Elementary School Music Lesson

The “Science Kids” series of packets is intended to help teachers implement developmentally appropriate, hands-on science activities for children in Preschool, Kindergarten and the early grades. The activities in these packets are based on the scientific method and encourage inquiry-based learning.

(*Save money by purchasing the entire Year Long Science Curriculum in one bundle.)

This bundle contains enough science activities to fill the third quarter of the school year (About 8 weeks)

Freezing and Melting:

Investigations in this unit include:

★ "Ice Treasures"

★ "Light or Dark?"

★ "Adding Salt and Color"

★"Ice Cube Race"

★ "Which is Heavier?"

★ "Oil and Ice"

★ "Painting with Ice"

The final investigation in this unit is a student-designed investigation that will test how certain ingredients affect the time it takes an ice cube to melt.

The packet also includes a fun recipe for Ice Cream in a Bag! (And the scientific explanation for how this recipe works.)

My Human Body

As we make the life size body model, the students will learn about:

★ The skeletal system (bones)

★ The respiratory system (lungs)

★ The muscular system (muscles)

★ The cardiovascular system (heart, veins and arteries)

★ The digestive system (stomach and intestines)

★ The nervous system (spine and brain)

This packet also includes a printable book: “My Amazing Body” (black and white)

Suggestions for additional activities are included (including printable activities)

Music and Vibration

As they learn about vibrations and sound, the students will explore the following hands-on topics:

★ "Balloon Drums"

★ "Seeing Sound Vibrations"

★ "Cardboard Kazoos"

★ "Spoon Sounds"

★ "Rubber Band Guitars"

★ "Buzzing Balloons"

The two-week unit will conclude with the students creating their own unique instruments.

This unit also includes pocket chart word cards for many common percussion instruments.

Shadows and Light

Ten hands-on lessons about shadows are included:

★ Discovering Shadows

★ Outdoor Shadows

★ Is a Shadow Always Black?

★ A Moving Shadow

★ Big and Small Shadows

★ Shadow Detectives

★ Multiple Shadows

★ Shadow Tracings

★ Shadow Charades

★ A Shadow Show (Reflecting on What We've Learned)

This unit also includes extension activities and printables.

★ Follow my store to be alerted when new products are published.

Whether you have experience teaching music or not, this unit is for you. Have a small budget or no budget for teaching music? I have included ways to make music with your students for very little money. I have used this unit for 5 years teaching music and every year the students love it. This unit will give you a semester (or half a year) worth of material to use with approximately 2 periods of music per week.

What is bucket drumming?

Bucket drumming is a relatively inexpensive way to bring rhythmic practices into the classroom. This unit is designed to be accessible for all teachers to use, regardless of musical training. The use of familiar words helps both teachers and students learn simple rhythms together. The rhythms increase in difficulty and there are options for easy, medium, and hard rhythms. This allows for easy modifications and accommodations ensuring that students of all abilities are successful in this unit. I have taught variations of this unit with grade 6-8 students for over 5 years with success, and these lessons can be modified for other grade levels.

In my experience, students love bucket drumming and enjoy the lessons in this unit. One activity that you can use when you have a few extra minutes is the Elimination Game, and students LOVE it! It can be used as a great warm-up game and to reinforce the skills taught in this unit.

This unit includes games, lessons, and activities to help strengthen ear training, encourage active listening, develop rhythmic abilities, develop composition skills, explore creativity, and most importantly, to have fun! I have also included some helpful information to get bucket drumming started in your classroom. Included in this unit are lessons, games. activities, and rubrics where needed. There are a solid 21 – 31 periods worth of work included in this unit (possibly more).

Included below are the overall lesson plans and activities included in this unit. Most “lessons” can be used for multiple periods and the approximate number of periods is included in brackets beside the activity. I have based these periods on approximately 45 minutes each. These lessons include opportunities to read music, compose, and perform.

Introduction to Bucket Drumming (1 - 2 periods)

Elimination Game (1 period)

Elements of Music (2 – 3 periods)

Rhythm Cards (2 – 3 period)

8 Bar Rhythm Challenges (4 – 6 periods)

Let’s Compose! (5 – 6 periods)

Stomp Composition (6 – 10 periods)

If you have any questions, please let me know! Happy Bucket Drumming!

TIPS:

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By popular request, here's an advanced arrangement of the holiday hit that'll sure to get your bucket drumming kids fired up, First Snow, by the Trans Siberian Orchestra!

There are four all-color coded slides along with the form identifiers listed next to each phrase. Discuss form with the students and teach them (by rote) the rhythms on the powerpoint with the corresponding repeats (most are repeated 3 or 4 times). Then, apply it to drums!

All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

This version differs from the standard version with the implementation of sixteenth note patterns (which is great to work on with your kids for alternating hands!)

Here's the track so you can play along...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0DngW4WOGY

Terms of Use:

All images/photos/clip art in this resource were created by me.

*** Looking for more BUCKET DRUMMING resources? ***

**
Find them here!**

Use this lesson based off of Eric Carle's book to teach triplets to your students. Use the chant every time that the book asks the question of whether or not a certain animal has a mother. Students can keep a steady beat, play the rhythm or do both, depending on the grade level. Can also be used to reinforce rhythm vs. steady beat. Additional worksheet provides practice in writing triplets. Adaptable for grades PreK-3rd grade. Perfect for a Mother's Day themed lesson!

REMINDERS

1. If you have any questions about this product or any of my products, feel free to email me at creatingmusicalliterature@gmail.com

2. Your purchase of this product is for SINGLE USE ONLY. Please purchase additional licenses to share with other teachers. Copyright © 2022 Creating Musical Literature. All rights reserved.

3. Leave a comment down below in order to earn TeachShare credits! I would love to hear how you and your students have been enjoying my products!

_________________________________________________________

LET'S CONNECT ON SOCIALS!

INSTAGRAM: @creatingmusicalliterature

PINTEREST: @creatingmusicalliterature

FACEBOOK: @creatingmusicalliterature

Students will explore the relationship between sound and vibration as they create several hand-made musical instruments.

The “Science Kids” series is intended to help teachers implement developmentally appropriate, hands-on science activities for children in Preschool, Kindergarten and the early grades. The activities in these packets are based on the scientific method and encourage inquiry-based learning. All activities can be differentiated to meet the needs of your students.

As they learn about vibrations and sound, the students will explore the following hands-on topics:

★ "Balloon Drums"

★ "Seeing Sound Vibrations"

★ "Cardboard Kazoos"

★ "Spoon Sounds"

★ "Rubber Band Guitars"

★ "Buzzing Balloons"

The two-week unit will conclude with the students creating their own unique instruments.

This packet also includes pocket chart word cards for many common percussion instruments.

Looking for a way to have some fun while learning music? Look no further. This Graphic Scores Unit will have your students exploring how to represent sound using graphics and composing in no time! There are 3 main lessons included in this unit, however, the last lesson will likely take 6-8 lessons to put together and perform. This unit is one I have used with my own students so I know how much fun they have with it! The great thing with graphic scores is you don't really need any instruments to compose which makes this unit even better if you're teaching music on a cart or have limited resources available.

Overview:

This graphic score short unit exposes students to what a graphic score is. They get to represent sound using graphics and compose their own graphic score using found sounds. Students will learn how sound and music can be represented using graphics. They will practice representing a short piece of music through graphics. After, they will represent common soundscapes using their own graphics and will then create their own graphic score to perform. I created this in Google Docs/Slides so that you can customize this unit to your own unique needs.

Learning Goals:

• We are learning how to represent sounds and music using non-traditional notation.
• We are learning to compose a piece of music using found sounds and represent our sound using graphics.

Success Criteria:

• I can represent sound using graphics.
• I can compose a piece of music with a group and perform it using my score.

What’s Included:

• Lesson Plans and Ideas
• Google Slides Lesson on Graphic Scores (including original composition to practice creating graphic scores)
• Graphic organizer for students with fill in the blanks about graphic scores
• Graphic organizer for students to represent original composition as a graphic score
• Graphic organizer for students to represent soundscapes using graphics
• Graphic score for students to create their own graphic scores
• Rubrics to mark graphic score assignments
• 3 Stars and a Wish for peer feedback

The follow-up to "Rhythm Wind Up and PITCH! and MELODY Wind Up and PITCH!"
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This one will get the kids on their edge of their seats!

You will need 1 thing for this particular game:

• A sticky suction cup ball (or maybe a soft squishy ball)

The students will see an instrument at the bottom of their screen and memorize the timbre of the instrument (should know beforehand what it is and how it sounds!) They will then hear a musical example of an endless loop of orchestral and band instruments playing in all different ranges from low to high (Teacher will click the speaker icon to play)

Take a listen...

....

....

One of the instruments will be the instrument that is on the screen. AS SOON AS THEY HEAR THAT INSTRUMENT, they throw their suction cup ball at the target. The first kid who gets it correct is the winner (and make sure you advance the slide to make the target turn green) :)

Obviously, we cannot play this as a class because of

1. The amount of suction cup balls tossed at the screen would be insane

2. Team A v Team B would be a bit more competitive and only two balls would be launched at once

If you don't have a whiteboard/projection screen, you can alternatively have the students raise their hand when they hear it and choose the kid who has their hand up the fastest.

Have a great time with this fast paced game!

This is a series of chants for various books in the Little Old Lady Series Books. Use these with your students from PreK-2nd grade to chant at various repetitive points in each story. Use the chants with the following books: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Truck.

Start with steady beat and then, if you wish, have students decode them for various rhythms. Add instruments such as hand drums, frame drums, etc. to add a musical element to these books.

REMINDERS

1. If you have any questions about this product or any of my products, feel free to email me at creatingmusicalliterature@gmail.com

2. Your purchase of this product is for SINGLE USE ONLY. Please purchase additional licenses to share with other teachers. Copyright © 2022 Creating Musical Literature. All rights reserved.

3. Leave a comment down below in order to earn TeachShare credits! I would love to hear how you and your students have been enjoying my products!

_________________________________________________________

LET'S CONNECT ON SOCIALS!

INSTAGRAM: @creatingmusicalliterature

PINTEREST: @creatingmusicalliterature

FACEBOOK: @creatingmusicalliterature

The Science Kids curriculum is intended to help teachers implement developmentally appropriate, hands-on science activities for children in Preschool, Kindergarten and the early grades. The activities in these packets are based on the scientific method and encourage inquiry-based learning. All activities can be differentiated to meet the needs of your students.

This year long bundle includes 16 Science Units:

• “What do Scientists Do?”

• “Floating and Sinking”

• “Color Mixing”

• “Magnets”

• “Kitchen Chemistry”

• “Ramps”

• “Mirrors”

• “Gingerbread Science”

• “Freezing and Melting”

• “My Human Body”

• “Music and Vibration”

• “Shadows and Light”

• “Weather and Temperature”

• “Taking Care of the Earth”

• “Taking Care of Pets”

• “Taking Care of Plants”

This packet includes enough lessons for 32 weeks of hands-on learning. While 32 weeks is a bit shorter than a typical school year, this curriculum is designed to be flexible in order to give children the time they need to learn, so extra days are allowed for each unit. Additional, optional activities are also included for many of the units, and these can be used to help fill your days if needed.

This curriculum supports the Next Generation Science Standards for kindergarten.

Please see my other Science products if you want to supplement this curriculum.

In "KING CAT", introduce your kids to some great music from indigenous instruments from Africa! Using your classroom Djembe or Tubanos, learn the music by rote by taking it one rehearsal section at a time (with rehearsal markings [A], [B], [C], and so forth). This is terrific practice with your older students who want to work on alternating hands, especially with trickier syncopations and advanced rhythms such as sequential triplets and sixteenth notes!

The notation on the first space F is a bass (middle of the drum) and the notation on the third space C is a tone (four fingers near the rim of the drum, pitched a bit higher)

At the end, wrap it up and put on a show! Want to layer it?

• Have tambourines or shakers play on specified beats (try 2 and 4)
• Have shakers play 16th notes all the way throughout or in specific sections
• Have half the class play 1st and 3rd measures, the other half play 2nd and 4th measures
• Do it in a round! :)

Use this in class, a concert, a parent showcase, admin, faculty and staff, whatever you wish!

Have a terrific time with this one :)

Using these lesson extensions for the books "'Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,' said the Sloth", "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", and "Does the Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?" teach fast vs. slow, triplets, and rhythm vs. steady beat. Use the extension lesson for "Rooster's Off to See the World", "Dream Snow" and "The Very Lonely Firefly", to introduce and review the so-mi-la and mi-re-do solfege combination. Use lessons for "From Head to Toe" and "Little Cloud" to move and explore shapes in your classroom. Use "The Very Quiet Cricket" to teach steady beat and whisper voice. Finally, use the book "Pancakes, Pancakes" to teach sixteenth note rhythms. Have the children move and play along, and then reinforce their knowledge with additional worksheets. Adaptable for grades PreK-3rd grade. Worksheets can be printed or used digitally.

REMINDERS

1. If you have any questions about this product or any of my products, feel free to email me at creatingmusicalliterature@gmail.com

2. Your purchase of this product is for SINGLE USE ONLY. Please purchase additional licenses to share with other teachers. Copyright © 2023 Creating Musical Literature. All rights reserved.

3. Leave a comment down below in order to earn TeachShare credits! I would love to hear how you and your students have been enjoying my products!

_________________________________________________________

LET'S CONNECT ON SOCIALS!

INSTAGRAM: @creatingmusicalliterature

PINTEREST: @creatingmusicalliterature

FACEBOOK: @creatingmusicalliterature

Need to connect with your kids with their pop music through general music? Involve them in bucket drumming with the hit song from the 1995 smash film "A Goofy Movie" with I 2 I from Powerline!

There are four all-color coded slides along with the form identifiers listed next to each phrase. Discuss form with the students and teach them (by rote) the rhythms on the powerpoint with the corresponding repeats (most are repeated 4, 6, or 8 times). Then, apply it to drums!

All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

Here's the track so you can play along...

https://youtu.be/-qzWOhUURzo?si=quREsFN87FIonlmh

Have fun with this and let us know how it goes!
Terms of Use:

All images/photos/clip art in this resource were created by me.

__________________________________

*** Looking for more BUCKET DRUMMING resources? *** Find them here!

Use these books to help your students learn the triplet rhythm! The rhythm and beat charts help with decoding triplets and the worksheets provided help with the practice of writing a triplet rhythm. In addition, you can discuss and explore social emotional learning with "A Hug is for Holding Me." Some lessons are adaptable for grades PreK-3rd grade while the Tanabata Star Festival Lesson is for the upper grades.

REMINDERS

1. If you have any questions about this product or any of my products, feel free to email me at creatingmusicalliterature@gmail.com

2. Your purchase of this product is for SINGLE USE ONLY. Please purchase additional licenses to share with other teachers. Copyright © 2024 Creating Musical Literature. All rights reserved.

3. Leave a comment down below in order to earn TeachShare credits! I would love to hear how you and your students have been enjoying my products!

_________________________________________________________

LET'S CONNECT ON SOCIALS!

INSTAGRAM: @creatingmusicalliterature

PINTEREST: @creatingmusicalliterature

FACEBOOK: @creatingmusicalliterature

Need to connect with your kids with their pop music through general music (which has turned into a great video meme)? Involved them with BUCKET DRUMMING! in the video turned meme "The Whopper Song"!

There are three all-color coded slides along with the form identifiers listed next to each phrase. Discuss form with the students and teach them (by rote) the rhythms on the powerpoint with the corresponding repeats (most are repeated 4, 6, or 8 times). Then, apply it to drums!

All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

Here's the track so you can play along...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b35HEjVX9Wg

Have fun with this and let us know how it goes!

Terms of Use:

All images/photos/clip art in this resource were created by me.

__________________________________

*** Looking for more BUCKET DRUMMING resources? *** Find them here!

Right in time for your Christmas instrumentalists, we present to you Brenda Lee's hit Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree re-imagined as a HIP HOP TRAP MIX for BUCKET DRUMMING!

There are three all-color coded slides along with the form identifiers listed next to each phrase. Discuss form with the students and teach them (by rote) the rhythms on the powerpoint with the corresponding repeats (most are grouped 2 or 4 times). Then, apply it to drums!

All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

The mp3 track is included in this one, so no need to YouTube it. Have fun with this and let us know how it goes!

Terms of Use:

All images/photos/clip art in this resource were created by me.

__________________________________

*** Looking for more BUCKET DRUMMING resources? *** Find them here!

In "To the Skies!", introduce your kids to some great music from indigenous instruments from Africa! Using your classroom Djembe or Tubanos (along with tambourines), learn the music by rote by aking it one rehearsal section at a time (with rehearsal markings [A], [B], [C], and so forth). This is terrific practice with your older students who want to work on alternating hands and adding different timbres in with the tambourine

Included is the key for tubano and tambourine notation

At the end, wrap it up and put on a show! Want to layer it?

• Have shakers play eighth notes or dotted quarters all the way throughout or in specific sections
• Have half the class play 1st and 3rd measures, the other half play 2nd and 4th measures
• Do it in a round! :)

Use this in class, a concert, a parent showcase, admin, faculty and staff, whatever you wish!

Have a terrific time with this one :)

A fall classic just in time for the spooky bucket drums to come out is the smash introductory song from Disney's hit movie of the same name, we present to you the theme from "Hocus Pocus"!

There are three all-color coded slides along with the form identifiers listed next to each phrase. Discuss form with the students and teach them (by rote) the rhythms on the powerpoint with the corresponding repeats (most are repeated 4 times). Then, apply it to drums!

All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

Here's the track so you can play along...

https://youtu.be/tgagV6SqeR4

This is a terrific fortifier for triplets -- Keep it steady and keep it spooky!

Have fun with this and let us know how it goes!

__________________________________

*** Looking for more BUCKET DRUMMING resources? *** Find them here!

Wanna get these kids engaged and smiling ear to ear? Get a TRAP REMIX going full of trap music, backbeats, and trance themes with the theme from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Bucket Drumming!

There are four all-color coded slides along with the form identifiers listed next to each phrase. Discuss form with the students and teach them (by rote) the rhythms on the powerpoint with the corresponding repeats (most are repeated 2 or 4 times). Then, apply it to drums!

All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

Here's the track so you can play along...

Teenage Mutant Night Turtles TRAP Remix

Have fun with this and let us know how it goes!

Terms of Use:

All images/photos/clip art in this resource were created by me.

__________________________________

*** Looking for more BUCKET DRUMMING resources? *** Find them here!

Wanna get these kids engaged and smiling ear to ear? Get a TRAP REMIX going full of trap music, backbeats, and trance themes with the theme from Minecraft for Bucket Drumming!

There are two all-color coded slides along with the form identifiers listed next to each phrase. Discuss form with the students and teach them (by rote) the rhythms on the powerpoint with the corresponding repeats (most are repeated 3 or 4 times). Then, apply it to drums!

All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

Here's the track so you can play along...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL4i9FKuiEA

Have fun with this and let us know how it goes!

Terms of Use:

All images/photos/clip art in this resource were created by me.

__________________________________

*** Looking for more BUCKET DRUMMING resources? *** Find them here!

In a stark departure from our popular music series, here's a TRAP MUSIC bucket drumming arrangement for the theme song from the hit Disney/Disney XD animated series, Gravity Falls!

There are two all-color coded slides along with the form identifiers listed next to each phrase. Discuss form with the students and teach them (by rote) the rhythms on the powerpoint with the corresponding repeats (most are repeated 4 times). Then, apply it to drums!

All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

Here's the link to the TRAP Remix version on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Fs\_NqvKadOg

Terms of Use:

All images/photos/clip art in this resource were created by me.

__________________________________

*** Looking for more BUCKET DRUMMING resources? *** Find them here!