Curated OER
Music from the Silk Roads
Learners explore different types of musical instruments. For this musical instrument lesson, students create a replica of a sheng. Learners utilize this instrument to understand different types of breathing used in different sounds....
Curated OER
Music Makers
Students explore distinct styles that have characterized famous musicians and conductors. By studying one musician or conductor in-depth, students become experts on this person's musical style and are given the opportunity to share.
Curated OER
Student Composers with Music Ace
Students compose short compositions using Doodle Pad. In this Musical composition lesson, students a clef and note lines to prior knowledge of the treble clef and note lines to write short songs on the computer. Students use...
Curated OER
Music Listening-What's The Sound
In this lesson, Music Listening-What's The Sound, students practice playing different instrument. Students listen as the instruments are played to determine the sound of each instrument. Students will match the instrument to the sound....
Curated OER
Musical Cares
Students explore ways in which music can relay messages of peace and how popular songs can be interpreted as commentary on current issues and themes.
Curated OER
State of the Art
Learners watch and discuss a scene from 'Cool Hand Luke,' then read the actor Kevin Costner's commentary on it. Then, each identifies one work of art that he or she loves and prepares a similar commentary on the details of that work's...
Curated OER
Playing Music
In this music vocabulary worksheet, students use a word bank of 6 words (sing, clap, play, tap, listen, dance) to fill in 6 sentences.
SoundTree
When The Saints Go Marching In: A Lesson for Middle School Keyboard Lab Students
After listening to a variety of interpretations of "When the Saints Go Marching In," partners compose and then perform their own renditions of this classic before joining a full-class jam session.
Curated OER
Spin Art
The best part about spin art is that is demonstrates the concept of centrifugal force. Explore the magical spin of gravity as you make colorful art. This lesson idea is short, very simple, and requires a spin art machine.
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Utopia/Dystopia: The American Dream
America was founded by dreamers, and the American dream still resonates in our country today. Track the American dream from its Puritan beginnings to its optimistic descendants with a instructional activity that focuses on speeches...
VH1
Lessons for Hight School Music Classes: Lesson 2
Art and music have been vehicles for statements of civil unrest for hundreds of years. Upper graders critically analyze several pop songs or music movements from the 1980s that exemplify politically charged motives. They...
Curated OER
Musical Moods
To celebrate diversity and the purpose of Harmony Day, the class examines culturally diverse music and expression through line drawing. They discuss that all cultures produce music and that music can convey mood just like art can. As the...
Curated OER
Great Gatsby's Jazz
As Nick wanders the grounds of Gatsby's mansion, he observes the behaviors of the rowdy guests and listens to the music pouring over the lawn. Bring the music of the jazz age into the classroom with Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues,"...
Curated OER
The Affect of Music on Visual Images
Eighth graders consider cross-curricular connections between social studies, singing, and current events. They listen to the song, "I Can't Cry Hard Enough." view scenes from September 11, then create presentations using images, a...
Curated OER
The South, the North and the Great Migration: Blues and Literature
Here is a complex lesson plan that interweaves the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration with the study of poetry, art, and blues music from the Harlem Renaissance. The plan helps young historians develop a deep...
Curated OER
Amadeus Quiz
Get out the text-book, and CD player to teach a lesson on Mozart. Afterward, you can administer this quiz which requires learners to complete 20 short-answer questions related to Mozart's life, operas, music, and general music terminology.
Curated OER
Parallel Harmonies
What is a parallel harmony? You and your class can explore musical terminology through song. You define what a parallel harmony is, the class identifies parallel harmony in music they hear, and then you all sing some examples together....
Curated OER
Lesson: Jazzy Stripes and Worlds
Every artist creates in his own unique way drawing from a variety of inspirational sources. Upper graders work to expand their understanding of the creative process by first analyzing a modern piece and then creating one. They listen to...
Concordia College Archives
Introduction and Student Inquiry
Introduce young musicians to the history of and different styles of music with an inquiry-based learning activity that asks them to play detectives to determine the similarities and differences among the sheet music found at a series of...
California Department of Education
Hitting the Write Note: Writing a Proposal
To whom it may concern ... Scholars undergo the process of writing a letter to an authority figure. The lesson asks writers to compose a formal letter requesting a music therapy space. Pupils learn how to submit a project proposal to any...
PJ Library
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Teach children that just because something is old, doesn't mean you have to throw it away with a reading of Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback. Engaging children with an arts and crafts activity in which they patch the...
NPR
Can You Beat Cognitive Bias?
In a time of fake news, media manipulation, and Internet trolls, a resource equips learners with the tools they need to recognize and combat resources that are designed to appeal to our cognitive biases. Introduce learners to five...
Curated OER
Thanksgiving
Introduce the basics of Thanksgiving with a language arts instructional activity. As pupils practice observation skills, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, they design paper turkeys by outlining their hands and feet and by...
Curated OER
High School Lesson Plan
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.