Music Lesson Plan Ideas

Grade Level: K/1

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Exploring Steady Beat

Source:
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Education/Programs/Music-Educators-Toolbox/K-Exploring-Stead
y-Beat-with-Percussion-Instruments

Description:

- Practice creating a steady beat with body percussion. Clap your hands, tap your thighs, or
stomp your feet. Have students demonstrate the steady beat by tapping or clapping the beat to a
known song.
​- Meet the family of percussion instruments. Demonstrate one instrument from each category.
How are these instruments the same? How are they different?
​- Students create a movement to go along with each instrument. (Examples: shake body when the
egg shaker is played; clap hands when you hear a drum strike; make a scraping motion with arms
when the guiro is played)
​- Students take turns playing and listening to each type of percussion instrument.
- Play audio excerpts. Students indicate what they hear by showing the movements they created
for each type of percussion instrument.
​- Have students find objects around the classroom that can be played as a percussion instrument
by scraping, striking, or shaking. Have students draw a picture of their found instrument on the
Percussion Instruments student worksheet.

Curriculum Connection: Physical Education Movement Standard 1.3; Demonstrate contrasts

between slow and fast speeds while using locomotor skills.

Literacy Connection: "I Got the Rhythm" by Connie Schofield-Morrison.

Music Standards utilized: K.MU:Cr1 b. With guidance, generate musical ideas (such as
movements or motives).

(No Music Sheet Used)

Grade Level: K/1

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Corn Shaker/Musical Chairs

Source: https://www.pre-kpages.com/corn-shakers-music-activity/

Description: Children will be given shakers made of mini water bottles and filled with corn
kernels, and will shake them to make a song. Half of the class will be playing the shakers, and
half of the class will be playing musical chairs. When half of the class playing the shakers stops,
the other half of the students must find a chair and sit down.

Curriculum Connection: Responding to sensory information through the language and skills
unique to music. (The original poster did not have a standard attached).

Literacy Connection: (The original poster did not have a story attached, so this is my selection).
Shake, Rattle, and Roll by Jeffrey Burton.

Music Standards utilized: MU:Cr1.1.K With guidance, generate musical ideas (such as
movements or motives).
Grade Level: K/1

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: The Mystery Boomwhacker Game

Source: https://funmusicco.com/boomwhacker-games/

Description: The students play their boomwhackers when their color comes on the screen.
However, at times, a question mark appears on the screen. When that happens, they have to use
their ears! This determines if they should play their boomwhacker or not.

Curriculum Connection: PS4.A: Wave Properties Sound can make matter vibrate, and vibrating
matter can make sound.

Literacy Connection: Pete the Cat: Crayons Rock! By Kimberly & James Dean

Music Standards utilized: 1.DA:Cr2 Performance Standard(s): a. Improvise a series of

movements that have a beginning, middle, and end, and describe movement choices. b. Choose
movements that express an idea or emotion, or follow a musical phrase.
Grade Level: 2/3

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Tingalayo

Source: Music for Elementary Classroom Teachers by Campbell, Scott-Kassner, and Kassner

Description: Students will become familiar with the piece “Tingalayo”, and play the song on
woodblocks. Half the class will play the steady beat, while the other half will play the rhythm
using maracas. Groups can be switched halfway through the activity so that every student has a
chance to play the beat and the rhythm.

Curriculum Connection: Grade 3 Reading Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Standard 7.

Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words
in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting). This standard can be
achieved when students read the book Tingalayo.

Literacy Connection: Tingalayo by Raffi.

Music Standards utilized: 3.MU:Pr4.2, a. Demonstrate understanding of the structure in music

selected from a variety of cultures for performance.
Grade Level: 2/3

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Hot Cross Buns

Source: https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2013/09/hot-cross-buns.html

Description: Students will learn G,A,B fingerings on the recorder in order to play Hot Cross
Buns.

Curriculum Connection: RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support
comprehension. a. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding. b. Read on-level text
orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings. c. Use context to
confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Literacy Connection: Hot Cross Buns for Everyone by Yolanda T. Marshall.

Music Standards utilized: 4.MU:Cr1 Performance Standard(s): a. Improvise rhythmic, melodic,

and harmonic ideas, and explain connection to specific purpose and context (such as social and
cultural). b. Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms, melodies, and simple accompaniment
patterns) within related tonalities (such as major and minor) and meters.
Grade Level: 2/3

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Rainstorm Body Percussion

Source: Music for Elementary Classroom Teachers by Patricia Shehan Campbell.

Description: This lesson will give children the opportunity to explore a full range of body
sounds, and listen carefully to the variety of timbres they produce. To begin the lesson the class
will put body percussion into a sound composition, using a rainstorm, in which different sections
perform finger snapping, (for raindrops), clapping (two sharp claps for lightning), and stamping
(for thunder). Next the class will integrate and enhance language arts skills with music through
reading Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin and John Archambault to see how the flow of the book
matches the flow of this body percussion piece. The teacher will read the book expressively,
changing dynamic levels. Then, have the children read the book’s poetry, changing the dynamic
levels. This will lead into a class discussion about which body percussion matches each part of
the story. Lastly, tell the story page by page, using only the body percussion the class decided
upon.

Curriculum Connection: F.2.4.a: Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.

Literacy Connection: Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin and John Archambault

Music Standards utilized: 2. MU: Cr e. perform in groups, blending instrumental timbres,

matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor
Grade Level: 2/3

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Skip to My Lou

Source: Beth’s Notes

Description: In this 2nd grade lesson, the students will stand in a circle around the classroom and
will be counted off by 3s, since there are three different sections to sing. Ones will pat on their
legs as an instrument, two’s will have egg shakers, and three’s will have drum pads. The entire
class will sing together, but only when it is their section of the song will the play their
instruments. The way they will play them is by shaking, patting, or hitting to the beat. After the
three parts of our song, we will pass our instruments to left so that every student has a chance to
try all three instruments (2 if you don’t count their legs). If we still have time I will have them
switch around so that they are playing their instruments during a different part of the song.

Curriculum Connection: Common Core, PE-2.1.17, 3.DA.Cr1

Literacy Connection: Skip to My Lou, by Nadine Bernard

Music Standards utilized: 2.MU:Cn10, 2.MU:Cr3.1

Grade Level: 4/5

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Mary Had a Little Lamb

Source: https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2013/08/mary-had-little-lamb.html

Description: Students will use their recorder knowledge to play “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on the
recorders. This version of the song only contains the notes G, A, and B, making it simple for learning
students. Alternatively, there is a version that utilizes High D, which may be useful for students as
well. To expand upon this lesson, students could be arranged in groups, taking turns between playing
the recorders and creating the steady beat on drums for every verse. Example: Verse 1- Group 1 plays
recorders while Group 2 creates the steady beat. Verse 2- Group 2 plays recorders while Group 1
creates the steady beat.

Curriculum Connection: CA Math Content Standard 4.MD.2 Use the four operations to solve word
problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money,
including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing
measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities
using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale. This standard can be
connected to my lesson by creating word problems related to musical intervals of time, such as note
durations. Students can use the four operations to solve problems involving musical time signatures,
beats per minute, and note values.

Literacy Connection: "Can You Hear It?" by William Lach.

Music Standards utilized: 4.MU:Pr4.2 b. When analyzing selected music, read and perform using
iconic and/or standard notation.
Grade Level: 4/5

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Down By the Station

Source: https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2013/02/down-by-station.html

Description: Learners will be learning how to identify and play GAB notes on the recorder by
singing the lyrics to “Down by the Station” ( lyrics down below on the musical note chart)
learners will then learn GAB notes and practice on the recorder until they can successfully play
the notes.

Curriculum Connection: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.5 Add audio recordings and visual

displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

Literacy Connection: Tales of the Rales: Legendary Train Routes of the World by Nathaniel
Adams.

Music Standards utilized: 4.MU:Pr5 To express their musical ideas, musicians analyze, evaluate,
and refine their performance over time through openness to new ideas, persistence, and the
application of appropriate criteria. a. Apply teacher provided and collaboratively developed
criteria and feedback to evaluate accuracy and expressiveness of ensemble and personal
performances. b. Rehearse to refine technical accuracy and expressive qualities, and address
performance challenges.
Grade Level: 4/5

Type of Lesson (choose one): Movement Listening Instrument Singing Game

Title: Instrument Frequencies

Source: TeachEngineering
(https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_soundandlight_lesson3_activity1)

Description: Students are provided with supplies to make guitars out of shoeboxes and strings, as
well as organs out of water bottles filled with various levels of water. The class will be paired
into groups where each group makes both instruments and experiments with the various sounds
and levels of frequencies, tone, and pitch they can get to form from created instruments. They
will then have the story 88 Instruments read aloud whole class to help inspire them with a variety
of instruments they can attempt to make at home.

Curriculum Connection: Media Arts Standard for 5th Grade: 5.MA:Cr3 a. Create content and
combine components to convey expression, purpose, and meaning in a variety of media arts
productions.

Literacy Connection: 88 Instruments by Chris Barton

Music Standards utilized: 4.MU:Pr4.2 a. Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the
elements of music (such as rhythm, pitch, and form).