Curated OER
Patterns in Dance and Math
Students analyze how repeated body movements and shapes can represent and extend patterns. In this pattern analysis activity, students discuss patterns in dance, math, and everyday living. Students demonstrate a dance using a sequence of...
Smithsonian Institution
African American Music: Let’s Sing and Play Clapping Games
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.
Curated OER
Using Rhythm to Teach Patterns and Directions
Introduce young learners to line dancing. Here are some simple movement patterns to teach them. First teach, repeat, and repeat again without music. Then when they have a pretty good grasp of the movement patterns, add music and practice...
Curated OER
Music in Words
Your class can build strong, well-represented opinions about the music they hear. They listen to, and share thoughts about, a piece of classical music. Then they write a piece of music or a poem, and analyze their peers' work and their...
Curated OER
Learning AB Form: Music
Third grade musicians play Orff instruments while they learn about the AB Form. First they learn part A of a song, then they listen to when the song changes. After they understand the concept of AB form, they learn to play part B. Note:...
Poetry4kids
Rhythm in Poetry: The Basics
What makes a great poem sound so good? Learn the rhythmic secrets of poetry with an explanatory online lesson.
Curated OER
Music Lesson Plan for Teaching Children with (Severe) Autism
Here's a packet of music activities designed specifically for children with autism. Kids learn greeting, echo, and repertory songs, as well as rhythmic patterns to play rhythm instruments.
Curated OER
Opposites Rap
Here is a worksheet which invites young singers to learn a rap song. They participate in singing about antonyms. The first line is sung by the teacher; then they sing the next line. There is a clever rhyming pattern here as well.
Curated OER
Developing Writing Skills Through Japanese Folk Music
Students listen to Japanese folk songs to get inspired to create a writing piece about Japan. In this writing lesson, students use primary and secondary sources to add information about Japan.
Curated OER
Jewish Folk Song: Ya Ba Bom
Singing is a wonderful way to express an idea of any kind. This instructional activity is written expressly for use in directing a high school chorus. They work on using four-part harmony, expression, and melodic intervals while singing...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
ABA Form in Music
Patterns happen everywhere, in music, math, and language! Fourth graders listen to the "William Tell Overture" visualizing the patterns that they hear. They then discuss and write an ABA poem that matches the ABA form found in the music...
Smithsonian Institution
The Birth of an Icon: Learning and Performing the Origins of the Drum Set and Early Jazz Drumming in New Orleans, Louisiana
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...
Curated OER
Math, Fractions, and Music
Young scholars discover the relationship between musical rhythms and fractions. They add musical notes together to produce fractions and create addition and subtraction problems with musical notes. Students complete worksheets and create...
PBS
Patterns to the Rescue!
Track down the Cyberchase episode that this lesson is associated with. Using a worksheet that is embedded in the plan, learners must find the next two numbers and shapes (a double pattern). Once these have been discovered, pupils try...
Curated OER
Ballet and Classical Music
Fourth graders explore ballet. In this dance and music humanities lesson, 4th graders practice ballet positions and play a card game using French ballet vocabulary. Students count beats in rhythm patterns and listen to classical music...
Curated OER
Native American Music: Section 2
Take a look into the many facets, purposes, and styles of Native American music. Each slide in this well-organized presentation provides clear introductory information on the forms and functions of American tribal music. Use it to...
Curated OER
Music: Caterpillars, How They Grow!
Put on some music and get moving as a way to represent the life cycle of a caterpillar. Kids listen to the story The Very Hungary Caterpillar, discuss the life cycle, then create vocal expression that represent each stage of the cycle....
Education Closet
Equal Rhythms
Engage young mathematicians in learning about fractions with this cross-curricular math and music lesson. After listening to and repeating different beat patterns, children realize that musical notes are just another way of representing...
BBC
The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky
Over the course of six lessons, scholars try their hand at composing and dancing after a thorough examination of the famous ballet, The Nutcracker, by Tchaikovsky. Participants watch and discuss the performance of two dances, create and...
Curated OER
Patterns
Students create and extend patterns. In this pattern lesson, students learn to identify patterns using multiple senses. Students work at centers in small groups to explore and extend their understanding of patterns.
Kansas Music Educators Association
Games for the Elementary Music Classroom
Perfect for music specialists, classroom teachers, and substitutes, a packet of 18 games includes complete lessons as well as short activities for when you have some extra time at the end of class.
PBS
Math with Jake: Ratios and Fractions
And the beat goes on. The installment of the Math at the Core: Ratios series introduces time signatures in music. A musician shows the relationship between different types of musical beats. Working in pairs, classmates create beat...
Curated OER
Making Patterns - Create, Analyze, and Predict
Fourth graders practice making patterns using Unifix cubes and identify, analyze, and determine rules for describing numerical patterns involving operations and nonnumerical growing patterns. They also find an example of a pattern in...
Curated OER
Learning Refrain and Verse
Instruct your young musicians on the terms verse and refrain. They listen to two songs, and point out the verse and refrain as they occur. Students then play drums when they hear the verse and the refrain. Note: Song lyrics, sheet music,...