Students will explore creating moods with music. Students will assimilate this new knowledge through the analysis of a story and the creation of a musical composition that reflects and enhances it. This activity will culminate with the recording of their musical accompaniment and story to produce a book on tape.

In this series of lessons, students will research the lyrical and dramatic structure of opera through internet sources and audio examples. Students will cooperatively discuss similar and different elements of opera stories vs. their own lives. Finally, students will create a one-act opera based on their own life experiences that has both singing and spoken (recitative) parts, and simple original accompaniment using classroom percusion instruments.

Students will learn about how the fandango community celebration is central to the Son Jarocho tradition of Veracruz, Mexico. This lesson explores the core elements of the fandango: instruments, voice and verse, and rhythmic dance.

Students will be introduced to the music of India with a focus on introductory terminology, elemental concepts, and instrument identification through various singing, listening and playing opportunities.

Students will use instruments and voice to improvise simple harmonic accompaniments, stylistically appropriate responses, rhythmic and melodic ostinato accompaniments, as well as, simple melodic embellishments of familiar melodies. This lesson can be used and adapted for grades K-8 with specific suggestions given.

Students will experience traditional Indian music and internalize it by moving to it. There will be an opportunity to listen to, play and dance to sitar music and ragas.

In this three lesson unit, the concept areas of rhythm, melody, form, timbre/tone color, and harmony are used. Skills will be developed in singing, moving, listening, playing instruments, creating, and relating music to other subject areas.

Students will use Mike Seeger's performance of "Josh Thomas' Roustabout" as a gateway to exploring vocal expression within a limited-tone sequence. Students will critically discuss the relationship between the voice and accompanying instruments, compose their own limited-tone songs, accompanying themselves on Orff Instruments, and improvise within a limited-tone sequence on recorders.

Students will understand that music can interpret movement as they focus on how the movement of animals may be best represented by music. Through their knowledge of tempo and dynamics, the instruments of the orchestra, and knowledge of the physical attributes of animals in the wild, students will create a short musical composition to interpret what they have learned about the movement of animals.

Your students will astound you as they create a class performance piece using their words, accompanied by Mr. Copland"™s composition. Learning about this nation"™s twelfth president is fun when we combine music, writing, and performing to your lessons. Mix together a little Aaron Copland"™s Lincoln Portrait, with historical facts and opinions, books, videos and even the Gettysburg Address.

The students will create with the teacher body percussion to Frederic Chopin - Mysterious Forest and Tchaikovsky - The Forest Of Fir Trees In Winter. They will chose their own piece of music and create own movements.

This exciting lesson explores the rich sounds of Western Samoa. Students will recreate the beautiful sounds of singable melodies with uncomplicated rhythm. The students will sing, dance, and drum in the traditional community style of Western Samoa.

Students be introduced to the pentatonic scale through listening examples, identification of scale types, and class discussion of the geographical/cultural aspects of the scale. Students will also have a chance to experiment and find melodies using the notes of each of the pentatonic and major scale types.

Students will gain an understanding of a musical round by participating in a follow-the-leader activity using body percussion. This lesson is designed to fulfill Standard #2 and #3 of the National Standards for Music: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music: and Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

Students will learn the history behind "This Little Light of Mine", following the song through slavery, the civil rights movement, and up to its current day applications. Students will also learn to sing the song itself in multiple languages and will be prompted to write about their learning experiences after each session. At the end, there will be an opportunity for students to add their own verses to the song, based on the writing they did through each portion of the lesson.

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the musical form canon. This lesson is designed to fulfill Standard #1 of the National Standards for Music: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music; and Standard #6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

Students experience an aural journey from the boats of the Hokkaido fishermen to their own perspective and interpretation, giving students a sense of pulse and rhythm as they compose and arrange, inspired by Japanese traditional music.Soran Bushi, a Japanese work song, allows for exploration into Japanese culture (work song/environment/nature) as well as exploration in creative composition/arranging.

In this cooperative improvisation, students will go through a process of composition very much like what a composer might do in preparation for creating a serious piece of music. Students find inspiration, research details, imagine what might be possible and then deal with the practicalities of the performance group that they have chosen. Writing down music to share with someone in print is the final stage and may take years to perfect, but this non-written experience allows each child to imagine and create a unique, musical expression which can be shared with others.

Students will participate in class discussion regarding the identity of jazz music, basic elements of music, the origins of jazz, and why jazz is considered America's music. Students will also compare improvisation with regular conversation, as well as, listen to various jazz saxophonists to compare and contrast their individual playing styles.