Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Kindergarten Music Lesson

For Teachers K
Singing, clapping, moving up and down with the melody, it all sounds like a great music lesson. Kinder-musicians sing three different songs to practice memory, speaking, and movement skills. They'll move to the melody, build memory with...
Lesson Plan
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Science 4 Inquiry

Musical Vibes with Palm Pipes

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
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...
Activity
Illinois Music Education Conference

Taking the “General” Out of Middle School General Music!

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Middle schoolers will sing the praises of this music program. The resource, designed as an overview for music instructors, is loaded with ideas, activities, and links. Not a sour note in the packet. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Blues, B.B. King, Muddy Waters

For Teachers 6th - 9th
B.B. King and Muddy Waters are two of the most famous blues performers of all time. In this music instructional activity, middle schoolers study the early careers and lasting musical contributions of both artists, each of whom carried...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Garage Band to Enhance 2nd Grade Composition

For Teachers 2nd
Your second graders can become composers with a little help from the Garage Band software. You pre-select several drum, piano, and guitar loops for the groups to choose from, then they put them together following an ABA looping pattern....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Enjoying Latino Music

For Teachers K - 4th
Students view different musical instruments from around Latino world, predict what sounds instruments will make based on their appearance, listen to and evaluate music from different Latino genres orally or in writing, and make...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Wyclef Jean for VH1 Storytellers

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners use recordings of Wyclef Jean's music to study and explore different styles and techniques.
App
Peter Nagy

Virtuoso Piano Free 3

For Students 3rd - 8th
This may be as close to playing a piano as it is possible to get without actually having a physical instrument in the class. Learn the names and sounds of keys, play a solo or a duet, and practice scales or any song you'd like–all for free!
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

Sounds of the Silk Road

For Students 6th - 12th
Young explorers may not be able to travel the Silk Road but they can listen to music that was played on instruments of the time and create their own songs with the help of an interesting interactive resource. 
Lesson Plan
Global Oneness Project

Flamenco: A Cross-Cultural Art Form

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Notes of pride and persecution, exclusion and isolation resonate in flamenco. Introduce this musical art form to your social studies or Spanish language classes with a resource that follows a young flamenco guitarist as he...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Musical Tapestry

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young scholars 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.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Compas-- Modern Popular Music of Haiti

For Students 5th - 6th
In this music learning exercise, students discover facts about the musical styles and rhythms of Haiti. Students learn about Compas and Voodoo music and answer 4 questions. Note: Punctuation is missing from one of the questions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating Musical Notation

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th
For this creative music activity from Scientific American, young scholars learn about musical notation and then design their own notations. Great web resource links are alsp provided
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Guitar - 12 Bar Blues

For Teachers 7th - 12th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

VH1 Classic Presents: Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, Lesson 3

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students in a guitar class perform the Beatles song, Eleonor Rigby and study it's melodic and harmonic structures. They discover the process of arranging the song for a 4-part guitar ensemble.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Folk Rock Singers and Songwriters

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners listen to and analyze songs of folk rock musicians of 1970 and then compose and perform a song in a popular or folk style for acoustic guitar and voice or for two acoustic guitars.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Music

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders sing the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts" while identifying eighth, quarter, and half notes. They listen to Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring and recall other ballet music.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

B is for Banana

For Teachers K - 6th
Learners practice and perform the song "B is for Banana" using their knowledge of basic rhythms in 4/4 and student-created rhythm accompaniment based on speech. This excellent lesson is provided by the MENC (National Association for...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Musical Instruments

For Teachers K
Students identify a guitar, piano, trumpet, flute, drum, and a violin by sight and sound. They view pictures of each instrument as they are played on a recording, discuss how each instrument makes their particular sound, and listen to...
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Sixties: Dylan Plugs in and Sells Out

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Before Woodstock, there was Newport. Get plugged in to the social changes of the 1960s with a lesson that looks at Bob Dylan's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival as a symbol of the radical changes that marked the era.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

AT THE CORRAL

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students study dotted eighth/sixteenth note rhythm pattern using percussion instruments and alternating from "corral to corral" in groups of 4-6. They play the pattern while listening to selected American western theme songs.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Being Shadowed

For Students K - 2nd
What causes a shadow to appear? Have kindergartners and first graders explore shadows with a fun science activity. After reading a short paragraph about light sources, they draw a shadow for a little girl based on the location of the...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Familiar Sounds

For Teachers K - 6th
To foster concept development and auditory discrimination skills, learners with visual impairments listen to identify a variety of common sounds. The teacher makes recordings of various sounds, including those found in the home, at the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

H1 Classic Presents: Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, Lesson 2

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students are introduced to the various songwriting techniques of Paul McCartney. They explore and compare the basic melodic, harmonic, and lyrical tendencies of the different types of pop music.