California Department of Education
Instruments of Change: Making a Simple Stringed Instrument (CTE)
What materials and skills does a person need to build a simple working instrument? With the first of four lessons from the Changing One's Tune: A Music Therapy STEM Integrated Project series, scholars learn about the basic structure of...
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Silk Dragons - Activity 1
Young scholars investigate and discuss Japanese art and culture through an online video and a KWL chart. This lesson is an introduction to Japanese art with two supplemental lessons provided for further activities.
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Syncopation and Rhythm in Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Rap Music
Students recognize and clap the syncopated rhythmic beat of a rap song and identify recurring rhythmic pattern in the excerpt of "Dance of the Adolescents" from Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
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Music Notes
Students identify music notes. For this music notes lesson, students toss bean bags between partners the number of times of a note (quarter, half, dotted half, etc) value. Students also practice underhand tosses.
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"Viennese Musical Clock"
Fourth graders learn about musical patterns as they play a game called fudge. Students are assessed based on whether they were able to identify and play a steady beat, use the appropriate form, and clap the rythmic patterns.
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Studying The American Musical Theatre
Students discover the group dynamics necessary to produce an American musical in this six day lesson. Themes and characterization techniques are explored during collaborative small group research projects.
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African Popular Music
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.
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Signin' the Blues with Rock, Rap 'n Roll
Sixth graders listen to recordings and study jazz and the blues music. They identify the instrumentation and explore the 12-bar blues progression. After experimenting with different sound, 6th graders create their own arrangement, with...
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Visual Art and Music
Young scholars examine how pop art compliments music. For this arts lesson, students explore the elements of pop art and replicate those elements in their own piece of art.
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Class Rap
Students explore rap music and its components. They listen to examples of rap music and discuss their common features. After selecting a topic, they compose a rap with both words and the beat and sing it to the class. As a class they...
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The Musical Alphabet-Stepping Up
Learners explore the music alphabet. They step up from any letter of the musical alphabet. Students practice stepping up or skipping from various letters within the musical alphabet.
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Music in South India-Kerala
Students identify various instruments and styles of music from South India-Kerala. In this music lesson, students discover main languages of South India and the Kathakali dance drama. Students discuss the types of singers and dancers in...
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Native American Music and Dance Activity
Learners demonstrate keeping steady beat through practice exercises and stepping to the beat using instruments such as conga drums, tambourines and rhythm sticks.
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Musical Tapestry
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.
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Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America Music In America
Students study early New Orleans Jazz music and recognize Louis Armstrong as an early jazz artist. They recognize the elements and roots of Jazz.
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Learning Musical Terms
Students observe and discuss the following musical terms and their symbols: staff, measure, bar line, double bar line, treble clef, bass clef, time signature, common time, cut time, quarter note, half note, dotted half note, whole note,...
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Frida Kahlo Art
Students analyze Frida Kahlo as an artist and her artworks. In this art analysis activity, students review the art of Kahlo and her self-portrait. Students make their own self-portrait.
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Pop Art Ice Cream Painting
Students create paintings of ice cream treats using Pop Art as an inspiration while developing skills in painting in this 4th through 6th grade Art lesson. Included with the lesson are possible extensions and suggested evaluation rubric.
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Japanese Abstract Art And The Impressionist Movement
Students study several examples of Japanese abstract art and how this style impacted the Impressionist movement of the 19th century. This instructional activity includes ideas for student-created sketchbooks.
Live Oak Media
Activity Guide: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Enhance a reading of the Caldecott Medal-winning children's book Joseph had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback with this collection of learning activities. Starting with general background information about the book and author,...
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Glue Fish
Get out the glue and those oil pastels its time for an art project. The class explores shape, art, and color as they draw fish with glue, let them dry, and then color them as they wish. This project would be wonderful after discussing...
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Shoe Fish
Fishy, fishy, fishy, fish! Kids take off their shoes and trace them to create fish for a large aquarium art project. Each traced shoe shape is decorated with gills, fins, scales, and eyes, then hug on an aquarium background. Three book...
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Have It Your Way Sandwich Collage
You want to make a sandwich out of fabric and paper? If so, this art project provides the instructions needed. Learners will use a variety of fabrics and paper to construct a sandwich through collage. Tip: Have leaners describe the...
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Clay Gargoyles and Grotesques
Grotesques or gargoyles are wonderful subjects for stories or art projects. Here is a simple "how to" for creating a lesson about sculpting clay gargoyles. Tip: Have learners research gargoyles throughout history.