America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)

Play and sing a Valentine's song with your second graders. They'll follow along allow as you demonstrate how to sing and keep a steady beat on non-pitched percussive instruments. While the music lesson has a Valentine theme, that theme...

Bass drum, snare drum, tom-toms, cymbals. Perched behind their drum sets, wielding their drum sticks and wire brushes, drummers lay the grove and are the heartbeat of a band's performance. A dynamic lesson introduces young musicians to...

Groups create, memorize, and perform for the class a 4 beats per measure rhythm pattern using percussion instruments including xylophones, rhythm sticks, and drums. The pattern is recorded on the worksheet provided in the resource.

Show your school spirit! Class members use instruments or sing along and employ what they have learned in the two previous lessons to perform their school's songs.

Two lessons focus on making a beat. Using popular African American music of its time, scholars listen and analyze the rhythm then recreate it with hands drums, and cups. 

Your second graders can become composers with a little help from the Garage Band software. You pre-select several drum, piano, and guitar loops for the groups to choose from, then they put them together following an ABA looping pattern....

Piano practice has never been so fun! Cleverly scaffolded piano practice sessions lead to performances, all of which earn the player points. The app has a digital keyboard for playing when you're on the go, or enable the acoustic piano...

After watching a video of Peter and the Wolf, and identifying the instruments used to represent each character, class members use rhythm instruments to represent the actions in the song, "What Would I do."

You need not be a music resource teacher to play these games with your young musicians. The activities stress dynamics, beat, and rhythm, while flashcard familiarize kids with musical terms.

Young scholars work in small groups to use everyday objects to create performances inspired by the work of STOMP. They create a system of notation to document the music and movement of a 2-minute performance.