San Francisco Symphony
Lesson Ideas for Any Music
Music is a wonderful tool you can add to enhance the learning process for every subject. Here is a list of music selections that are categorized by subject, along with some neat teaching suggestions. You'll find songs suited to...
Curated OER
The Imagine Poetry & Mural Lesson
Readers of all ages can work together in groups to create original poetry on the theme of "Imagine," inspired by John Lennon's classic song. They also create a mural to illustrate their poetry. A beautiful activity, inspired by a...
Curated OER
Teaching The Great Gatsby with the New York Times
East Egg, West Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and the green light. Bring Gatsby, the Jazz Age, and the American Dream to your classroom with a resource designed for teachers. Included in the treasury are six great teaching ideas for F. Scott...
Creative Competitions, Inc.
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Fantastic Fairy Tale
Learning about literature can be so much fun; it can also be made more accessible through projects and dramatic play. As they explore theme, character, and setting, the class gets creative and makes a dramatic recreation of a classic...
Scholastic
Folk and Fairy Tale Readers: The City Mouse and the Country Mouse
Support the growth of your emergent readers with this printable version of the classic fable "The City Mouse and the Country Mouse." Including supporting illustrations and simple dialogue, this story is perfect for developing the fluency...
Curated OER
Folk Songs, Instruments of the Orchestra
Second graders study Folk Songs and instruments of the orchestra in these lessons. They recognize the difference between folk songs and classical music.
Curated OER
Rooster's Night Out
Mitch Weiss and Martha Hamilton's Rooster's Night Out, a retelling of a classic Cuba folktale, launches a cross-curricular study of Cuban cultural traditions. Class members draw the characters from the book, participate in math and...
Curated OER
Music and Emotions
First graders examine how certain types of music can evoke emotions and mental images. They fold a piece of paper into four equal sections, and create a picture of what they are visualizing in each section while listening to four...
Curated OER
How Music Motivates
Young scholars form conclusions regarding the motivational effects of music on the mind during the Civil Rights era. In this Civil Rights movement lesson, students describe how music motivates, describe the motivational role in freedom...
Curated OER
Arts Directors
Students reflect on a personally meaningful live performance and the circumstances necessary to create art. They study about the current leadership crisis facing the Met, Carnegie Hall, and the Public theater. In groups, students...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan for C.S Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew
Here is a instructional activity that incorporates music writing, and reading literature. The class reads chapter eight from the C.S. Lewis classic The Magician's Nephew. Then, just like in the story, they use music as inspiration to...
San Francisco Symphony
By the Great Horn Spoon!
By The Great Horn Spoon is a fantastic novel for introducing learners to life during the California Gold Rush. First, kids research and analyze American folk songs, then they connect to the text as they listen to symphonic pieces written...
Louisiana Department of Education
Gulliver’s Travels
Gulliver's Travels tells the story of a man who goes on voyages and encounters strange people. A unit plan introduces readers to the classic text, as well as excerpts from other examples of sarcasm and satire, such as "A Modest Proposal"...
Curated OER
Humor Theories: Features vs. Functions vs. Subjects
Great for a psychology, sociology, or language arts lecture, this presentation focuses on the features, functions, and subjects of humor. Complete with definitions and examples of each category, as well as links to humorous videos and...
Curated OER
The Classic Songs of Paul Simon
For this classic songs of Paul Simon worksheet, students use their knowledge of popular music to fill in the blanks in the 15 song titles.
Curated OER
Discovering the Element of Color in Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale: A Comparison of Tone Color and Art Color
Students experience several different tone colors in the song and also add layers of color to their copy of "The Owl" to compare and contrast how an artist would create the element of color.
Curated OER
"Mambo" from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein
Students encounter and study "Mambo" from "West Side Story," by Leonard Bernstein. They practice utilizing musical elements (instrumentation, tempo, and dynamics) to create a certain mood for a scene with music. Each student interprets...
Curated OER
Music in Other Cultures
Students examine the musical concepts of timbre, melody, and rhythm. They listen to and identify characteristics of music from other cultures.
Curated OER
Discussion: The Arts
In this discussion about the arts worksheet, students ask and answer questions concerning the arts and support of the arts.
Curated OER
Music: Instruments of the Orchestra
Students identify various musical instruments and explain their roles in an orchestra. Following a Powerpoint presentation, students discuss what they have discovered in small groups. Then, each groups devises four questions based on...
Curated OER
Symphonic Poetry
Young scholars interpret the themes in Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, create a 6-line poem based on the themes in the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and define musical terms related to the study of programmatic...
Curated OER
A Modest Proposal: Irony Made Understandable with Rock and Roll
Who doesn't love music? Poems and songs will engage your high school class in a discussion about irony. Use songs like "Rockin' in the Free World" or "Born in the U.S.A." to illustrate the ironic point of view. Print the lyrics so...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.7
Use this resource's pairings of classical literature and paintings to practice the skill of comparing different artistic mediums with your ELA class. Addressing standard 7 for literature in the Common Core, the resource encourages your...
Orlando Shakes
It’s a Wonderful Life: Study Guide
George Bailey learns that it truly is a wonderful life when he discovered how many lives he has touched—not to mention how many new generations of lives the story touches every year. A study guide on It's a Wonderful Life introduces...