Curated OER
Middle School General Music Unit Plans
Here's a collection of unit plans for middle school musicians. Topics include the mbira, opera, rhythm and culture, music in Africa, music in the movies, music theory and notation, blues and jazz, and the ocarina. Definitely worth a look.
Kansas Music Educators Association
Games for the Elementary Music Classroom
Perfect for music specialists, classroom teachers, and substitutes, a packet of 18 games includes complete lessons as well as short activities for when you have some extra time at the end of class.
Curated OER
Woodwind Instruments and Pitch
Students explore musical pitch. In this cross curriculum musical instruments and "sound" physics instructional activity, students identify and describe common traits of woodwind instruments. Students research "pitch" and what causes...
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Rubber Band Banza
Third graders review ideas about sound and vibration to make their own stringed instrument. They review what a pictograph and bar graph are. Pupils conduct a survey within the classroom to choose the four favorite string instruments and...
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TE Lesson: Energy Transfer in Musical Instruments
Students study concepts of energy and energy transfer. They look at how these concepts apply to musical instruments. They study the law of conservation of energy. They use the concepts studied in the lesson to design a musical instrument.
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Meet the Instruments of the Orchestra
Students examine the characteristics of the four families of instruments. They read an eBook, unscramble instruments and categorize them in the correct families, take a quiz, and explore the San Francisco Symphony website.
DiscoverE
Arts and Engineering Activity Packet: Grades 3-5
Art and science sometimes go hand in hand. A set of four activities for learners in grades 3-5 teaches engineering concepts as part of art projects. Class members build homemade robots, elastic puppets, musical instruments, and...
Curated OER
Native American Indian Musical Instruments
Students listen and react to recordings of Native American Instruments with each student completing a corresponding Reaction Worksheet after listening to the recordings.
Smithsonian Institution
The Sounds of an Island: Jamaican Music for the Classroom
Introduce young explorers to the music and history of Jamaican culture through game songs and dances. As a bonus, class members get to play simple songs transcribed for the recorder.
Johnny Mercer Foundation
The American Musical
General music students learn about the history of popular American music by creating and performing a one-act musical. After researching and creating an American Musical timeline, class members write a song with lyrics using Jam Studio,...
Curated OER
Music in Our Schools Month
Music is an Essential Part of Our Students' Educational Experience
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Sounds Like Music
Students define and examine the connections between sound and music and how engineers design instruments. They listen to examples of musical instruments, view a demonstration of a tuning fork and bottles filled with varying amounts of...
Smithsonian Institution
The Music of the Mardi Gras Indians
The traditions, costumes, and the music of the Mardi Gras Indians, African-Americans and those with African American or Native American Heritage are the focus of a unit that introduces class members to a little-known group that plays a...
Curated OER
Loud or soft?
Send this cute activity home with kids, to increase family involvement. They'll consider what would happen if rice was bounced in a tambourine, and then they'll complete a sound activity by makings an instrument out of wax paper and a...
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Music of the People - Native American Music
Third graders complete a unit of lessons on the singing, instruments, and dancing of Native Americans. They identify and play various instruments, complete worksheets, define key vocabulary, sing songs, and perform dances.
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Musical Rhythm Instruments
Learners design a unique instrument using containers, beans, markers, crayons and colored construction paper. At the end of the instructional activity each student have a working rhythm instrument decorated with at least two colors.
Curated OER
String Instruments and Pitch
Students make predictions and explore how pitch is altered in string instruments. In this acoustic science lesson, students learn the types and parts of string instruments and create their own. They listen to classical music and identify...
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Cover the Music
Students explore U.S. history by listening to musical pieces in class. In this Civil War era instructional activity, students discuss the types of musical instruments that were available to soldiers during the war and the themes of their...
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Name That Tune
Integrating technology and music can be a snap with lessons like this one! Kids in a junior high band class took to the Internet to download and practice playing their instrument with a computer generated back up band. They practice...
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Orchestra: Focus on Rhythm and Arranging
High school orchestra is a great place to play music, like The Star Spangled Banner. Upper graders create new rhythms to the old song and perform them with the class. They rehearse their updated versions of the song using their...
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Star Spangled Banner: For Orchestra
Middle schoolers practice playing "The Star Spangled Banner" while focusing on phrasing. They work with the instructor to mark the lyrics and music, then play the song using the phrasing indicated. Several cross-curricular extension...
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Putting Pitch In Its Place
Students focus on reading musical notations. They see, hear, practice and write notations in the lessons to become more independent readers of music. They complete a Rubric for Pitch Worksheet.
Curated OER
Graphic Scores
You can write some music scores using images rather than musical notation. Kids learn how they can become musical composers by using graphics or images in place of musical notation. An interesting slide-show, but a more interesting...
Curated OER
Sounds Like Science- Jamboree
Students explore sound, pitch, volume, frequency, and musical notes. In this homemade instrument lesson, students use materials such as jars, buckets, strings, rackets, rubber bands, and bottles to create their own unique instrument....