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Oh Shenandoah
Students sing Oh Shenandoah with correct notes, diction, a characteristic choral tone, appropriate style and have an understanding of the history of the lyrics. The version of Oh Shenandoah is for an SSA choir and was arranged by Ruth...
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Learning to Play Together
Young scholars listen to and discuss American music genres, specifically ragtime, bebop/bop, and swing, and experiment with improvisation on traditional tunes and rhythms.
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Muses of Independence
Eighth graders explore the entertainment options in colonial America. In this colonial life lesson, 8th graders watch a movie about colonial music and arts. Students then respond to questions regarding the movie and also respond to 1...
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VH1 Goes Inside (Out) Trey and Dave Go to Africa
Students discuss the Western method of teaching and learning music and compare that to the aural transmission method used around the world. They practice singing two songs using aural transmission and watch a video showing musicians...
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Wonderful World of Color
Students compare the paintings and lives of William H. Johnson and Henri Matisse through their use of line, color, and patterns to publish an individual fact book. They then create an imaginary painting while listening to classical music.
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The Bartered Bride
Students explore the ways music is used to convey ideas about a culture. They define folk art by viewing and comparing visual folk and fine art. Then they analyze the musical piece," The Bartered Bride" and relate it to how folk art can...
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VH1 Road to Fame: Harry Connick Jr.
Students sing songs by Harry Connick Jr. and then learn different musical terms.
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Rhythm Compositions
Fourth graders collaborate in small groups to create simple rhythmic patterns in different time signatures. Each group creates rhythms in a competitive "game" atmosphere and then constructs entire rhythmic groups for presentation to...
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Introduction to Correct Posture for Singing
Students demonstrate correct body posture for proper singing technique, and accurately perform correct breathing technique in preparation for singing.
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Pysanky: Not Just a Pretty Egg
Students examine the art of Pysanky. Using the Internet, they identify the cultural similarities and differences between the United States and the Ukraine. Using Pysanky's art, they discover the symbolism he used in his artwork and...
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A Shape-Note Singing Lesson
Students discover the shape-note method of singing. In this reading and notating music lesson, students learn the four shapes of the shape-note method and the tradition of Sacred Harp singers. Students sing the shapes of "Yankee Doodle"...
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“And Still I Rise” Proud Black Women
Students examine the experiences of African American women. In this poetry lesson, students use their literary analysis skills to compare the poetry of Maya Angelou to rap music performed by Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill.
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Chance Dance Compositions
Fourth graders create dances through a randomly generated process (such as throwing a dice) and perform their dances for the class. Class work is based on Merce Cunningham's "Chance Dance" and includes walking, skipping hopping, and...
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Halloween Songs
Students perform a dance (La Raspa) from a different culture while maintaining a steady beat, sing "Halloween Night" with accurate pitch and good breath support, and imitate a body percussion part for the song "Monster Mash" in this...
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Night On Bald Mountain
Students sing songs, improvise musical responses, maintain steady beats, and move to music in this Halloween Music lesson plan for the Kindergarten classroom. Emphasis is placed upon meeting State and National Standards in Music.
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Turkey Songs
Students listen critically to music and answer questions about the music, sing a song on so, mi, la and do with a constant pitch center, and maintain steady beats in this Kindergarten Music Lesson. State and National Standards are...
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Storymaking Through Pantomime
Pupils explore performing arts by participating in a role-play activity. In this storytelling lesson, students utilize their physical expressions to particpate in a pantomime performance. Pupils evaluate performances in their class and...
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Lesson Plan for Granny Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes
Sixth graders practice choral reading of poetry. In this creative literature lesson, 6th graders incorporate elements of performing arts into their choral readings of various poems. They discuss musical instruments, facial...
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Enjoying Puerto Rican Artistts
Students examine artwork done by artists from Puerto Rico. As a class, they discuss each piece of work based on the elements used. They use the internet to research the lives of the artists and develop their own opinions on the art...
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Festival Hosanna
Students sing and perform the song "Festival Hosanna" by Carole Stephens in this Choral lesson for the High School classroom. Emphasis is placed upon the National Standards for Music and singing proper Latin text in a group setting.
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Fundamentals of Good Musicianship
Young scholars examine how to analyze musical performances and utilize practice techniques to improve their performances. They listen and evaluate another student's performance, then reverse roles with their partner.
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My Love and I - 2
Students sing the song "My Love And I" by Sonja Poorman and Berta Poorman in this Music instructional activity for the High School SSA choir. The instructional activity is part of a unit that can be used to aid the performance and...
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Colors of Gray
Students view a film about theatres in Chicago. They discover how performing arts can be enjoyed by all ages and how one becomes involved in performing in theatre. They answer questions and discuss to end the lesson.
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My Love And I
Students practice singing the song "My Love And I" by Sonja Poorman and Berta Poorman in this High School music lesson for the SSA choir. This lesson can be accomplished in under an hour and includes warm-up ideas to begin the class.