Curated OER
Multimedia Storytelling
Experiment with multimedia storytelling. After watching a segment of American Family, first, middle and high schoolers tell a story about their families, clarifying the setting, characters, and script. They work on setting...
Curated OER
Australian Aboriginal Art and Storytelling
Young explorers investigate Australian Aboriginal culture by listening to traditional Dreamtime stories and examining dot paintings created by Aboriginal artists. In addition, they locate the country on maps, discuss the geography of...
Curated OER
Storytelling: Performance and Art Learning Center
Tenth graders explore the process of telling stories without words. For this literature lesson, 10th graders watch a music video performance made by Alaska Native students, and then examine art objects that may be used to tell a...
Curated OER
Explore your Culture through Storytelling
Explore the cultural heritage through of your class through reading, writing, and speaking exercises. They create illustrated mini-books that express their unique cultural and personal experiences. They share their stores with the class...
Curated OER
We Are Unique - Yet Also Alike
How about four engaging lessons all related to bringing cultural awareness into the classroom through the arts? Sound tempting? Sixth graders will reflect on the art, storytelling, and music of various cultures, and how each transmits...
Curated OER
Storytelling in the Classroom
What makes story telling special? Young readers demonstrate how to tell a story to others. Kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders read biographies of "Building Blocks" characters and tell a story about a character to their...
Curated OER
Those Fabulous Fables
A video leads off this activity on fables, introducing the class to this important form of traditional storytelling. The group defines fable and hears an explanation of the origin of this type of folk tale. They summarize the story they...
Curated OER
Peter and the Wolf: A Russian Fairy Tale
A wonderful presentation explains a musical fairy tale. Perfect for an independent work station or as a link to send home for homework, this slideshow comes equipped with full audio. Each character, theme, and instrument from the piece...
Curated OER
Romantic Period in Music, Art, and Literature
“Romanticism aims at enlarging experience by exploring the real.” This excerpt from Jacques Barzun’s From Dawn to Decadence introduces a PowerPoint that examines the characteristics of and the major figures in music, art, and literature...
Curated OER
Tradition through storytelling and music
Students discover how storytelling can shape a person's tradition.Students examine different methods of storytelling such as music, biographies, and African folktales. They then demonstrate their knowledge of storytelling by writing...
Curated OER
Epic Improvisation
Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....
San Francisco Symphony
Lesson Ideas for Any Music
Music is a wonderful tool you can add to enhance the learning process for every subject. Here is a list of music selections that are categorized by subject, along with some neat teaching suggestions. You'll find songs suited to...
Curated OER
It's All Part of the Story
Young scholars explore storytelling through pantomime, improvisation, and dramatization. They watch an online video, discuss Native American earth stories, role-play various situations, explore websites, and present an oral story to the...
Curated OER
From Remus to Rap: A History in Theory and Practice of the African-American Storytelling Tradition
Students examine the specific form and function of tall tales and toasts.
They discover the importance of performance in the telling of a story and the importance of rhythm in the telling of toasts. They create stories of their own, in...
Curated OER
Culture Creation vs. Culture Consumption - Finding Voice Through Digital Storytelling
Ninth graders explore the power of media in culture and Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence. In this nonviolence and media lesson, 9th graders analyze Gandhi's nonviolent methods for social change and discuss the media's power to create...
Curated OER
Stories of the American Experience
Students interview a veteren of any of the major U.S. wars. They must identify one quote from the veteren that sums up their experience.
August House
When Turtle Grew Feathers
Friendship is a valuable part of growing up. Learn about the importance of friendship with a variety of activities based on When Turtle Grew Feathers by Tim Tingle. Kids practice making musical instruments, discussing plot points,...
Curated OER
Regional Landforms and Native People
Third graders study the Native American tribes of Maidu and Miwok by studying Internet artifacts, culture, language, music, storytelling, architecture, food, clothing, crafts and geology.
Curated OER
The Ogre Bully
Students listen to the book, The Ogre Bully, and discuss the problems the farmer and his family had during the story. In this garden themed lesson, students examine different fruit and vegetables and plant them in soil to...
Poetry Out Loud
The Tabloid Ballad
What do the theme song from Gilligan's Island, the nursery rhyme "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat," and the poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" all have in common? Why, they're ballads of course! Challenge your young balladeers to compose their...
Curated OER
Sunday School Inspiration Lessons
Many activities related to the Chrisitan religion are included in this lesson about storytelling; students create their own Bible related art from stickers, stamps, t-shirts and hats. Puppets also help to to retell Bible stories and...
Curated OER
I'm Tellin'!: Kids Bringing Folktales Alive
Students participate in a reading instructional activity that works on social and academic skills. They increase reading comprehension with direct instruction with the group reading of a folktale. Then students research their own stories...
Curated OER
Digital Storytelling: At-Risk Students Find Their Voices
Students use digital cameras and software to create a digital story which consists of a series of digital images paired with a narrarated soundtrack. They focus on relevant images and a presecribed sequence of steps to provide a vignette...
Curated OER
Tone Poem Composing Project
Students explore role of music in storytelling by watching and discussing effect music has on perception of scene from movie, and using Sibelius program to compose single excerpt of music, considering dynamics, timbre, and articulation,...