Curated OER
Elementary Music Plan
Hey Macarena! Third graders keep time while they sing a Latin Folk Song. To practice keeping a steady rhythm and singing in pitch, the class sings the Folk Song together and in a round while keeping a beat. They then learn to do the...
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Elements of Music—How do Composers Plan?
The introduction to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and the finale of his Symphony No. 4 provide young musicians with an opportunity to investigate the music elements composers employ to develop the themes they want to create. They compare the...
Smithsonian Institution
African American Music: Let’s Sing and Play Clapping Games
Two lessons focus on making a beat. Using popular African American music of its time, scholars listen and analyze the rhythm then recreate it with hands drums, and cups.
VH1
Lesson 3: Marketing of Pop Music
Pop music and marketing are thrown into the mix to make a fun and engaging lesson. Learners listen to several pop songs and discuss the differences in musical style. They then get into groups and work together to decide how they are...
Curated OER
Music from Across America
Students complete a unit of lessons on a variety of types of American music. They record their impressions of music samples on a worksheet, identify types of instruments, and choose a musical selection for their family to respond to.
Smithsonian Institution
The Sounds of an Island: Jamaican Music for the Classroom
Introduce young explorers to the music and history of Jamaican culture through game songs and dances. As a bonus, class members get to play simple songs transcribed for the recorder.
Smithsonian Institution
The Music of the Mardi Gras Indians
The traditions, costumes, and the music of the Mardi Gras Indians, African-Americans and those with African American or Native American Heritage are the focus of a unit that introduces class members to a little-known group that plays a...
Smithsonian Institution
Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade
Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....
Curated OER
Jazz in America Lesson Plan 8
Students explore the present and juture of jazz. They identify terms associated with jazz and listen to contemporary recordings. They participate in a class discussion regarding jazz's contribution to and reflection of American culture...
Curated OER
Create a Music Carnival
This outstanding lesson will encourage your students to combine their knowledge of rhythm, pitch, tone and color with their imaginations to create original compositions about animals. They create a music carnival to "Peter and the Wolf"...
Curated OER
Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum
Henry David Thoreau and Linda Ronstadt? Ann Tyler and Pete Townshend? Joyce Carol Oates and Pearl Jam? This richly detailed plan pairs classic literature with contemporary music and asks learners to analyze how the theme of conformity is...
Curated OER
Thomas Hart Benton: The Sources of Country Music
Students examine artwork by Thomas Hart Benton. In this interdisciplinary instructional activity, students analyze the painting The Sources of Country Music, listen to folk music, and examine how recording technology and the movies...
Curated OER
Getting Inside The Outsiders Through Music
Students listen to popular music of the 50's and 60's to make literature connections to The Outsiders. In this popular culture lesson plan, students evaluate and analyze various songs and connect them with the themes in the literature...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Engineered Music
Sound engineers investigate the structural design of a musical instrument, the recorder. They work in collaborative groups to choose an instrument to build out of everyday craft materials. It must be able to repeat a three-note sequence...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "Violin" by Nikki Wallschlaeger
Nikki Wallschlaeger's Violin is the featured poem in a instructional activity 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...
Curated OER
Geography and World Music
Students are able to demonstrate the ability to identify, contrast and compare the music of different places and regions, and the ability to recognize music as a resource for information about places and regions.
Classics for Kids
"Mars" from The Planets
Gustav Holst's The Planets provide young musicians an opportunity to examine how composers can create a suite: a collection of smaller pieces grouped to explore a single topic. After listening to "Jupiter," they examine "Mars" in detail,...
Curated OER
Classical Music Connection-Popular Music - Connecting Pachelbel, Beethoven, and Mussorgsky to Disco and Rap
Students examine classical music and the "Art Rock" of 1967. They review classical themes in their original genre and discuss/analyze how pop musicians incorporate theses themes into a variety of pop music genres.
Curated OER
Musical Change
Young learners record observations about different coin denominations and create a song about coins to the traditional song, "The Wheels on the Bus." This lesson plan is based on the Tennessee Quarter Reverse, and has all sorts of...
Curated OER
MUSICAL ELEMENTS OF THE LITTLE PRINCE
Learners demonstrate knowledge of musical instruments and the families of the orchestra. They acknowledge different voice types found in opera. Students interpret emotional expressions through listening. They compose sounds to express...
Curated OER
Drafting a Recording Contract
Pupils study the issues involved in a recording artist's contract looking at the contract from both the artist's and record company's point of view. They write a contract based on what they discover.
Curated OER
Music of My Heart
Pupils view and discuss the movie, Music of the Heart. They compare/contrast two versions of the song, Music of My Heart, identify characteristics of heroes, and sing the song, Music of My Heart.
Library of Congress
Understanding Immigration Through Popular Culture
Class members are introduced to a project-based learning unit on US immigration with an activity that asks them to analyze sheet music and other primary source materials to uncover issues raised by immigration.
John F. Kennedy Center
Harriet Tubman: Secret Messages Through Song
A lesson all about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad introduces scholars to African American spirituals. By way of reading, speaking, and listening, learners discover, analyze, and decode African American spirituals. They...