Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Icefish Adaptations
What adaptations exist in order for icefish to survive the subfreezing temperatures of the Antarctic Ocean? Middle and high schoolers can find out through watching a related 13-minute video and performing a simple investigation to...
Education Closet
West Side Shifts
Combine math, language arts, music, and dance with an activity focused on "America" from West Side Story. After listening to the song, learners compare the film to Romeo and Juliet, analyze the song's meter, design choreography, plan...
Curated OER
Mixing Complimentary Colors, Tints, and Shades
Students explore primary, secondary, and complimentary colors. They mix tempera paints to create secondary colors, tints, and shades, and design and paint a color grid demonstrating color theory.
Curated OER
Expressionism: Painting
Pupils judge the effectiveness of artistic expressions using current art theories such as representationalism, functionalism, and formalism, and find examples of each through internet research.
Curated OER
"Graffiti Names"
Graffiti art is fun, provides an opportunity for self expression, and captures the essences of society in a specific time and place. The class gets a crash course in graffiti as they watch the PBS video The History of American Graffiti,...
Curated OER
Music Knowledge: pre/post test
While this is not a lesson, it could potentially take as long as one. This is a 73-question test to administer to those studying music. They'll need to answer questions regarding general music terminology, theory, and composition.
Shodor Education Foundation
From Probability to Combinatorics and Number Theory
What middle schooler does not enjoy an occasional online game? In this instructional activity play, you will find embedded links to an online probability game, and informative pages about how division is used in probability, the concept...
Curated OER
Teaching “Level of Difficulty” through Close Reading, Reflection, and Performance
What makes a poem difficult? Explore that topic and more with your class as you work through the lesson plan detailed here. Using materials from Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest, individuals or small groups examine poems...
Curated OER
Missing the Major Scales 2
Any musician can tell you, you have to know your scales, key signatures, and notes when reading sheet music. Kids are quizzed on major scales and the notes found with in each scale. They fill in the missing notes and identify each scale.
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
Down a 4th, Up a 5th
It's time to practice those sharps. Young musicians write the order of sharps by counting down a fourth and up a fifth. This is a great way to teach sharps to emergent musical note readers.
Can Teach
Pass the Melody
Get a jam session started in your elementary music class! Learners engage in melody transitions by singing a familiar song and passing on the tune to the next person.
Sargent Art
Symmetry: A Design Problem
As part of a study of design, young artists examine an example of a formal (symmetrical) design and then, following step-by-step directions, create their own.
Sargent Art
Warhol-like Color Study
The lithographs of pop artist Andy Warhol inspire a lesson that asks young artists to try their hand at creating a study that demonstrates the effect color has on design. After drawing a self-portrait, participants paint their image in...
WHB Elementary School Band
Circle of Fifths: Major Keys
How many sharps and flats are their in each of the major keys? Help keep your young musicians sharp with a printable template that models how to identify the signature for the major keys' sharps and flats.
Fun Music Company
Musical Terms for the Digital Age
Young musicians must unscramble music expressions and then use the key pad from a digital keyboard to answer a music trivia question.
Fun Music Company
Code Breaking with Music Symbols Representing Letters
Navajo code talkers beware! These kids use music symbols to break the codes and find both the question and the answer to a music trivia question.
Fun Music Company
Treasure Island Clues: Scales
Which Beatle received the most fan mail? To answer this music trivia question, young musicians must employ their knowledge of scales, key signatures, and leading notes to find the letters that spell out the name of one of the famous mop...
Fun Music Company
Note Drawing
Name that note. Every good boy (and girl) will find it easy to draw notes on these worksheets. The packet includes templates for note drawing, naming, etc.
Music Teaching Resources
Identifying Major and Minor Triads 1
Here's a major and minor triads learning exercise that asks young musicians to name the root, third, and fifth notes and the chord the notes produce.
Music Teaching Resources
Intervals Worksheet 3
Young musicians are asked to name the eight different intervals pictured on a worksheet that also asks them to identify the low and high notes, the half steps, and the distance between the notes.
Shodor Education Foundation
InteGreat
Hands-on investigation of Riemann sums becomes possible without intensive arithmetic gymnastics with this interactive lesson plan. Learners manipulate online graphing tools to develop and test theories about right, left, and midpoint...
Computer Science Unplugged
The Poor Cartographer—Graph Coloring
Color the town red. Demonstrate the concept of graph theory with a task that involves determining the least number of colors needed to color a map so that neighboring countries are not represented by the same color. Pupils make...
Brigham Young University
Understanding Design, Composition, and Color
The set for a play combines design elements (style, line, shape, mass, measure, position, color, and texture) and principles of composition (unity, harmony, contrast, variation, balance, proportion, and emphasis) to create a particular...