MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Magical Musical Tour: Using Lyrics to Teach Literary Elements
Language arts learners don't need a lecture about poetry; they listen to poetry every day on the radio! Apply skills from literary analysis to famous songs and beautiful lyrics with a lesson plan about literary devices. As class...
Curated OER
Tears of Joy Theatre Presents Anansi the Spider
Accompany the African folktale, Anansi the Spider, with a collection of five lessons, each equipped with supplemental activities. Lessons offer multidisciplinary reinforcement in English language arts, social studies, science, and arts...
Curated OER
Guided Reading with Jazz Baby
Jazz music and musicians are the focus of this language arts lesson. Young readers independently read the book Jazz Baby. To build fluency and independence they read silently, but are guided by directive comments from the teacher. They...
Curated OER
Music: Sounds on the Farm
Singing is a great way to build memory, music, and verbal communication skills. Little ones sing the song, "Old Mac Donald had a Farm." They make the sounds of each animal on the farm paying attention to signaling cues, singing high, and...
ESL Kid Stuff
Christmas Lesson 2
Wrapping presents, singing Christmas carols, writing Christmas cards and learning holiday vocabulary are all wrapped into this one exciting ESL lesson.
Curated OER
Beat the Heat
Review common digraphs with your early elementary schoolers. They identify the digraph /ea/ in written and spoken language. After a brief discussion, they apply the rule for identifying and spelling words containing the /ea/ digraph....
Curated OER
Holiday Poetry and Music
Students discuss Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and family traditions. After brainstorming how holidays are celebrated, students write a poem about a chosen holiday and create their own hand-made instrument. They share their poems...
Curated OER
American Music Styles: European Roots and African Influences - Lesson 3
Students describe some of the characteristics of country and blues music. They see how country music rose to a nationally known music style. They write a two-paragraph essay on what they think country music be like in the next 100 years.
Curated OER
Habari Gani: What is the News?
Display creative works of art after learning about Kwanzaa. Kindergartners hear stories about the history of Kwanzaa and its celebrations. They then create artwork, practice African dances and listen to African music.
August House
The Drum
Take a journey to India with a read aloud of The Drum: A Folktale from India by Rob Cleveland. Make connections to the story's theme by building and practicing drums, role playing story characters, and practicing skills in phonics, math,...
Curated OER
Beat the Beat!
Students develop a sense of pulse by listening to music with strong beats. In this music beats lesson plan, students listen to marching band music examples. Students then practice showing the beat while listening to the song.
Friends of Fort McHenry
Sensory “Star Spangled Banner”
Music can help us to access memories and events in a meaningful way, and Francis Scott Key used specific words to convey what he had seen and felt when writing what would become America's national anthem. Help your class connect to the...
Curated OER
The Art and History of Japanese Calligraphy
Chinese and Japanese calligraphy is beautiful and significant in both culture and tradition. Engage your class in this expressive fine art form through a lesson on using, holding, and creating brush strokes common to Japanese writing...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Spontaneous Inventions
Reading out loud can be a real thrill for some, and a real issue for others. Teach your class that reading with inflection and fluency can be as easy as singing a song. They'll first analyze two Bobby McFerrin songs for intonation,...
Education Outside
Chard Tabbouleh Raps
Pupils work with homophones and heterographs found in a recipe for tabbouleh wraps. They work together in groups to perform the tasks necessary to create this Middle Eastern dish, then they get to enjoy it. A fine instructional activity...
Curated OER
Media Literacy in Presentations
Middle schoolers study the three types of mass media messages: visual media, written media, and audio media. After a class discussion which has them list examples of each, learners get into pairs and work on analyzing the "Four A's" in...
Curated OER
Using Songs in the Foreign Language Classroom
Students focus on their required lessons in Spanish by integrating music and songs as they complete their assignments. They assess the vocabulary, grammar patterns and culture associated with music and various different songs. Each...
Curated OER
Dali & Desnos: Surrealism in Poetry and Art
High schoolers research the surrealism movement and its primary artists. Language is also analyzed, and students will create their own original poem utilizing surrealistic techniques.
Curated OER
Trouble With Trolls
Students listen to The Trouble With Trolls and discuss fables. In this story elements lesson, students work on reading skills. Students participate in different reading activities.
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
The Golden Egg
Get ready for a musical story time! First your young musicians review musical dynamics as they listen to and discuss the pitch and sound of each instrument you play for them. Then they talk about special words (mostly verbs) in the book,...
Curated OER
Rests, Pease Porrige Hot with Game:Music, Rhythm, Beats
Students use the nursery rhyme "Pease Porridge Hot" to explore rhythm, beats and rests in music.
Curated OER
Music Dynamics - America the Beautiful
First graders sing America the Beautiful and understand the words to the song. In this singing social studies lesson, 1st graders become familiar with the images and vocabulary in America the Beautiful while singing the words.
Curated OER
Itsy Bitsy Spider & His 2 Friends: Music, Pitch, High and Low Notes
Students gain practice with high and low notes when singing an adaptation of the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider".