Curated OER
Boy Bands: Hot Again
Kids read a New York Times article on the allure of boy bands, and then answer several questions via Blog post. They consider why boy bands are popular, why they are so expensive for record labels, and how they are similar to bands of...
Special needs in Music
Silent Practice
Don't have a keyboard in the classroom but still want to teach piano theory? No problem! Learners engage in "silent practice" as they play classic songs like "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on a printed keyboard image. Use the images on the...
Curated OER
Flip and Flop: An Adaptation Through Dancing Echoes with Shapes and Locomotor Movement
Dancers practice echoing through dance. They listen to a story "Flip and Flop" and then are put into pairs. One partner is Flip, while the other is Flop. Flip creates a shape by dancing, and Flop, the other student, echoes that shape by...
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
Moving to the Poems of Angel Island
A poem carved on Angel Island's walls is the guiding text of a lesson that challenges scholars to put movement into a written piece of art. After warm up-activities, learners play a game of "Pass the Clap" and "Pass the Line," in which...
Music Publishers Association of the United States
I Made It. I Own It. Please Don't Steal It.
Explore the world of copyright law with a variety of activities to instill the importance of respecting creative property. Scholars watch an animated tale then take part in a grand conversation detailing the video's main idea, details,...
Teachers Pay Teachers
What Kind of Smart Are You
Gain insight into the type of learners that fill your classroom. An eight-question survey asks scholars questions about themselves. Using their color-coded answers, they conclude their degree of intelligence in multiple areas—music,...
Curated OER
Water Music
Students explore music about water. They listen to various pieces of music, play instruments, and plan and create a piece of art that includes a water motif.
Curated OER
Twelve-Bar Blues
Students examine blues music. In this music genres lesson plan, students discover details about the history of the musical genre and compositional techniques. Students then compose melodies of their own with 12-bar blues chord progression.
Curated OER
I've Got the Blues!
Pupils identify the musical form of the 12-bar blues. They identify a problem from the "Farming in the 1940's" section and compose a 12-bar blues song. make comparisons between problems of the 1940's and today.
Curated OER
The Baby Elephant Walk
Students use the song Baby Elephant Walk to practice following a steady beat. In this coordinated movement lesson, students discuss baby elephants and their movements. Students listen to the song 'Baby Elephant Walk' and follow the...
Curated OER
Folk
Students read about Woody Guthrie and how folk music often tells of events of the time and can be effective protest music.
Curated OER
Form and Theme in the Traditional Mexican Corrido
Students examine the traditional Mexican musical form of corridos. In this cross curricular history and music instructional activity, students analyze the lyrics of popular corridos and the corridos' importance in Mexican culture....
Curated OER
Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
Twelfth graders read lyrics for "My Hometown" and complete a worksheet to identify setting and tone in the song. In this Romanticism lesson, 12th graders read Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey by Wordsworth and discuss...
Curated OER
Percussion Instruments and Pitch
Students play string instruments to discover how the pitch changes on various string instruments. In this pitch instructional activity, students listen to video clips and play an online music game. Students become familiar...
Curated OER
The Sounds of Change
Learners recognize that music brings out feelings and emotions in people. In this music themes instructional activity, students explore the relationships between culture and music. Learners answer questions about favorite choices in music.
Curated OER
Define My Own Destiny: Using Arrested Development and Lauryn Hill to Teach Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun
Literary themes don't just belong to literature. High schoolers listen to the lyrics of modern songs by Arrested Development, Lauryn Hill, and others to enhance their study and to connect to characters, conflicts, and themes of...
Curated OER
How Poets Evoke Social and Historical Representations
Students explore how poems represent the social, historical, and cultural times that they were written in. In this poetry lesson plan, students compare and contrast poems with music of the time and explore implications of writing poems...
Curated OER
Musical Alphabet - Stepping Down
Learners use the study sheet to study about the musical alphabet; stepping down. They review what stepping up means and what stepping down means. They then practice using the worksheet provided.
Annenberg Foundation
Exploring Borderlands
What motivated Europeans to explore the New World, and what effects did their exploration have on Native American populations? The second installment of a 16-part American Passages series prompts pupils to watch a video and read several...
Curated OER
Name the Rests
Help your musicians learn rest counts and rhythm symbols with these 16 fill-in-the-blank questions. Questions ask learners to draw the matching rest symbol per given rest count. The next set of questions ask the opposite, the correct...
Pimsleur
Book Report: Children Return to Their Roots
Based on the book Victoria Goes to Brazil (Children Return to their Roots) by Maria de Fatima Campos, this activity will teach learners about family, geography, sports, music, and transportation. Learners read, summarize, and use the...
Novelinks
Touching Spirit Bear: Anticipatory Guide
Will Peter and Cole ever forgive one another? Anticipation guides contain questions such as this to help teach readers how to make predictions about a text. First out of a series of five resources, the guide is full of statements about...
Curated OER
Music and Movement
Students demonstrate how to instruct a Pre-K class in singing and creative movement. Once they are grouped according to several nursery rhymes, they practice singing the songs and coordinating appropriate movements with the rhythm. The...
Curated OER
Introducing Nepal Through Music
Students define traditional music, describe distinguishing characteristics of traditional songs, and discover the connection between music and cultural heritage in this Music and Social Studies lesson for the fourth through tenth grades.