynamics and tempo and play a vocal tone color singing game.
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"Nutcracker"

For Teachers 5th
Students recognize the timbre of a celesta by listening to music that contains the celesta. They listen to music from Tchaikovsky's "Danse de la Fee-Dragee" (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairies), track #14 and describe how the music...
Worksheet
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Listening To A Fanfare

For Students 6th - 8th
For this music worksheet, students read the biography of a composer and then focus upon his primary work of creating graphic compositions.
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Baga Drum

For Teachers K - 12th
Students draw and design a musical instrument that incorporates a human figure or animal. In this musical lesson plan, students will discover the differences between African drums. This lesson plan is designed for elementary, middle,...
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Concerto for Recorder, Oboe and Bassoon by Antonio Vivaldi

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars study the life and music of Antonio Vivaldi. They analyze and practice playing the various parts of Concerto a la Vivaldi on recorders. They record themselves and compare their performance to that of the same composition...
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"Laideronette, Empress of the Pagoda" from"Mother Goose Suite" by Maurice Ravel

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Students are introduced to the active teacher, composer and pianist Maurice Ravel and his masterpiece "Laideronette, Empress of the Pagoda", from Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel. They utilize aural skills to notate the rhythm of the...
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Strings that Sing

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students listen to Isaac Stern lead a musician through steps to self-evaluating a performance. They compare their instrumental performance with a live vocal performance.
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Water

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders study different bodies of water and how they fit into the water cycle. They explain that materials exist in different states (solid, liquid and gas) and change from one to another, that there are systems, order, and...
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Jazz: Expression through Improvisation

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students watch a video on improvisation. They improvise original melodies over given chord progressions. They develop criteria to evaluate the merits of improvisational performances and apply the criteria in their personal listening and...
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Rehearsal and Sightreading Techniques

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders prepare the two pieces "American Celebration" and "Patriotic Bits and Pieces" for an upcoming performance. This lesson plan is a forty-five minute lesson plan geared towards a middle school advanced band (8th Grade). ...
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Original Band Compositions

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students create and perform original band compositions using their own band instruments. This two day lesson requires student compositions to be done at home. Students evaluate performances using a checklist for composing (included).
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Creating Sight-Singing Originals

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners create sight-singing examples for presentation in the high school choir class. Day One is used for review/introduction of the material. Day Two is used for student work time and Day Three is for presentation and evaluation.
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This Land is Your Land - Travel Posters

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders compile a list of places in the United States where they have either traveled or where their relatives or friends live. They collect travel posters, brochures, postcards, and maps from their region of the United States.
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Chance Art: Pollock, Cage and Cunningham

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students clearly identify commonalities and differences between dance and other disciplines with regard to fundamental concepts such as materials, elements, and ways of communicating meaning.