Music Lesson Plan Ideas

Grade Level: K/1

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

Title: Same or Different

Source: https://www.k6edu.com/music/same-or-different-music-lesson-plan/

Description: Using an instrument (such as a recorder!), play the same and different notes on
piano or recorder having students identify whether the notes are the same or different. This
lesson can be adapted based on their musical knowledge.

Curriculum Connection: CA ELA Speaking and Listening Standard for Kindergarten; 2. .

Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other
media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if
something is not understood.

Literacy Connection: The Maestro Plays by Bill Martin Jr. and Vladimir Radunsky. This book
follows the journey of a maestro who conducts an orchestra made up of animals. The playful
illustrations and rhythmic text engage students and introduce them to the world of classical
music.

Music Standards utilized: K.MU:Cr1 a. With guidance, explore and experience music concepts
(such as beat and melodic contour).
Grade Level: K/1

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

Title: Good Morning

Source: https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2015/04/good-morning.html

Description: Good morning to you (you can mention the name of one or two students at a time).
Good morning, good morning, and how are you? Ask the students questions. Continue until you
finish with all the students.

Curriculum Connection: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI. K.1

Literacy Connection: Good Morning Book by Robert Polansky Morrison

Music Standards utilized: K.MU: Cr1.a (With guidance, explore and experience music concepts.
Grade Level: K/1

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

Title: The Cows are Lost

Source: Sing to Kids https://singtokids.com/songs-to-teach-tempo-in-the-music-room/

Description: The teacher will play the song or sing it once. Then, they will ask the students
which part of the song is slow and which part is fast. The teacher will play or sing the song
again. This time, the teacher and the students will stomp for the slow part of the song and clap
fast to the fast part.

Curriculum Connection: 1st Grade Movement Skills 1.3: Change speeds in response to tempos,
rhythms, and signals while traveling in straight, curved, and zigzag pathways, using the
following locomotor movements: walking, running, leaping, hopping, jumping, galloping,
sliding, and skipping.

Literacy Connection: How to Help an Impatient Cow by Daniel Kenney

Music Standards utilized: K.MU:Cr1 a. With guidance, explore and experience music concepts
(such as beat and melodic contour).
Grade Level: 2/3

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

Title: Musical Bingo

Source: https://www.icancompose.com/6-engaging-classroom-listening-activities/

Description: This lesson can be adapted to fit the needs of your classroom. Students will each
receive a slightly different bingo sheet, and mark things off as they hear them. Students will have
to listen carefully for the terms or notes on their bingo sheet. For example, you could do a sheet
with different instrument names. Then, you play different instrument sounds, and students will
mark them off as they hear them. Alternatively, you could have different notes on their bingo
sheet (Ex: B, A, G, High D), and students will mark off the notes as they hear them. This can be
adapted based on where they are at in their understanding.

Curriculum Connection: After playing musical bingo, gather the students for a discussion. Ask
them to share which sounds they heard easily and which ones were more challenging to find.
Students can hold a collaborative conversation where they can discuss their strategies for
listening and marking off squares on their bingo sheets. This meets the California ELA Speaking
and Listening Standard 2.1; Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about
grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. a. Follow agreed-upon
rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways listening to others with care,
speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion). b. Build on others’ talk in
conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.

Literacy Connection: The Listening Walk by Paul Showers. This book is about a father and
daughter on a walk as they notice the sounds around them, such as birds chirping or the wind
blowing.

Music Standards utilized: 2.MU:Pr4.2 a. Demonstrate knowledge of music concepts (such as

tonality and meter) in music from a variety of cultures selected for performance.

No Music Sheet Used

Grade Level: 2/3

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

Title: Little Red Engine

Source: https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2023/07/little-red-engine.html

Description: The teacher will start by showing students low and high notes on a piano or
keyboard. They will play this song for them once and ask what they notice about the notes in the
song. Establish that the notes quickly changed from low to high multiple times throughout the
lesson. Then, play the song again and have students squat down low for low notes and stand up
high for high notes.

Curriculum Connection: 2nd Grade Rhythmic Skills 1.17: Demonstrate a smooth transition
between even-beat locomotor skills and uneven-beat locomotor skills in response to music or an
external beat.

Literacy Connection: Curious George and the Firefighters by H.A. Rey and Margret Rey

Music Standards utilized: 2.MU:Pr4.2 a. Demonstrate knowledge of music concepts (such as

tonality and meter) in music from a variety of cultures selected for performance.
Grade Level: 2/3

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

Title: Ducks and Geese

Source: https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2019/06/ducks-and-geese.html

Description: The students respond after the teacher while lightly stomping the beat:
- Teacher: Come home all my ducks and geese!
- Students: No we won’t.
- Teacher: Why not?
- Students: ‘Cause not.
- Teacher: What’s wrong?
- Students: It’s the wolf.
- Teacher: Where’s he hiding?
- Students: In the woods.
- Teacher: Doing what?
- Students: Washing.
- Teacher: Where’s he washing?
- Students: By the little river
- Teacher: What’s he dry his hands on?
- Students: On a little cat’s tail!
Then the teacher asks a question about the song (Why won’t the ducks and geese come home?)
then the students answer the question and dance/act out the answer. Then repeat.

Curriculum Connection: 3.DA.Cr1 a. Experiment with a variety of self-identified stimuli (e.g.,

music/sound, text, objects, images, notation, observed dance, experiences) for movement.

Literacy Connection: “A Wolf in the Woods” by Penny Dolan

Music Standards utilized: : 2.MU:Cr1 a. Improvise rhythmic and melodic patterns and musical
ideas for a specific purpose
Grade Level: 2/3

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

Title: Hansel and Gretel

Source: Campbell, P. S., Scott-Kassner, C., Kassner, K. (2017). Music for Elementary Classroom
Teachers. W. W. Norton & Company. First Edition. Pp. 75-102

Description: Learn the song “Brother, Come Dance with Me” derived from Hansel and Gretel.
Sign it with the class then encourage them to practice it a bit then pair them up with a partner,
have one partner be Hansel and one be Gretal, and have each partner sing the song back and
forth to each other verse by verse while also acting out the suggested movements. Have the
partners do this until the song flows nicely, the song is sung correctly, and the moves to go with
it are done well.

Curriculum Connection: Physical Education, Grade 2, 1.19 Perform with a partner rhythmic
sequences related to simple folk dance or ribbon routines.

Literacy Connection: Hansel and Gretel by Brother Grimm

Music Standards utilized: 2.MU:Pr6 a. Perform music for a specific purpose with expression.

(Music sheet on next page)

Grade Level: 4/5

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

Title: Writing Poetry in Response to Music

Source: Music for Elementary Classroom Teachers by

Description:
- Play recorded music without telling children its name or any other information. Invite them
to listen to the music with their eyes closed and notice what images or feelings it evokes.
Create a word bank of those images and feelings. (Example piece of music: Pictures at an
Exhibition by Modest Musorgsky).
- Play the music again and invite the children to write a poem in response to the music using
whatever style of poetry writing seems to fit what they want to express.
- Play the music again, inviting them to make changes to their poems if necessary
- Children form pairs to share their poems. They should also be asked if they would like to
share with the class.
- Listen for any commonalities in the poems. discuss both the commonalities and differences.
discuss how the poems match elements in the music.
- Play the music again and share the name of the music as well as the performers and
composer. discuss the music. If the music has a programmatic intent check that intent against
what the children wrote. Notice any relationship between the two. discuss how music can
communicate ideas without using words.

Curriculum Connection: For this lesson, students will be shown examples of expressive poetry
prior. This completes the CA ELA Reading Standard for Grade 4; 10. By the end of the year,
read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4–5 text
complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Literacy Connection: Students can read expressive poems such as "Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

Music Standards utilized: 4.MU:Re8: Demonstrate and explain how expressive qualities (such as
dynamics, tempo, and timbre) are used in performers’ personal interpretations to reflect creators’
expressive intent.

Sheet Music not Needed for the lesson. Instead, the teacher shall play a selected classical piece.
Grade Level: 4/5

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

Title: Rhythm Words 4 Corners

Source: https://beccasmusicroom.com/teach-rhythm/

Description: This activity focuses on having students listen for syllables in certain words and
determine how that translates to rhythm. Students first read A Walk in Words to get them thinking
about the role words play in our lives and music. They then are put in the center of a room with
four rhythm words placed in each corner of the room (ex. Ti-ti, ta, etc.). The teacher then calls
out a word and has students run to the corner they believe the word correlates to. For example,
gumdrop would mean ti-ti and students should group in that corner.

Curriculum Connection: ELD.PI.4.8.Br: Distinguish how different words with related meanings
(e.g., fun versus entertaining versus thrilling, possibly versus certainly) and figurative language
produce shades of meaning and different effects on the audience.

Literacy Connection: A Walk in Words by Hudson Talbott

Music Standards utilized: 4.MU:Cr1: Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms, melodies, and
simple accompaniment patterns) within related tonalities (such as major and minor) and meters.
Grade Level: 4/5

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

Title: The Nutcracker

Source: Campbell, P. S., Scott-Kassner, C., Kassner, K. (2017). Music for Elementary Classroom
Teachers. W. W. Norton & Company. First Edition. Pp. 75-102

Description: Students will listen to an audio recording of the Trepak from The Nutcracker. While
students are listening to these audios, write a pattern on the board for an A section and B section.
Each section will feature X’s as beats. ‘A’ section the students will tap the beat to the song with
their hand, the ‘B’ section will tap the beats on their heads. This will teach the students to listen
to the tempo and beat of the song and copy it.

Curriculum Connection: Physical Education, Second Grade, 1.18 Perform rhythmic sequences
related to simple folk dance or ribbon routines.

Literacy Connection: The Story of The Nutcracker by Deborah Hautzig

Music Standards utilized: 2.MU:Pr4.2b. When analyzing selected music, read and perform
rhythmic and melodic patterns using iconic or standard notation.

(Sheet music on next page)