Lesson Plan
Curated OER

High School Lesson Plan

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students compose and arrange music within specific guidelines. They # identify and explain compositional devices and techniques used in a musical work. They compare and contrast the use of those techniques between different compositions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Grade 2: Music/Valentine's Day

For Teachers 2nd
Play and sing a Valentine's song with your second graders. They'll follow along allow as you demonstrate how to sing and keep a steady beat on non-pitched percussive instruments. While the music lesson has a Valentine theme, that theme...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Transferring Rhythmic Patterns From Music to Movement

For Teachers K - 5th
Students identify and demonstrate movement elements in relation to musical notation. They clap to rhythms, beat on drums, match musical notes to speech patterns and use the rhythms of the their names to create a dance.
Lesson Plan
Lauren Kitchin

Singing in the Classroom

For Teachers K - 6th
Those new to the Kodály Method of music instruction, as well as experienced educations, will find everything they need in a resource designed to launch a five-week vocal music program. Packed with warm ups, games, activities, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Independent Harmonies

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Independent harmonies, homophonic music, intervals, and melody are all part of music theory and practice. Prepare your budding musicians for the big time with these activities focused on playing with accompaniment. This instructional...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: Paul Chan: "Score for the 7th Light"

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Music, art, and poetry coalesce in a single exhibition, and in a single lesson. Critical thinkers analyze the Fluxus art movement as it's seen in the work of Paul Chan's 7 Lights. They consider the use of poetry and music in his...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Same and Different Through Music and Art

For Teachers K
This lesson is intended for a music class but would be a great way to teach compare and contrast to any class. Kindergarteners dance the Hokey Pokey to four different styles of music and examine two paintings of Humpty Dumpty, then...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Elementary My Dear Dancer-Foundation Lesson

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students participate in dance choreography. In this choreography lesson, students classify elements of choreography. Students collaborate in small groups and compose choreography.
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Songs, Sounds and Stories from the Georgia Sea Islands

For Teachers K - 12th
American music is the result of the influence of many cultures, including the traditions brought by the African slaves. Young scholars study the polyrhythms, the call-and-response format, and the vocal improvisations of the Gullah...
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "Violin" by Nikki Wallschlaeger

For Teachers 3rd - 12th Standards
Nikki Wallschlaeger's Violin is the featured poem in a lesson that uses music and multiple readings to delve deep into its analysis. After a writing warm-up, learners watch and listen to a video that showcases Regina Carter...
Lesson Plan
Azar Grammar

Song Lessons: Never, My Love

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Here's a clever way to introduce language learners to noun clauses. After a brief exercise that provides examples of different types of noun clauses, class members listen to the Association's "Never, My Love" and identify the clauses in...
Lesson Plan
New Class Museum

Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Portraits: Androgyny in Contemporary Culture

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Portraiture, artistic expression, romanticism, and androgyny are discussed in a thought-provoking lesson. Upper graders first discuss and examine the history of portraiture and the elements common to the Romantic style. Then they turn...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Identifying the Beat

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders listen to various songs. In this musical properties lesson, 6th graders work in groups to identify musical selections, practice tapping the beat, review time signatures, and identify the meter of different songs.
Lesson Plan
VH1

Lesson 3: Behind the Movie Chicago

For Teachers 7th - 12th
In small groups and then as a class, young musicians compare and contrast two pieces from the musical film Chicago. They pair up to look at the elements that make each piece similar and define the elements or arrangements that make...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: American Idyll

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Using the painting, Childhood Idyll for inspiration, learners reflect on things that are idealized. They focus in on pop music and pop idols, write a song, and perform it in front of the class, American Idol style.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Composing Music

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students compose music with musical instruments, and write the proper notation for the songs they have created.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Musical Textures Activity

For Teachers 2nd - 12th
Students identify textures in music. In this music appreciation lesson, students listen to a variety of classical music pieces and identify components of musical textures including monophony, homophony, polyphony, and heterophony.
Lesson Plan
VH1

Lesson 2: Moulin Rouge

For Teachers 7th - 12th
The pop movie Moulin Rouge was based on the opera La Boheme. Learners watch the last 30 minutes of each musical to compare and contrast social opposites. They'll first discuss the social differences of the main characters and how those...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Harmonic Vision’s Music Ace Software to Reinforce Basic Music Skills

For Teachers K
If you have access to Harmonic Vision’s Music Ace Software, then this lesson could work for you. Kindergarteners use the video music software to place, identify, and read musical notes. They listen in and identify both high and low...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Responding Syllables: Reading and Music

For Teachers 1st - 2nd Standards
Shell Silverstein’s “Sick” provides an opportunity for kids to demonstrate their understanding of syllables and phonemes. The class creates a list of descriptive words used in the poem that have more than one syllable, and brainstorm how...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Grand Canyon Suite

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Take a trip to the Grand Canyon! Lesson one explores how Ferde Grofe painted a musical landscape of America when he wrote the Grand Canyon Suite. Learners then examine art that shows the Grand Canyon in lesson two. Finally, lesson three...
Lesson Plan6:21
TED-Ed

From Aaliyah to Jay-Z: Captured Moments in Hip-hop History

For Teachers 4th - 8th
To take "the definitive portrait of that person in that moment" is the quest of photographer and hip-hop historian Jonathan Mannion. In this short video, Mannion details his dedication to his art and the process he goes through to catch...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Looking at different cultures and how music from differing cultures changes movements, meaning and mood

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Each of the three dance lessons included here will get your class moving. The first lesson allows learners to explore how music and movement differ in meaning depending on cultural context. Lesson two gives them an opportunity to create...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Round and Dance Music

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders recognize a round in singing groups and apply to choreography movements.  In this rounds lesson, 3rd graders memorize movements with songs at specific places.  Students perform a three part round.