Students work to create a soundtrack of songs that represent their community and their shared values. Songs curated in the list will include narrative justification for their selection.

Students will use a digital composition tool to create a melody with specific parameters, based on grade level goals and standards. The teacher prepares a poem with a rhythm on one note, and students will create a melodic-variation to share with others.

Students will learn about digital media production tools while viewing a high-quality video recorded performance. Students will be able to view a high quality performance, while also learning ways to record and save performances for distribution.

Students create a four-measure rhythm composition using an interactive slide deck. Teachers can provide different guidelines and rhythmic components (time signature, note/rest value) in the interactive slide deck for different grade levels and/or student musical ability. Students then perform their rhythm composition on a digital instrument of their choice from a variety of sources (e.g. Makey Makey bongos, Music K-8 boomwhackers, etc.). Students compare and contrast digital and traditional methods for creating music.

Students will work to create categories and tags for songs that can be used by music streaming platforms to assist listeners in finding songs that are similar to other songs. Students will work to curate a playlist for the class that includes songs that exhibit similar musical traits to the other songs within the playlist. Student groups then share the finished playlist with the class and how the playlist has been sorted to create similiarities between songs.

Students will listen to and/or watch a video about differences across America, listen to or view Ray Charles’ rendition of “America the Beautiful” and then have a choice activity: composing a poem or illustrating verses.

Students will be introduced to the soprano recorder and the technique needed to play the instrument. Students will learn to play a song using the soprano recorder.

Students will learn about instruments from a variety of cultures and discuss how these instruments were used. Students will create an instrument from various materials to experiment with sound and playing technique.

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.

What did colonists do for fun in 18th century Virginia? Let us explore the music and dance of Colonial Virginia and why they were so important to know. What happens when we take those 18th century dance moves and combine them with the trending moves today? Let us find out!

Students will engage in active listening to Yoko Shimomura’s “Dark Star Battle” from the video game Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. The students will discover key elements to the composition and explore those elements through composition using Orff instruments.

Students will demonstrate knowledge of rhythmic literacy by playing Disappearing Rhythms. Students will identify and perform simple rhythms, and improve audition skills, as well as accuracy and fluency of rhythmic music literacy, through repetition in a fast-paced environment.

The musical form call and response has roots in West Africa and acts as a form of communication and participation in music. In this lesson, students will participate in performance, composition, and listening activities on call and response form using music from Ghana.

Students will use a folk song to explore improvisation using a variety of singing, body percussion, and musical instruments.

In this lesson, students respond to music in triple meter and discover facts about the famous Japanese film music composer, Joe Hisaishi. Literary connections and global music concepts are also explored through the picture book The Sound of Silence by Katrina Goldsaito.

Students will learn a song about the seven simple machines. Students will collaborate to use three simple machines to create their own inventions. They will perform and demonstrate what their inventions will look like using body movements. Students will then have time to reflect on their inventions, how they can be used, and illustrate them on paper.

Students will learn or review the concept of tempo and the appropriate music terminology associated with it. They will show understanding by discussing tempo changes in music, moving their bodies to different tempos, and coding Ozobots to move at different tempos.

Students will use their creative writing power to explore what a composer/performer might have been trying to say or make their audience feel in a piece of music. Students will use creative writing prompts to explore musical elements, using appropriate music terminology.

Students select an instrument and identify instrument’s origins, composers and musicians who feature this instrument, and styles of music where this instrument is featured. Students will also identify the parts and sound science of the instrument. 

Students will identify basic parts of the ukulele and learn to sing and play a simple folk song utilizing the C major chord with proper strumming technique.