Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Music of My Heart

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students view and discuss the movie, Music of the Heart. They compare/contrast two versions of the song, Music of My Heart, identify characteristics of heroes, and sing the song, Music of My Heart.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Beat the Beat!

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd
Students develop a sense of pulse by listening to music with strong beats. In this music beats activity, students listen to marching band music examples. Students then practice showing the beat while listening to the song.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Musical Tapestry

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore the terms and structure of a bluegrass tune. They participate in a listening exercise that will challenge them to identify specific elements within a bluegrass musical arrangement.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jazz and Math: The Beat Goes On

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young scholars collect real data through listening, counting and timing jazz pieces.They use ratios, rates, and proportions to report collected data and demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of rhythm and tempo in music.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Moving to Music Self-Discovery

For Students 6th - 8th
For this moving to music worksheet, middle schoolers brainstorm about the types of movement they do when listening to music with a group of people. Then students select one of those movements and answer 14 short answer questions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Tango

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders explore the music of Buenos Aires as they hear and then dance the Tango. They practice basic Tango rhythm, learn to sing the song, "Any Turkey can Tango," then practice a few Tango-riffic dance steps with a partner....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tangerine: Instructions for Guided Imagery

For Teachers 6th - 8th
A guided imagery exercise draws class members into a particularly intense scene in Edward Bloor's Tangerine. After listening to a reading of an excerpt from the text, participants respond to a series of questions and then share their...
Activity
PBS

Reading Adventure Pack: Oceans

For Parents 1st Standards
Flotsam by David Wiesner and The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole, illustrated by Bruce Degen, begin a reading adventure pack focusing on oceans. With story listening and thoughtful discussion, scholars complete several...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Listening Walk

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students play instruments that reflect sounds in the story: hoots, toots, creaking, shrieks, clacking, crunching, whooshing, etc. They make vocal sounds from the story: whispered, sniffled, sigh, giggled, croaked, laughed. The...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cover the Music

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Learners explore U.S. history by listening to musical pieces in class. In this Civil War era instructional activity, students discuss the types of musical instruments that were available to soldiers during the war and the themes of their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

African Popular Music

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Pupils explore popular music of West Africa. In this musicians lesson plan, students complete listening tasks that challenge them to analyze the music of Oumou Sangare, Angelique Kidjo, and Baaba Maal.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Careers in Music - Notetaking Worksheet

For Students 6th - 8th
In this musical landscape worksheet, students follow the directions to answer 10 short answer questions after attending a musical performance, watching one on video, or listening to one on the radio.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Listening Logs Rubric

For Students 7th - 8th
In this listening log rubric worksheet, students are assessed on their understanding of and presentation on musical landscapes through several categories: Locating and Collecting, Listening and Responding, Analyzing and Interpreting,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan for C.S Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Here is a lesson that incorporates music writing, and reading literature. The class reads chapter eight from the C.S. Lewis classic The Magician's Nephew. Then, just like in the story, they use music as inspiration to create (write)...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Butterflies Fly!

For Teachers 3rd
Chopin was a lovely composer who played the piano masterfully. Third graders are introduced to Chopin, his piano sounds, triple meter, music patterns, movement, and the waltz. They listen to his music while hearing the story Butterflies...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Upper graders view the animated short, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and analyze how the music score was chosen to express the scene. They create an animation as they listen to a classical recording to experience the connection between...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to Ludwig van Beethoven

For Teachers 2nd - 4th Standards
"Ode to la Tortilla" and "Ode to Joy"? Sure! Use Gary Soto's poem to introduce learners to the ode format. After examining the descriptive words Soto uses, class members study a poster of Ludwig van Beethoven, suggest words that describe...
Writing
Curated OER

Hip-Hop History and the Beastie Boys

For Students 8th - 11th
So what about those Beastie Boys? Kids read a New York Times article relating the history of hip-hop and rap icons the Beastie Boys. They then answer eleven who, what, when, where, and why questions about the text they read.
Worksheet
1
1
Curated OER

Comparing Poems

For Students 4th - 6th Standards
Young literary analysts compare two poems by the same author. Readers look for slant rhyme, observe the beat and rhythm of each, and search for repeated vowel sounds. After re-reading, they observe the lack of punctuation and the stanza...
Lesson Plan
Education Closet

West Side Shifts

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Combine math, language arts, music, and dance with an activity focused on "America" from West Side Story. After listening to the song, learners compare the film to Romeo and Juliet, analyze the song's meter, design choreography, plan...
Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Sing a Song of Science

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Using parodies of popular music to introduce and reinforce concepts in secondary classrooms.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Music and Emotions

For Teachers 1st
First graders examine how certain types of music can evoke emotions and mental images. They fold a piece of paper into four equal sections, and create a picture of what they are visualizing in each section while listening to four...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Musical Genre Pie Charts

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th
In this pie chart worksheet, students transpose musical genre data to the charts and then answer questions about the results.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Who Wants To Be A Mini Maestro?

For Teachers K
Students are introduced to classical music. They listen to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. They interview each other in regards to their feelings about the music and the paintings they produced while listening to the piece.