Elementary Music Lesson Plans

This is an easy, colorful, and fun approach to helping young students identify visually and aurally simple melodic patterns. "Melodic ID, Taking It Slow" is an engaging ear training activity that includes the five note scale, Do-Sol.

This is another set of two boards for the ear training practice Melodic ID, Taking It Slow. It is a continuation of the original lesson plan that uses the five note scale, Do-Sol.

This is an easy, colorful, and fun approach to helping young students identify visually and aurally simple melodic patterns. "Melodic ID Moving On" includes melodies that range between Do-Ti, or a seventh.

This is a Creative Music Room melody match game where the excerpt (melody) played out loud will be on display under one of the two letter cards, A or B.

This is a fun lesson that asks students to visually identify melodies. If you have never played a melody match game with your students, then it may be best to begin with an easier version, like the K-1 lesson plan.

This lesson is designed as a follow-up to the Whole Steps/Half Steps lesson plan. lt guides students toward distinguishing between major and minor intervals using both visual tools and ear training.

Your Kindergarten students will learn what ABA form is through the familiar song, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.

Your students will learn how to practice and use body percussion exploring rhythm and dynamics.

This lesson plan is a fun way to develop your students' understanding of musical form and can take anywhere from two to three class times.

This lesson plan is a fun way to develop students' understanding of musical form.

This is a great way to teach the musical form of ABABCB or verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, using body percussion while performing the song “Moving On”.

Kindergarten students, through play, can make the connection between numbers and notes.

First and second grade students, through play, can make the connection between numbers and notes. This explicit correlation between music and math builds when students read and write notes.

Music is math. Third and fourth grade students, through play, can make the connection between numbers and notes.

Music is math. Fifth grade students, through play, can make the connection between numbers and notes.

Steady Beats for K-3rd Grade is a great lesson plan that teaches your youngest students to tap, clap, walk and stomp to a steady beat.

Metronome Beats is a great lesson plan that practices steady beat and tempo using a metronome.

I love using body percussion in the classroom to teach movement and steady beat!

“Beat After Me” is a quick activity (1-3 minutes) that keeps the students on their toes, helps them develop a steady beat, and hones important skills related to coordination and attention.

Students will master counting in different time signatures through an engaging and challenging method of speaking and conducting the beats.

A hands-on activity that introduces the difference between where a line note and a space note sit on a staff.

A fun and adaptable hands-on activity that introduces the line and space notes on a staff. Several variations are included.

In this lesson, students will go from placing the notes randomly to intentionally connecting visual and aural identification of short melodies.

A fun and adaptable hands-on movement lesson plan that practices identifying line and space notes on a staff, playing a game similar to Twister!

A fun and adaptable hands-on activity that teaches rhythms and measures of music using manipulatives.

This lesson plan will focus on analyzing how one melody can last for hundreds of years and be interpreted many different ways. We do this using Elvis Presley's "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You."

This lesson plan teaches young students how the same song can feel totally different depending on how it’s sung or played. We do this with the song, "La Bamba" which was first documented in the 1800's.

In this lesson, students will explore how a single song can evolve across cultures and styles, using the familiar tune "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."

"Listening Landscape" is an adaptable lesson plan that can be used throughout the year and be tailored to any subject or genre you might be teaching at the time. This lesson plan can take anywhere from 15-25 minutes.

"Musical Plates" is a fun take on the classic game musical chairs. Each plate has a simple note, or easy rhythm written on it. If they give the correct answer, they get to stay in the game.

"Musical Plates" is a fun take on the classic game musical chairs. Each plate has a simple note, or easy rhythm written on it. If they give the correct answer, they get to stay in the game.

This lesson plan will let students practice drawing rhythms down on seasonal shapes. These drawings will be pasted to a lit tree that is up on the wall for each class to see.

This is a multi-class project that teaches students to write out rhythms to Valentine’s Day phrases. It can be tailored to students from K-2nd grade.

"A Trio of Charades" encourages students to communicate emotions using music, dance, and gestures by picking an adjective out of a hat. It is a fun skills game.

Learning to control the human voice is a foundation for proper vocal technique and reinforces the skill of finding pitch. Through this lesson plan, students will use vocal explorations through different animal sounds.

This is one of the most fun lesson plans we do all year. Students will use movement and lip syncing to have their classmates guess what song they are listening to while wearing headphones.

The detectives in this case (your class) will use body percussion to decode and uncover the missing meters being played.

In this lesson plan, the students become “Meter Detectives,” listening closely to uncover the secret patterns behind the music.