Curated OER
Guitar - 12 Bar Blues
Students explore the chord chart for 12-bar blues in C and then play the scales on the guitar. They play their scales at a moderate tempo and practice related arpeggios. After listening to "Band in the Box" music tracks, students...
Curated OER
Viennese Music Clock
Learners explore the music concepts of ryhthm, melody, form, and harmony in a three-lesson unit. They listen to the Viennese Music Clock and demonstrate moving to the beat, create improvised melodies, and play percussion accompaniment.
Curated OER
Night On Bald Mountain
Students sing songs, improvise musical responses, maintain steady beats, and move to music in this Halloween Music lesson for the Kindergarten classroom. Emphasis is placed upon meeting State and National Standards in Music.
Curated OER
Blues Improvisation
Students practice playing and improvising while playing the 12 bar blues. They practice compositional skills, evaluate and perform musical pieces focused on the blues.
Curated OER
Music Storytellers
Learners identify the quality and effectiveness of musical performances through the use of music telling a story. They will compare and contrast philosophy and form of song segments.
Curated OER
Musical Instruments - Percussion
Students research and analyze various percussion instruments from different countries and cultures in this Music instructional activity for the upper-elementary classroom. Emphasis is placed on internet research and hands-on drumming...
Curated OER
Musical Freeze Improvisions
Students are introduced to the process of creating story from movement through improvisation and invention. When the music is playing, they move. When the music stops, the students freeze. A discussion on the role that music plays in the...
Washington University in St. Louis
Teaching Jazz as American Culture
Jazz and the City, Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, Jazz and Gender, Jazz and Literature, Jazz and the Arts, Jazz and Film. Here's a packet of unit plans organized around themes that reflect American culture. Each unit examines how...
Curated OER
Sam Cooke - Lesson 1
Students identify the impact of the social injustices and Civil Rights movement on Cooke's life and career. They create lyrics to a familiar song that express a personal struggle or concern.
Curated OER
Low Brass: Tibet, Switzerland and Haiti
Students identify sounds played on instruments from around the world. For this music lesson, students listen to music played on various low brass instruments from Tibet, Switzerland and Haiti to determine the differences in pitch...
Curated OER
Quarter Rest Lesson
First graders indicate the silent beats (rests) with an outward motion of the arms. They indicate a measure clapped out with a quarter rest, and a measure clapped out without a quarter rest.
Curated OER
Singing "What's New With Me"
Kindergarteners sing the song, "What's New With Me" adding rhythm with each go around. They clap, tap, and sing along with the teacher. Note: The song or song lyrics are not included.
Curated OER
All About Me - 2
Students recognize beat vs. no beat, sing and improvise on do, me, so, and la, and perform creative movement to music in this Kindergarten Music instructional activity. Emphasis is placed upon the Wiggy Wiggy Wiggles CD and creative...
Curated OER
Black and Blue: Jazz in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Students analyze the impact of jazz on the novel, "Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison. They read and discuss excerpts of the novel, write an essay on the influence of jazz on Ralph Ellison as a writer, and view video excerpts on jazz...
Curated OER
Learning to Play Together
Students listen to and discuss American music genres, specifically ragtime, bebop/bop, and swing, and experiment with improvisation on traditional tunes and rhythms.
Curated OER
Goldilocks and the Bears Make Their Pitch
First graders listen to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and identify the pitch of the bears' voices as high, medium, and low. They improvise on xylophones a melody to accompany the bears in the telling of the story.
Curated OER
Moving Rhythms
Students explore the elements of tempo, beat and rhythm. They create rhythm patterns and an original dance. In groups, students perform their phrases for their peers. As a class, they explore choreographic principles, processes and...
Curated OER
The Pony Song
Young scholars 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.
Curated OER
Music Accomplished Practice #4
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.
Curated OER
3-5: Rhythm Beginnings
Students explore tempo. In this rhythm beginnings lesson, students differentiate between steady and unsteady beats. Students clap a variety of tempo and then move to the tempo of a song.
San Francisco Symphony
Washington Portrait
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 skills,...
Mississippi Whole School Initiative
Dream Big...With Your Eyes Wide Open
For many people, Barack Obama's presidency was the next step in Martin Luther King, Jr's dream of America's future. Explore the dreams of Americans past and present, as well as the young Americans in your class, with a set of activities...
Curated OER
Jazz: An Expression of Democracy
Pupils watch a video segment about the distinguishing characteristics of jazz. They describe those characteristics and the relation between the culture of jazz and democracy. They improvise simple rhythms and melodies.
Curated OER
Valentine Heart Game
First graders clap a rhythm pattern notated on a board, and then make up their own patterns on percussion instruments. They answer addition and subtraction problems.