Education Closet
Equal Rhythms
Engage young mathematicians in learning about fractions with this cross-curricular math and music lesson plan. After listening to and repeating different beat patterns, children realize that musical notes are just another way of...
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Math, Fractions, and Music
Students 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 their...
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Comparing Values: Comparisons Between Musical Notation and Money
Learners identify ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in school, specifically math, are interrelated with those of music.
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Basketball Notes
Students add the value of various musical notes to win a chance to shoot a basketball. They compete in teams and consider the values of quarter, half and whole notes to complete related math problems.
Science 4 Inquiry
Musical Vibes with Palm Pipes
Ancient people used musical pipes as early as the third millennium BCE. Young scientists explore the workings of musical pipes to better understand the relationship with frequency, length of pipe, and sound waves. They determine the...
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Subtracting from Ten: Using Math with Music
Students explore basic math functions by singing with their classmates. For this addition and subtraction lesson, students sing the song "5 Green and Speckled Frogs"and complete a list of subtraction problems. Students complete a...
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Melodies and Math: Creating Music with Non-Traditional Instruments
Review the 4/4 and 2/4 time signatures in music with a helpful music theory lesson plan. Young musicians experiment with electronic sounds and create their own musical performance using instruments made from materials found in the...
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Rhythm, Math, Rhythm
Students play instruments in math class to learn the interconnectedness between math and music. In this math lesson, students subdivide a piece of music, clapping rhythms and charting rhythm patterns in the song. A guided discussion...
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Name That Tune: Matching Musical Tones Through Waveform Analysis
Pupils detect the waveform of musical notes to determine the code for the "safe" in this forensics simulation lesson. They use a microphone and tuning forks along with Vernier EasyData on their graphing calculator to analyze five musical...
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Note Names & Piano Games
Students identify the letter names of notes, demonstrate simple rhythms, and combine the two to play short melodic phrases using Bug Band. They create their own melodies and play them using Bug Band and various instruments.
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Jazz and Math: Improvisation Permutations
Young scholars observe that there are myriad combinations of rhythms to choose from when improvising jazz and blues music, and recognize that while the variations seem infinite, they are in fact finite. They notate a 12 bar blues...
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Musical Hoop Addition
Musical chairs is a great activity to get children moving while still paying attention and listening. This activity, which is based on musical chairs, gets students moving while learning basic addition facts. They hop from hoop to hoop...
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Adding Note Values
Students use the values of musical notes to complete math problems. They study the names and values of musical notes, define the word beat as it relates to music. They complete math problems using music note values.
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Jazz and Math: Rhythmic Innovations
Students watch a segment of the PBS Ken Burns JAZZ documentary about Buddy Bolden creating the "Big Four." They compare and contrast the rhythms of marches and jazz based on the examples in the film, and explore notation, subdivision of...
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Math and Music: Fibonacci Sequence
Students investigate the mathematical patterns of the Fibonacci Sequence. They determine how math is connected to music, specifically looking at music the uses the pattern sequence found in the Fibonacci Sequence.
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Musical Note Value
Students will identify each symbol by sight stating the value of each. They will use cardboard notes to who what they have learned so far about the note values creating 4 and 6 count phrases.
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The Math Of African Music
Students practice rhythms and fractions on African drums in this Music lesson mixing Math skills and music notation. The lesson also includes ideas for assessment and state and national benchmarks met.
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Music Activity at Family Math Night
Students work with a family member in placing all of the music notes on a staff board. They try to match the rhythm on the rhythm board and show their completed song to the teacher.
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Classroom Builder
Students explore music theory by discussing a classic song. In this musical notation instructional activity, students listen to the song "My Favorite Things" and discuss and share their personal tastes with the class. Students practice...
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Creating Musical Notation
In this creative music activity from Scientific American, students learn about musical notation and then design their own notations. Great web resource links are alsp provided
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Jazz and Math: Improvisation Permutations
Learners explore the various rhythmic combinations in jazz and blues music. They watch a video segment, apply a mathematical formula to calculate the number of possible rhythmic combinations, and perform a combination of notes and...
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Jazz and Math: Rhythmic Innovations
Students compare and contrast the rhythms of marches and jazz. They watch an excerpt about Buddy Bolden from the PBS Ken Burns Jazz documentary, compare/contrast march and jazz rhythms, complete a worksheet, and notate and perform jazz...
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Sounds Like Music
Students define and examine the connections between sound and music and how engineers design instruments. They listen to examples of musical instruments, view a demonstration of a tuning fork and bottles filled with varying amounts of...
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Note Names & Piano Games
Students identify letter names of notes, demonstrate simple rhythms, and use that knowledge to play short melodic phrases using the educational software called BugBand. Handouts and a quiz to assess student achievement are included.