If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing...

Young singers learn how to notate the rhythms and melodies of a familiar song using Kodaly hand signals and manipulatives. Individuals then create their own compositions and sing them using Kodaly notation.

Students search the World Wide Web to locate an artistic image that inspires an aural composition. They compose a musical piece using loop-based composition software and use file management and storage techniques to archive project work....

Students improvise then compose and notate melodies with appropriate accompaniments that are inspired by events that transpired during their summer vacations. Requires a networked keyboard lab.

Students demonstrate writing lyrics for a twelve-bar blues pattern by writing two verses of a blues song and then recording themselves singing over a stock blues pattern using Apple's Garage Band. Requires a networked keyboard lab.

Students sing "Three Little Pigs", the "Pony Song", and "The Animal Blues" in this elementary school music lesson. National and State Standards are addressed. Assessment rubric is included for grading and student evaluation.

Fourth graders study percussion instruments from various world cultures. In this percussion instruments instructional activity, 4th graders listen to percussive sound sources, learn playing techniques, and create compositions for...

Learners listen to song in which they identify the beat. Listening to the song again, they clap and march to the beat after being introduced to the new vocabulary. They complete the same exercises for other songs played in class.

Eighth graders investigate how to compose music for a detective program. The goal is for them to discover the method needed. The idea was simple, they were told to compose the music with emotional tension that climaxed and then relaxed...

Second graders create their own rhythm with a time signature. They examine notes, rests, and how many beats for ech type of note. Students clap in rhythm. They perform their own rhythm for the class.

Elementary schoolers are given an overview of the baroque, classical, romantic, and modern periods of music. They focus on the lives of Beethoven and Mozart; two of the greatest composers of all time. After listening to samples their...

What do Ben Franklin and Wolfgang Mozart have in common? Find out about the musical invention, the armonica or glassy-chord. Learners will read about how Ben Franklin invented this new instrument and how Wolfgang Mozart came to play it....

By The Great Horn Spoon is a fantastic novel for introducing learners to life during the California Gold Rush. First, kids research and analyze American folk songs, then they connect to the text as they listen to symphonic pieces written...

Fifth and second graders pair up to create mini dance scenes based on the image Washington Crossing the Delaware. Second graders create the movements while their fifth grade partners play the musical accompaniment. Leadership...

This worksheet about "The Ritual Fire Dance" by Manuel de Falla, provides information on the musician, his music, and the dance. It includes 9 questions about the reading in addition to 5 questions about the instruments important in the...

Learning how to compare and contrast is a core skill. Learners compare two music selections that showcase a specific heritage. They draw and discuss how each song and the composers of each song used their personal heritage as...

Fractions can be tricky. Why not have kids think of fractions like they think of eighth, quarter, and half notes? In teams, the class creates four-measure patterns with their percussion instruments. They need to explain their rhythm...

Kids make quilts as they learn about pioneer life and the concept of tempo. The Aaron Copland piece, Rodeo is used to convey rhythm and tempo in music. As the children discuss tempo and rhythm, they also discuss what life was like for...

Brad Manning’s essay, “Arm Wrestling with My Father,” is used as the basis of an AP Language and Composition exercise. Readers identify the purpose of the essay, analyze the essay structure, evaluate the diction, and unpack the analogies.

This was written for ESOL learners, but could work for any elementary class. Learners read about the American dance style known as Square Dancing. They explore its use in literature, write a friendly letter about it, and then use their...

When would two paws up denote a blockbuster film in your classroom? Only when young writers create movie reviews from a pet's perspective in this imaginative expository writing practice. This engaging topic begins with a class discussion...

Not only is Wassily Kandinsky fun to say, his art contains tons of angles. Learners discuss Kandinsky's music-inspired abstract art and four types of angles. They search one of his paintings for obtuse, right, straight, and acute angles,...

Class members explore cultural diversity through a variety of texts that showcase the importance of traditions. Then, they interview their family members to research their own cultural background and write their findings on quilt...

Students notate a short musical composition using the notation software Sibelius. This composition is based on a the student's favorite childhood memory. Based on their emotions felt at this time, they incorporate tempo, range, and...