Category: music
Elephant Classroom Ideas

Elephants lend themselves to lots of classroom themes: circus, jungle, zoo,the letter E… Enjoy some elephantine fun in your classroom. Make elephant handprints by having kids dip their hands into gray paint and then, with fingers spread, press their hands onto paper. Turn the handprint over when it dries and… Continue reading
Music Lesson Plans

Music makes information more memorable, trains the brain, and makes everything more fun, so you’ll find music in lots of our lesson plans on all kinds of subjects. Music is also worth studying for itself. Here are some of our music lesson plans: Pitch Rhythm Dynamics Blues Rock Ballads… Continue reading
Dynamics Classroom Activities

Dynamics in music are one of the hardest things to get across, yet they are one of the easiest ways to improve the sound of your musical performances. If you want your next in-class kazoo concert or your next serious performance for the parents to sound much more polished and… Continue reading
Peter and the Wolf Lesson Plans

In 1936, Sergei Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf to introduce the instruments of the orchestra to children. There is probably still no better way to do it. The story is simple yet exciting: Peter disobeys his grandfather and goes into the woods, where he sees some animals, all of whom… Continue reading
Pitch Classroom Activities

Sounds are caused when an object vibrates, causing vibrations in the medium through which it travels (generally air), which in turn cause vibrations in the ear drum of a listener. Faster vibrations create higher pitched sounds than slower vibrations. To learn about pitch, you can approach the question from… Continue reading
Rhythm Classroom Activities

Recognizing and practicing with rhythms is an important pre-reading skill, and it can be both calming and energizing — something you’ll appreciate at this point in the year! How can you teach about rhythm if you’re not a musician? Here are some easy ideas using books, recorded music (your… Continue reading
The Blues Lesson Plans

The Blues are an important American musical form. Here’s a classroom lesson plan that works on poetry as well as listening skills. Listen to some blues: Blues Journey and Texas Blues at Artsedge; you can explore further with related lesson 12 Bar Blues . Even Kids Get The Blues by the… Continue reading
FreshPlans Visits a Battlefield

We went to Pea Ridge National Military Park to learn more about the Civil War. We have a couple of battlefield parks here where we live, and we find it sobering to stand where so many lost their lives. It’s also very interesting. Pea Ridge has excellent interpretive exhibits examining… Continue reading
St. Patrick’s Day Lesson Plans

St. Patrick’s Day is an extremely popular holiday in the United States, in part because such a large number of Irish people immigrated to the U.S. More than 45 million Americans can claim Irish heritage, making this group the second largest in the nation. And yet the chances are good… Continue reading