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Listening Logs
Young scholars hone their listening skills. They develop tools for approaching research into their own musical traditions and those of community and state and examine different ways of recording data. They design different types of...
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Metallic Sounds
Students differentiate between metallic and non-metallic sounds. In this music lesson, students listen to the audio clip of "March" and march in time with the music. Students identify the metallic sounds in the music piece. Students...
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Rhythmic Expression
Students discover movement and expression to music/sound through a series of teacher-led exercises and role plays. This instructional activity is ideal for the middle school drama class with possibilities for adaptation to any level of...
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Creative Dancing
Students dance a Cossack dance. In this dance lesson, students learn to keep the beat and follow a movement sequence to dance a Cossack Dance.
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Sense of Place: No River Too Wide-Bridges
Fifth graders discover the history of their hometown Des Moines River. In this U.S. Geography lesson plan students speak with Iowans that tell stories of the settlers and early villages near the Des Moines River. Students...
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Rhythm & Improv: Jazz & Poetry
Students analyze the elements of poetry and jazz. In this critical thinking skills lesson, students take a closer look at the rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, form, free verse, lyricism, and imagery that exist is jazz as well as poetry.
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Song Writing
Students write an original song using music composition software such as Music Time. By doing this, students identify another use for the computer besides word processing and games.
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B-A-N-J-O: A Bluegrass Version of Bingo
Students explain the history and relevance of the following instruments in bluegrass music: fiddle, guitar, dobro, banjo, mandolin and stand-up bass.
They identify the defining characteristics of each bluegrass instrument and participate...
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Quarter Rest Lesson
First graders indicate the silent beats (rests) with an outward motion of the arms. They indicate a measure clapped out with a quarter rest, and a measure clapped out without a quarter rest.
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Red, White, and Blue Notes
Students explore the history of major American music genres. Then, through mock radio shows, students examine the distinguishing features of each genre and how each has changed throughout the years.
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Dizzy Gillespie
Young scholars compare and contrast two songs by Dizzy Gillespie and identify elements of bebop. They construct a Web page about Gillespie and his music.
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What Is Cool?
Students compare versions of the song, "So What," recorded by Miles Davis and Marcus Miller. They explore the Ken Burns Website to discover more about Davis and journal their thoughts about him and his music.
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Look, Listen and Learn
Students brainstorm what they know about the performing arts and research an artist or song and its related genre. Students work in groups to create an online banner to attract peers to their performing arts genre.
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For The Record
Learners create a database that catalogs their music collection of CD's and tapes. They sort, analyze and print selected database records in answer to questions about their favorite music recordings and performing artists. Each student...
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American Rhythms
Students combine elements of music with poetry. In this creative writing instructional activity, students examine poems from a variety of authors with varying writing styles. Students explore the different elements of poetry,...
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Percussion Instruments and Pitch
Students play string instruments to discover how the pitch changes on various string instruments. In this pitch lesson, students listen to video clips and play an online music game. Students become familiar with music...
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Reading Comprehension
In this reading comprehension lesson, 3rd graders read the story Treasury of Literature and complete various comprehension activities. Students answer factual questions about the story, analyze the story using a bubble map, and...
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World Heart Day
In this World Heart Day activity, students complete activities including reading a passage, matching phrases, fill in the blanks, correct word choosing, multiple choice, sequencing, unscramble the sentences, write questions, take a...
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What's New?
Students act as teams of product managers for personal electronics companies. Each team evaluate new electronic devices in different product categories (such as handheld devices and portable music devices), and create product...
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Trouble With Trolls
Students listen to The Trouble With Trolls and discuss fables. In this story elements lesson, students work on reading skills. Students participate in different reading activities.
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Daily Routine
In this daily routine worksheet, students listen to sentences and match them to pictures, sequence sentences, and solve a crossword. Students complete 3 activities about a daily routine.
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All Mixed Up
Students explore the emergence of bootlegs, also known as 'mash-ups' (the combination of two songs into one), on the Internet. By researching the musical origins of songs and creating and performing their own bootlegs, students gain a...
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Que Llueva! It's Raining, It's Pouring!
Students learn to sing a song in another language. In this music activity, students learn a song about rain in English and Spanish. Students listen to the song Que Llueva in Spanish and It's Raining, It's Pouring in English,...
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Moving and Grooving with Tempo:
Young scholars are able to repeat various movements. They are able to state the definition of tempo. Students are able to distinguish between a slow temps and a fast tempo. They form a circle and play the music detective game.