Teaching Day-by-Day: Music

1. Ask students to name different styles of music and write their responses on the board. When the class has finished, ask your students to list characteristics of each type (be careful to avoid hurtful opinions). Play one minute excerpts of songs that cover as many styles as possible.
2. Play different types of music from around the world for your students and describe and discuss them. Ask them to tap/clap and hum/sing along. Together as a class, locate the countries the music came from on a world map.
3. Sing to enhance phonemic awareness. Use songs at www.pbskids.org/lions/songs.
4. Cut out pictures of musical instruments from magazines. Glue each picture to posterboard and recut so that the posterboard is the same size/shape as the instrument.
5. Conduct research and write one fact about each instrument on the back (posterboard) side of that instrument.
6. Organize the pictures into groups. You might group by instrument type (percussion, string, etc.) or by instruments used to create a particular type of music (jazz, blues, rock, etc.) Hang the pictures by group on a wire hanger or other holder to create classroom mobiles.
7. Play a pentatonic scale on one of three online instruments and understand the difference between a five-note pentatonic scale and the typical eight-note scale www.pbs.org/parents.
8. Be the bandleader, join the band or just learn more about jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis www.pbskids.org/jazz.
9. Explore math in music. Create musical patterns at www.pbskids.org.
10. Ask students to select a song that reflects some past or present social issue and create a poster that presents the lyrics. Visit the "Get Up, Stand Up" site (www.pbs.org/wnet/getupstandup) for information about protest songs.

11. Music allows us to "feel" many different emotions – happy, sad, funny, angry or scared. Play for the class music that evokes these emotions. How do they feel when a certain piece of music plays? Do some students have different reactions?
12. Ask your students to think of a song that's meaningful to them and have them write a paragraph on why. When appropriate, you can have the students bring in the music and play it for the rest of the class.

13. Have students research the different musical styles that were popular when their parents and grandparents were growing up. Assign groups of students to pick an era and create a CD with representative music.
14. Sesame Street is well-known for great songs. Visit the website for young students to hear and sing along with Grover, Cookie Monster and more: www.pbskids.org/sesame.

15. Students in grades 5-8 can learn about the African roots of American music through an exploration of Gullah culture in the southeastern U.S. Visit www.knowitall.org/gullahmusic for more information.
16. Compare what the Gullah website said about the blues to the information you'll find on the PBS site at www.pbs.org/theblues. Listen to blues excerpts online and list what you know about the history and form of blues music.
17. Read about the origins of jazz music and its connection to the history of slavery in America at www.pbs.org/jazz/time. What are the ways that Gullah music, jazz music and the blues sound similar and different?
18. Read about great jazz musicians at www.pbskids.org/jazz. Create a poster that compares a jazz great to a modern-day musician.
19. At www.stomponline.com, kids can learn more about the creative percussion displayed in the "Stomp" stage show. Explore how everyday objects can be turned into instruments; invent and name a new instrument in class.
20. Create a virtual world tour of some of the great music halls and concert spaces, including spots like Lincoln Center (www.lincolncenter.org), the Sydney Opera House (www.sydneyoperahouse.com) and others. Collect images and create a brochure describing your virtual trip.
21. Sometimes books and movies end up being made into musicals. Pick a favorite book or movie and come up with 10 song titles that fit the story.

22. Learn more about the language of music by trying out the San Francisco Symphony's Music Lab (www.sfskids.org). Experiment with music notation and symbols in interactive games.
23. Visit the Library of Congress' American Memory collection to search for period music from before the Civil War to today. LOC contains original recordings in various formats to download for your class to hear. www.memory.loc.gov, click on "Performing Arts, Music."
24. Do your students dislike the music their parents and guardians love? Remind them that times change, and have them create a "music time capsule" and choose songs that best represent their own generation and the times.
25. Young children love to make music (and noise!). Visit the Mister Rogers' website to download instructions on making a drum and other instruments for young students: www.pbskids.org/rogers.

26. Broadway musicals use song, lyrics and music to tell stories on all kinds of topics. Learn more about memorable musicals at the Broadway website www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway.
27. Music is often used to commemorate important dates and events. Help your students come up with a list of events and their matching songs ("Happy Birthday to You" for birthdays, "Auld Lang Syne" for New Year's Eve, etc). Ask students why they think people like to celebrate important events with music.
28. Young students can sing along with Barney at his website www.pbskids.org/barney Listen to "The Wheels on The Bus Go Round and Round," "If I Lived Under the Sea" and more!
29. The way we listen to music has reflected the rise of technology. Discuss with students how they listen to music today (online, on cable television, on satellite radio, on CD or mp3 player), and compare that to AM radio, tapes, vinyl records and even wax cylinders! What did people do for music before any of those inventions came to be?

30. Looking for information on great American musicians? Learn about artists from Bob Dylan to Placido Domingo to Billie Holiday at the American Masters website: www.pbs.org click on "Music."
31. If you're having trouble keeping students excited about poetry, remind them that poetry is musical, too. The book, Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath (Sourcebooks Mediafusion, 2001), contains three CDs of famous poets reading their own work with rhythm and style.

March 2006, Vol.36, No.6