Music Fun
Time Signatures
You'll never miss a beat with a resource packet filled with puzzles, quizzes, and activity worksheets that focus on time signatures. Don't quaver or rest until you score this packet.
Curated OER
Syncopated Duet
Students work in pairs to compose a duet (with percussion instruments) that contains syncopated rhythm sequences. Each student will research a piece of music that they feel uses syncopation and will give a persuasive speech to the class.
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Rhythm and Improv, Jazz and Poetry
Connect the ideas of jazz improvisation and art to writing poetry. Learners collaborate and write different lines of poetry, imitating the jazz styles of improvisation and freewriting. Take a close look at the poems "Tenebrae" by Yusef...
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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"...
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SIGHT READING RHYTHM PATTERNS
The perception of rhythms by reading and the ability to auditorily discriminate these rhythm patterns by listening to them performed by the teacher is practiced here. your students will work to create an eight-beat long rhythm pattern.
National Park Service
The Poet's Toolbox
If you need a lesson for your poetry unit, use two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("Rain in Summer" and "The Slave in the Dismal Swamp") and a resource on Elements of Poetry. The lesson plan guides you through activities on...
Education Closet
Equal Rhythms
Engage young mathematicians in learning about fractions with this cross-curricular math and music instructional activity. After listening to and repeating different beat patterns, children realize that musical notes are just another way...
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6th Grade: Express Yourself, Lesson 2: Close Read
The second lesson plan of a pair about Paul Laurence Dunbar, this plan focuses in particular on his poem, "We Wear the Masks." After a short historical introduction, class members conduct a series or readings, marking up the text and...
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Follow The Leader - Soca Style
Here's a great warm-up activity to get your dancers up and moving. There are some very basic moves like hopping, sliding, marching, and bouncing in place. Add some hand and arm movements. Some days you could have slower music and some...
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Lollipop
This line dance incorporates the grapevine, step-claps, the Twist, and the Lindy step. It's a great way to introduce the Lindy step in a line dance before teaching them to dance the Lindy with a partner. The directions are well written...
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Macarena
Hey Macarena! Just a few moves to learn. It's only a 16-count dance that keeps repeating. Hands in front, palms down, then palms up, hands to upper arms, hands to arms, hands to hips, hands to cheeks, and wiggle. Yes! That's all there...
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Great Balls of Fire - I Got Locomotor Skills
Teach and review elementary locomotor skills. Use "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis to get youngsters up and grooving to the beat! The dance steps are described in rich detail and you will have the class jumping, skipping,...
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Swiss Ball Square Dance
Combine square dancing and a Swiss ball. There are quite a few square dance moves and how to do them while sitting on, or carrying a Swiss ball. Teach these square dance moves to the class. Then have them work together in small groups to...
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Dance Cards
Let little dancers choreograph a dance using steps they have learned in the unit. Write the names of the dance steps that have been taught on sets of index cards. Make sure that each set of cards you create has a mix of the dance steps....
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Opposite Grapevines
There are really only four basic moves in this line dance. Those dance moves are: grapevine, slide, marching, and then dipping and clapping. Each 8-count is repeated twice, for a total of a 64-count dance. The unique addition to this...
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March Madness
Get those boys dancing! Here's a dance activity that is choreographed around the use of a basketball. Teach them this line dance and see how they do. Watch the provided video yourself, or better yet, use the video to teach this dance....
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Disco Dances
Two line dances that are similar yet different. These two dances are performed to disco music, fast and upbeat. Do grapevines, heel-toe moves, and even tuck your arms up and flap them like chicken wings. These two dances are sure to get...
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Space Jam Dance
Do the "Space Jam" dance! A dance that is made up of basketball skills movements, such as: dribbling, defending with hands up, pivoting, shooting, and slam dunks. The dance step descriptions are very well written out with cues for...
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"Here We Go" Parachute Routine
Rather than just shouting out commands on what to do with a parachute, turn some music on and make it a dance routine. This seems like a pretty cool way to engage young learners. Make a dome, hop, make waves, walk, twist, and shake that...
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Jump Band Hokey Pokey
Add a new dimension to doing the Hokey Pokey by giving each group of four dancers a set of jump bands. There are dance moves for the two dancers holding the jump bands as well as for the dancers doing the Hokey Pokey. The goal is to...
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Surfin' USA Lummi Stick Routine
"Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learning how, come on and safari with me." One of the Beach Boys more famous songs that is bound to get your class up and moving. This dance has basic dance steps and the added dimension of using Lummi...
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Add-On Line Dancing
This dance activity is exactly what the title says it is: add-on line dancing! Each dancer creates an 8-count piece of a line dance. They can pull from anything they have learned so far. After individuals have choreographed their...
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Move It Line Dance
The upbeat song "I Like to Move It" from the movie Madagascar is just the ticket! Get your younsters up and moving. The basic steps in this dance are the grapevine, side step, squat, back step, jumps, jumping jacks, and marching in...
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Lummi Stick Macarena
Hey, Macarena!! The Macarena is very simple to dance: left, right, left, right, wiggle the hips. Spice it up a bit by giving the class things to hold in their hands such as lummi sticks or scarves. Give them anything that will not be too...