This resource provides additional context to the Creative Process strand of the 2020 Music Standards of Learning including sample lesson strategies to adapt components of creative processes to the music classroom. Components of creative processes may include inquiry and questioning, researching, interpreting, generating, testing, discussing ideas and solutions, refining work, and reflecting on the process, product, and performance.  

Students will demonstrate oral communication and literacy skills by telling and retelling stories with creative dramatics. Students will apply a creative process for music, and improvise with movement and music to enhance a short story or poem.

This instructional plan will provide the instructor with the outline and resources to guide students in the composition of original music. Composition incorporates different aspects of music education including creativity, critical thinking, and the application of musical techniques. 

In this unit, students will depict favorite places based on their individual experiences. They will select and arrange their materials based on color, texture, shape and luminosity. The teacher will demonstrate techniques to join, cut and manipulate materials and support students as they execute their ideas. Students will learn about Mickalene Thomas’ embellished collages of interior spaces inside the home and places outdoors like gardens as inspiration for their art. Students will have opportunities to share their art and provide feedback for one another.

This unit of study allows for students to gain understanding and confidence in figure drawing over a series of 3 separate lessons that result in a collaborative mural. These lessons can be used to facilitate an assessment of student growth and skills development, while still encouraging expression through different types of art explorations and working both individually and collaboratively.

Developing the skill to map a musical selection will aid in the choreography of that piece. There are a variety of ways to structure this map that will allow for time efficient and productive choreography. The instructional plan can be used in its entirety, or just the warm up or group music map and choreography.

Students will demonstrate the creative process by composing an eight-measure composition using the E major pentatonic scale. Notes used include B and C# on the 2nd string and E, F#, and G# on the 1st string. These melody notes will be played using the index and middle finger. Warm-ups and repertoire to prepare students in the key and compositional style are included as resources.

During this lesson, students will work in teams to plan, construct, and test a functional miniature golf sculpture while they explore topics related to collaboration, design thinking, and peer critique. A focus on specific art production skills such as armature building and rendering objects using paper mâché will be explored. The finished artwork will be peer reviewed for creativity, craftsmanship, and challenge. 

Dancers will explore their environment seeking rhythms to inspire movement improvisation in this tap dancing lesson.

Students will discover methods of using sketchbooks to explore, revise, plan, and practice the development of artistic ideas and techniques. Teachers will lead students through independent research exploring ideation, composition, art history, color theory, artistic techniques and more to plan a work of art. Critical and creative thinking skills will enhance student’s ability to create original art and highlight student voice.

This nine-week unit builds music literacy skills and supports connections to outside content. It is intended to co-exist with the secondary choral classroom and strengthen music literacy skills. Students will engage in small groups to collaboratively write a song together. Students will use melodic, harmonic, and aural skills to identify chord progressions, hear and sing melody lines over chord progressions, write  lyrics, and sing together in unison and harmony. Students may also use accompanying instruments during this project.

Using the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. strategy (substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, and reverse), students will be able to take a well-known song and create a variation by isolating one element of music literacy. It is a technique that is adaptable to English learners, learners with special needs, advanced academic students, and the general population.

In this lesson, students will compose and notate “soundscapes” using found instruments. In preparing to notate their compositions, students will consider the limitations and benefits of extant notation systems.

Students will examine portraits of diverse artists to inspire unique self-portraits. Using  proportions and mirrors to draw self-portraits, students will enhance photocopies of their pencil drawings by adding visual representations of their likes, backgrounds, hopes, and dreams, as well as color. The first pencil portrait will be glued on the outside of an envelope, while the second colorful portrait can be slipped out from inside to reveal a deeper look at the student’s identities.  

Fifth grade students will learn that artist’s books are a medium that artists can use to express ideas. Students will first practice paper folding/ building techniques and the concept of foreground, middle ground, and background. Then, students will create tunnel books to showcase an original fantasy landscape. 

Students will create original instruments similar to the homespun instruments of Appalachian old-time and bluegrass music. Students will investigate both traditional and Appalachian instruments to understand how instruments make sound, and what is needed to create sound (strings, bridge, tuning capabilities, bow, body, and neck). Students will used recycled or found parts to create their own bluegrass instrument.

Create Rhyming is a cross-curricular lesson designed by an Elementary Music Teacher to support Math instruction. Created By: Gina Dickerson Powhatan County Public Schools

In this webinar we will discuss the Creative Process strand in the Music standards and share ideas on implementation in the elementary general music room. We will explore adapting current best practices in order to make conscious the inherent elements of the creative process. We will examine new methods of adding elements of the creative process into the classroom, through virtual, blended, and in-person instruction practices.

In this webinar, we will explore ways that teachers and students can use digital tools in the secondary music classroom for creation and investigation. Topics addressed will include project ideas, integration of audio creation tools into the class structure and environment, and practical issues to consider when choosing hardware and software for these projects.

This workshop for all elementary educators will connect the VDOE Dance Arts Standards of Learning strands of Creative Process and Technique and Application as they relate to dance integration and dance-making. Teachers will learn tools for facilitating improvisation based on classroom content that guides students to generate movement possibilities and then make movement choices to set choreographic phrases. Clear, repeatable dance integration strategies for elementary educators will be highlighted. The workshop will include a template for students to reflect and respond to the work of their peers. Rooted in the Elements of Dance (body, action, space, time, and energy) the activities in this workshop are applicable to all dance styles. This session is for dance educators as well as general education teachers looking to begin or improve dance integration strategies.