Students learn to add music note values, and create compositions in 4/4, common time. Using traditional music  notation students may choose to compose for voice or drums. This ruler composition activity uses a familiar math visual to help students see the length or duration of musical notes. Final compositions can be emailed to the teacher for review.

Online chord looping stations and drum machines such as those found on One Motion allow students the opportunity to engage in music creation in a way that is accessible to them without a large theoretical music background. Students can use their intuition and their ears to create music in innovative ways online.

Collaborative boards allow students to share ideas and engage with each other via an online platform. When students are learning about the creative process of music creation and composition, students can use an online collaborative board to share lyrics and co-create a song together.

Students work together to write a simple story and create characters using clay, while working on theatrical skills outlined in the Theatre Arts Standards of Learning.

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 need to know that their voice matters to this world and that they can create music that will enhance their community. This project is designed to allow students to engage in small groups to create an original piece of music.  It will comprise elements of composition, improvisation, music theory, musical notation, and performance while working within a group setting. Students will use a digital audio workstation to record, edit, and remix their song.

The student will identify computing technologies that have changed the world and express how those technologies influence, and are influenced by, cultural practices when communicating with others. The student will identify social and ethical issues that relate to computing devices and networks.

Students easily identify appropriate and inappropriate online behaviors. This lesson empowers students to collaborate while reviewing strategies to disengage or react when interactions become uncomfortable and potentially unsafe. 

      Using the picture book The True Story of the Three Pigs by A. Wolf  as told to Jon Scieska, students will complete math word problems that cover the measurement SOLs. They will also write their own “true story” of another fairy tale, which covers the English writing SOLs. An extension of this unit could be to have students create math word problems based on their new story and have their classmates solve them. This lesson can also be used as an art activity if the story is illustrated. If technology is available, it can be an opportunity for students to practice their computer skills to create a final version of their new illustrated fairy tale or to use the computer to illustrate it.