Curated OER
Meet the Instruments of the Orchestra
Students examine the characteristics of the four families of instruments. They read an eBook, unscramble instruments and categorize them in the correct families, take a quiz, and explore the San Francisco Symphony website.
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Classical Period
In this music worksheet, students find the vocabulary terms that are describing the classical period of music. The answers are found at the bottom of the page.
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William Grant Still: "Afro-American Symphony"
Students learn basic improvisation of a four beat measure through a game using a four quarter note pattern. NOTE: The idea in this lesson is to teach the student to create something on the spot.
Curated OER
Hong Kong Symphony: Heaven, Earth, Mankind
Students complete a unit on the reunification of Hong Kong with China in 1997. They watch and discuss a documentary, write an essay about unification, conduct Internet research on three artists from the film, complete a data sheet, and...
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"The Emperor's New Clothes and Mahler's Ninth Symphony" Writing to Explain, Confidently and Efficiently, Even Physics!
Learners combine their study of physics with their study of best practices when writing to inform. They communicate with experts using e-mail before creating a brochure based on their study of universal gravitation.
Curated OER
Who Wants To Be A Mini Maestro?
Students are introduced to classical music. They listen to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. They interview each other in regards to their feelings about the music and the paintings they produced while listening to the piece.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Students study the life and music of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They practice listening for the downbeat of a musical selection. They participate in a physical exercise where they march around in a circle and clap to the...
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Haydn's Surprise
Students listen to Haydn's "Surprise" and use the score to create themes and variations with other rhythms. They create poems using Haydn's rhythm in the symphony and research his life. They also use "body percussion" to play parts of...
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Virtual Museum of Musical Instruments
Students incorporate elements of photo composition and demonstrate how to upload digital pictures to the computer. They create their own instrument utilizing resources from home as well as specialized music hardware. They participate in...
Curated OER
What Is a Pond?
Students identify animals and plants that live in a pond. In this marine biology lesson plan, students create a chart of animals and plants they think they would see at the pond. Students create a "pond symphony" by imitating the sounds...
K20 LEARN
Diggin' Deeper - Poetry Made Relevant: Poetry And Poetic Devices
What do Beethoven, Bob Dylan, and Pharrell all have in common? Works by these three musicians are used to launch a study of poetry. Class members listen to passages from the music and craft a quick write about how the music makes them...
Leading Learner
Using Music to Tell a Story or Describe a Scene
Young composers demonstrate their understanding of the stylistic features of descriptive music, including pitch, tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and timbre, by developing a melody and countermelody for a main character in a story. As part of...
Curated OER
William Grant Still: "Afro-American Symphony"
Students learn basic improvisation of a four beat measure through a game using a four quarter note pattern. NOTE: The idea in this lesson is to teach the student to create something on the spot.
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
Learning Crescendo and Decrescendo
Third graders examine the sounds and notes for crescendos and decrescendos. They attend a concert by a symphony orchestra and when they return to the classroom they identify the crescendos and decrescendos in music they hear.
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The Couplet
Young scholars create the sounds of a thunderstorm with a symphony of body percussion to compose a couplet about rain using Microsoft word to publish. They are introduced to rhyming dictionaries and thesauruses and use Internet sources...
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Describing Music
Fifth graders listen to the 9th symphony and identify the tiri-ti rhythm. They identify the number of times they hear a phrase "turn, turn, turn". They then describe the meaning of one song and answer questions in class discussion.
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Nosferatu Expression and Diminished Chords
Students explore how to construct and play diminished triads and half and whole diminished chords on the keyboard. They create appropriate sounds to accompany sections of the movie "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors." Students discuss the...
Curated OER
Vivaldi's Storms
High schoolers listen to two selections of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" symphony. In groups, they identify and describe the mood and musical elements used to represent each season using correct vocabulary. They write their observations in a...
Curated OER
Orchestra: Wordsearch
In this word-search worksheet, student search for twenty-nine music terms having to do with instruments of the symphony orchestra.
San Francisco Symphony
Instrument and Visual Appreciation of Art
There are a lot of great ideas to be found here. To better understand the connection between art and history, learners research several music and art pieces, then relate them to major social events. They study the lives and works...
Curated OER
GCSE Notes 2000: Classical Music
Classical period music is defined by its characteristics and distinctive sound. A set of notes assists upper graders in recalling and analyzing music from the classical period based on musical terminology. An example analysis of Eine...
San Francisco Symphony
Adding Music to Oklahoma History
To better understand Oklahoma state history, learners will use a website to find a song that supports or represents aspects of Oklahoma's history. They'll write three sentences defending their choice, and then they will create...
Curated OER
Shaping the View: Composition Basics
Students examine the elements of composition in various artworks. They analyze and discuss paintings, explore "The National Gallery of Art" website, identify the shape of compositions in paintings, and draw a diagram.