Music

Music Integration Lessons

 

Choose a subject to find a lesson that integrates literary arts.

 

 

Music & Math

 

Johnny Works with One Hammer

 

For example, in this lesson the teacher would:

 

  • Sing and play the song in a circle while students add body movements with each verse to keep a steady beat
  • Introduce the drum and mallet, modeling safe instrument use and sound differences
  • Invite students to take turns playing the drum while singing
  • Gradually add more students to the drum each verse to reinforce rhythm and counting
  • End by emphasizing space, numbers, and teamwork before students return to their seats

Hundreds of free lessons to get started today!

Three school children striking a fun dancing pose with their arms spread out.

 

 

Top Lesson Plans

 

 

Children in a class with their arms stretched out following after their teacher. They are happy.

Math in Motion

3rd Grade

A young women and toddler play with blocks together.

Number Ordering

2nd Grade

Children dance like robots in a classroom.

Waddling Ones & Tobogganing Tens

K-6th Grade

Why Music?

"Music enhances the education of our children by helping them to make connections and broadening the depth with which they think and feel. If we are to hope for a society of culturally literate people, music must be a vital part of our children's education."

—Yo-Yo Ma

 

  • Elevates student academic achievement
  • Supports social and emotional growth
  • Strengthens memory and long-term learning retention
  • Promotes motor development and physical maturation
  • Deepens the mind–body connection
  • Builds confidence while developing essential 21st-century skills

Basic Music Skills

 

A group of children stand in a line while singing and holding sheet music.

Singing

  • Differentiate between singing voice and speaking voice
  • Explore range of high and low pitches
  • Sing on pitch and with good tone
A young child holds her hand to her ear in a listening pose

Listening

  • Respond to patterns of same and different in music
  • Listen for tempo, dynamics, and timbre to understand the composer’s intent
  • Recognize repeated or contrasting phrases and identify the piece’s form
  • Analyze musical elements and connect music to personal, societal, and cultural contexts
A young girl plays with toys in a classroom

Playing

  • Feel and move to a steady beat, distinguishing strong and weak beats
  • Practice beat accuracy and rhythmic patterns in 2, 3, or 4
  • Explore sound, silence, tempo, and dynamics through body percussion and instruments
  • Play rhythms solo and with others to build performance skills
  • Play on non-pitched and pitched instruments
A group of children sit on the floor while playing with musical toys

Creating

  • Compose, improvise, & apply musical elements to create music
  • Create vocal characterizations as part of a story or song
  • Create new words and rhymes for favorite classroom songs
  • Create simple beat & rhythm patterns
  • Create simple iconic representation of beat, meter, rhythm and pitch
  • Create simple rhythmic patterns
A child reads sheet music while playing the piano

Reading/Notating

  • Explore a variety of icons representing pitch, duration, and form
  • Understand the relationship between beat and rhythm
  • Use traditional and iconic notation as a means of reading and performing music
  • Use Curwen hand signs

 

Music in the Elementary Classroom

 

Dive deeper into music and how to effectively integrate it in your classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

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