Center for Civic Education
The Power of Nonviolence: Music Can Change the World
Here is a fantastic activity through which class members discover how music has the ability to influence others in a meaningful way. After reviewing selected pieces and modern-day protest songs, learners will research other songs that...
Curated OER
Music To My Ears: The District of Columbia Quarter
Students practice identifying different genres of music by creating posters. In this music appreciation lesson, students research Duke Ellington and complete worksheets based on his style of music, Jazz. Students collaborate in small...
Curated OER
Jazz and Math: Rhythmic Innovations
Students watch a segment of the PBS Ken Burns JAZZ documentary about Buddy Bolden creating the "Big Four." They compare and contrast the rhythms of marches and jazz based on the examples in the film, and explore notation, subdivision of...
Curated OER
Integrated Social Studies and Music Lesson
Fourth graders study the Civil War. They listen to and study the songs, 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' and 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home.' They play 'Yankee Doodle' on their recorders and write in their reflection journals about their...
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America - Gospel Beginnings
Students identify musical characteristics of gospel and sing a gospel selection. They practice the call and response technique. After going through individual parts, they sing the entire song with piano accompaniment.
Curated OER
Development of Popular Music
The history and marketing of pop music is the subject of this lesson. Learners first read an article detailing definitions and historical shifts of pop music in society. The activity then provides students with a few comprehension-level...
VH1
Lesson 3: Behind the Movie Chicago
In small groups and then as a class, young musicians compare and contrast two pieces from the musical film Chicago. They pair up to look at the elements that make each piece similar and define the elements or arrangements that make them...
Curated OER
The blues highway: An integration of music with geography
Young scholars analyze the movement of the blues from rural Mississippi to urban Chicago and how place and the environment affected the development of the blues. They define the blues, where it originated and how and why it moved to...
Curated OER
Ice -T's Rap School
Students research the history of rap and gain an understanding of the components of rap music. They experience the correlation between Shakespeare's poetry and rap music of today.
Curated OER
Singing the Blues with Garageband
Music composition can be easy with a little software assistance. The class uses Garageband to listen to, write, sing, and record a blues song. They listen to the song provided through the software, write their own lyrics to the song,...
Exploratorium
Groovy Sounds
Make music. Class members construct a simple record player using a paper cone and a pin. The resource provides a description of what is happening and why listeners can hear the sounds through the cone.
California Department of Education
Slap Tubes, Flutes, and Xylophones: The Physics of Pipe-Based Instruments
It's the encore to a wave unit. Individuals build either a slap tube, flute, or xylophone as a culminating activity for a physics unit on waves. Scholars calculate the lengths of pipes needed to produce the specific notes for their...
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America - Episode 3: Can I Get A Witness
High schoolers identify many genres of music that influenced gospel and study examples of gospel music. They explain that gospel music is sacred and is usually performed with sincerity, dignity, and passion with vocal improvisation.
Curated OER
Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America - Lesson 5
Students identify many genres of Black music. They listen to examples of black artists playing songs of social concious, then identify issues that are addressed by today's Black artists.
Curated OER
Recorder Ensemble
Third graders listen to and identify the lines and space of the treble staff and demonstrate how to sight-read to play the recorder. They answer comprehension questions regarding letter names of the musical alphabet and left and right...
New York State Education Department
English Language Arts Examination: June 2017
Plants prefer classical music to rock and roll. That's one of the claims in an informational passage that makes up part of a set of standardized assessment questions. The set is part of a larger collection of English language arts tests...
Curated OER
Homeschooling Chronicles - Music in the Home
The sounds of music can produce the melody of learning.
Special Education Learning Centre
I Am Working For...
Give your students something to work for with this simple incentive program. Requiring children to earn three stars in order to meet their goal, this is an easy way motivate them to try their hardest and be on their best behavior.
Baylor College
Heart Rate and Exercise
Teach your exercise enthusiasts to read their pulse rate at the radial artery and multiply by four to calculate beats per minute. Learners perform a variety of activities, recording their heart rates after one minute of each. Though this...
Curated OER
Same or Different
Students recognize different musical sounds. In this music lesson, students listen to the instructor play the same and different musical notes on a recorder. Students identify if the notes are the same or different.
Curated OER
VH1 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll Lesson 5
Young scholars analyze female artists who work in the genres of rock and roll, and alternative rock music. They complete an information sheet on biographical information.
Curated OER
Stand Up And Sing
Students examine pieces of sheet music and identify context, purpose, and perspective with regard to the political, social, and economic conditions existing at that time. They create a cover illustrating a topic of the Progressive Era.
Curated OER
Protest Songs
Students analyze and perform an American social protest song. They describe its historical setting, consider the effectiveness of the music and recognize that popular music is a reflection of American culture.
Curated OER
Vitamin A
Learners identify and pat the beat. They move to and play quarter notes, half notes, and eighth notes to create a "factory" movement and instrument improvisation. Students get into groups of three. Each person in the group moves to one...