Middle School Music Assessment (by date, oldest first)

Nothing like catching two curriculum areas in one. This assignment will help you meet expectations in both music and language. Students are asked to analyze poetry and lyrics, both those used in class and those of their own choosing. The assignment has students looking at: * vocabulary used * structure * techniques * important words * feelings Students are also asked to consider how the poem/music is meant to be performed. They are also asked to consider the background of the poet/musician.

Reviewing Orff with your kids? This may be the game format you're looking for!

An authentic jeopardy game board with categories that students can elect to pick!
The amounts, as imagined, are $200, $400, $600, $800, or $1000 answers.

After clicking on the amount, the answer will appear on the next slide.
Hand Me a Note - Discussing the pitches on the Orff instruments

Technique - Techniques on Orff instruments (middle of the bar, "handlebars", etc)
Mallet Madness - Descriptions and anatomy of mallets (rubber, yarn, wood)

Family Time! - The instruments within the family from the Bass all the way to the Glockenspiel

Students (keeping in true Jeopardy! fashion) can answer in the form of a question

"What is a Soprano"

"What is Yarn"

"What is C"

After the money is awarded (You can split sides of your class, boys vs girls, class vs class, however you want it!), there is a link in the bottom right hand corner to go back to the title screen and game board.

After extracting the ZIP file, make sure to install the Jeopardy! font included, or else you'll see random characters all over -- not good eats!

Email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com or leave a comment if you have any questions. Happy Jeopardy...ing!

With “Rhythms Around the Horn”, students will see four rhythm squares on the powerpoint (or PDF), all of them containing different rhythms.

For starters, have the entire class perform rhythm 1 (with instruments, vocalizing, clapping, patting, etc), then rhythm 2, then 3, and then finally 4.

After students understand the rhythms, then you can have the rhythms all be performed several different ways...

• Assign an instrument to each number and have them repeat their rhythm
• Example: #1 will be shakers, #2 will be tambourines, #3 will be hand drums, #4 will be guiros
• Example: #1 will be bass xylo, #2 will be soprano xylo, #3 will be alto xylo, #4 will be glockenspiel
• Example: #1 will be C and D boomwhackers, #2 will be E and F boomwhackers, #3 will be G and A boomwhackers, #4 will be B boomwhacker
• Assign an instrument to each number and have them rotate throughout the numbers (1, 2, 3, 4)
• Assign an instrument to each number and have them repeat the rhythm 2 times, 4 times (or however long you wish) and move to the next number to do the same thing
• Assign all instruments to start at the beginning, but at different times (a canon or a round).
• Example: Instrument 1 will play #1 first, then #2 consecutively, then the second instruments begin on #1 when the first are on #2, and so forth
• Go backwards, 4, 3, 2, 1
• Or maybe a free for all – have students pick their favorite number and repeat

There are 4 levels of rhythms all with increasing difficulty

• Quarters and Eighths
• Half Notes
• Eighth Note Rests
• Triplets

Have a great time with this!

Down, Set, HUT!

In Bar Line Blitz, student will see a meter with several beats of music – except the bar lines are missing to separate the measures from each other!

They will will see 2 or more line placeholders (small grey lines) in between notes. One of the placeholders is where the bar line should go… but which one is it?

Identify where the bar line should be placed and the correct area will illuminate
green if it is accurate!

Play team vs team, A vs B, or individually... and enhance it by playing some fun football music in the background (search NFL themes or college football fight songs on YouTube) ;)

There are 4 levels (4 quarters if you wish) of varying difficulties. The last quarter, they students will need to identify where it should be placed without any small grey lined hashmarks

Have a great time with this one!

No need to have drums, recorders, or even auxiliary instruments for this one! If you don't have access, are traveling to rooms, or want to give a change to your curriculum try "Body Percussion Dynamic Challenge"!

There are nearly 30 Dynamic rhythm in each level with CLAPS, PATS , STOMPS, and SNAPS, and CHEST PATS, all indicated on the powerpoint slide with icons. Count your kids off with a few prep beats and watch them go!

If the kids master the rhythm with the appropriate dynamics, advance the slide and see how far they can get! (scoreboard included!)

• I usually put a 2-3 minute song on and see if they can get the highest score before the end of the song and track it for next time

Also terrific for reading in some of the younger grades who are not familiar with standard notation and need a warmup to reading using these icons.

Use the included background tracks (90bpm to 110bpm) or put on your favorite music so the kids can jam along (or choose your own)!

Here are the 4 levels:

• Level 1 - Piano and Forte
• Level 2 - Adding in Quarter Rests
• Level 3 - Crescendo
• Level 4 - Diminuendo

We're BACK and for 2022 in the follow-up to the #1 selling "Identify Form in Pop Music" series, we now bring you....

Part EIGHT!

Kids love their pop music, right? Want to integrate it into your classroom? This is great lesson to do with 4th and 5th graders that lets them listen to their favorite pop music (as always, kid friendly 100% CLEAN!) while learning about musical form!

The lesson begins with an introduction to popular music and how the music is formulated by the artists songwriters. We talk about the intro, verse, chorus, bridge, and outro, and include the collision and the channel and then go onto our activity.

I cut out cards... a whole bunch of intros, verses, chorus, bridges, outros, channels, and collisions (or you can do it with a whiteboard/marker, or even as a unison class response) and give them to each student, then have have the kids sit on the floor. I then play an mp3 of a song which has 10 second clips of each of the sections (there is about a 2-4 second gap in between each clip and all clips are safe for little ears -- no profanity!) and have the students identify them by spelling them out on the floor in front of them. This works great if you're putting kids into groups of 2 or 3 as they try to figure out the form of the song.

It's a great compromise to having your kids listen to their music and still satisfy a 4th and 5th grade standard in identifying the structure of music!

The 2022 hit list:

• Enemy, Imagine Dragons
• Something in the Way, Nirvana (from The Batman)
• Good 4 U, Olivia Rodrigo
• We Don't Talk About Bruno, Encanto
• Easy on Me, Adele
• Butter, BTS
• Cold Heart, Dua Lipa/Elton John
• Ghost, Justin Bieber
• Heat Waves, Glass Animals
• Bad Habits, Ed Sheeran

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com

Have fun, kids LOVE this!

______________________________________

All the previous versions can be found here:

Identify Form in Pop Music

Identify Form in Pop Music PART TWO

Identify Form in Pop Music PART THREE

Identify Form in Pop Music PART FOUR

Identify Form in Pop Music PART FIVE

Identify Form in Pop Music PART SIX

Identify Form in Pop Music PART SEVEN

This resource Rhythm and Rest is terrific for your kids as an introduction to quarter and half rests or just as a warmup for whichever instrument you may be practicing (recorder, orff, handbells, voice, etc!)

30 slides with 3 different levels

1. Quarter Rests and Half Note Rests with Quarter Notes

2. Adding in Eighth Notes

3. Six beat patterns

In "Twos Company" students will see two 4-beat rhythmic examples on the powerpoint and will split amongs their peers as a duet and read the rhythms down, with instruments, vocalizing, or however you please!

Students can be the "1" part or the "2" part or you can call individuals to sight read, or split it up any way you wish.

There are 25 different examples with inflections, style, and background grooves to keep you going (at different tempi if you'd like)

In this resource, it encompasses quarter notes, quarter rests, half notes, dynamics (forte and piano), and repeat signs into a canon exercise (to be repeated 4 times)

You can play these on boomwhackers, classroom percussion, Orff, recorders, or whatever you'd like.

Part II coming soon with extended rhythms and more!

Looking for something challenging for your 4th and 5th graders (or even early middle schoolers?) This game is fast paced and has these kids racing to dictate what they hear in a new game called "Rhythm Clockout!"

In this lesson, students will hear a 4 to 6 beat rhythm (with 8 preparatory beats) followed by a 3, 5, 7, or 9 second timer immediately following the rhythm. As soon as that timer begins (or even before for some of your advanced kids), have the students dictate what they heard before the timer runs out!

You can do this one of a few ways

• Print out notecards and have them line it up on their floor/desk
• Have them write it out on the whiteboard
• Draw it on their tablet (if applicable)
• Use Popsicle sticks for iconic notation
• Use your own type of notation

In all of these examples are quarter rests, half notes, eighth notes, and quarter notes. You can use the printouts included to print your own and cut them up, or even use your class set

There are 22 examples in this one with the electric guitar leading the melodic figures for the kids to notate. Most are around 100-120bpm, but some advanced ones go a bit faster

Lesson pro tip:

Wanna challenge the kids? Have a team vs team, kid vs kid, A vs B, etc and see who can get the most right (percentage of right notes) or even the right answer before the timer ends

Have a great time with this one, my upper elementary kids get super psyched!

In this rhythmic identifying game (fastest one wins!), students will see a rhythm displayed on the board with a box (one beat or two beats) inside the rhythm. These boxes will be blank and can hold different types of beats to complete the rhythmic phrase

The students will then listen to an example of music and figure out which of the available boxes (with corresponding rhythms) would complete the rhythm shown on the screen! Simply click on the sound icon, have the students listen, and then advance the slide when they choose the correct answer.

There are 10 musical examples in this lesson and works great with some of the younger elementary students. They can either vocalize "1st" "2nd" or "3rd" box, come up to the screen and pick, or have a race to see who can select the correct box first.

Have a great time with this!

Looking to start (or end your year) with a few fun Bucket Drumming resources... and at 20% off when purchased as a MegaPack right here? Say no more and try out BUCKETS of BUCKETS!

Included in this are 4 great resources for your bucket drumming kids:

• Super Bucket Drumming Bros.
• Stick it to the Buckets! (Sticking Patterns for Bucket Drums)
• Bucket it, DYNAMICALLY! (60 Dynamic Exercises for Bucket Drums!)
• Poison Bucket Patterns! (Poison Patterns/Poison Rhythms)

Check out the resources by clicking above and decide if this is right for your students who can benefit from the lessons. Each resource includes a powerpoint file and PDF file and satisfies assessment requirements for your students in game, practice, and sequential formats

The #1 selling "Identify Form in Pop Music!" series and follow up version have all been thrown into a MEGAPACK, slashed by 25%, and includes an extra resource of Identifying Timbre in Pop Music!

________________

Kids love their pop music, right? Want to integrate it into your classroom? This is great lesson to do with 4th and 5th graders that lets them listen to their favorite pop music while learning about musical form!

The lesson begins with a video introduction to form and then talks about elements of pop music and how it ascribes to a specific form. We talk about the intro, verse, chorus, bridge, and outro in detail, and then go onto our activity.

I cut out cards -- 1 intro, 3 verses, 3 choruses, 1 bridge, and 1 outro (or you can do it with a whiteboard/marker, or even as a unison class response) and give them to each student, then have have the kids sit on the floor. I then play an mp3 of a song which has 10 second clips of each of the sections (there is about a 2 second gap in between each clip and all clips are safe for little ears -- no profanity!) and have the students identify them by spelling them out on the floor in front of them

A great compromise to having your kids listen to their music and still satisfy a 4th and 5th grade standard in identifying the structure of music!

_________________

In this MEGAPack you get

Identify Form in Pop Music

Identify Form in Pop Music PART TWO

Identify Form in Pop Music PART THREE

Identify Form in Pop Music PART FOUR

Identify Form in Pop Music PART FIVE

Identify Form in Pop Music PART SEVEN

AND

Identify Timbre in Pop Music

End of the year review or just starting up with aural theory? Try on "Inspector Interval"!

In this fast paced game, students will do a brief review of how a musical interval is defined and jump right into the contest -- have an interval on the treble clef staff appear and TEAM A or TEAM B will have to name the interval as fast as they can!

There are no qualities of intervals (major 2nd, minor 6th, etc), just interval names by itself. There will always be a grounded "F", so the intervals will be built on top of that

We usually play this game 'around the world' style. We start off on the left side or right side of the the room and the first two people stand up and you flash an interval on the screen. The student who gets the note correct gets to move onto the next child in the class while the other student sits. That student has to make their way through the entire class before being deemed champion... but they could be beat at ANY TIME! You can mix it up, left side, right side, boys/girls, etc. Kids get ultra competitive!

... or use it as an individual activity!

Looking for a fun, exciting, challenging, and engaging way to reach students in your upper elementary or lower middle school grades? Try this all-inclusive lesson that will get your kids racing against the clock and each other with **The Great Escape!

**This MEGAPack includes Escape Rooms from Instruments and Instrument Families, Rhythm, and Notes of the Treble Clef Staff

You can view each individual lesson here, but purchased all together as this resource, you save 25%!

MUSIC ESCAPE ROOM - Instruments and Instrument Families

MUSIC ESCAPE ROOM - Super Rhythm Rally!

**
MUSIC ESCAPE ROOM - Notes of the Treble Clef Staff!**

There are five rooms, and in each room are several "tasks" students will have to perform (either individually, as a class, A vs B, side by side, or however you wish). As soon as the task is completed, advance the slide for the correct answer (the teacher will control the game).

After a certain number of tasks, a key will be issued to exit the room and head into another room with a different set of tasks.

If students complete all tasks and open the door to all five rooms they win the game!

You can play this one of four ways

• Set a timer (5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc). You can designate how long students should receive to complete the entire game
• Keep track of time to beat another class or grade level
• Keep track of time and try again during another class to name it faster
• Play it side vs side, boys vs girls, and see who can get to the end the fastest (or before time ends)

If you would like music to accompany this to make it a bit more engaging, try using this in the background:

Escape Room Background Music

Looking for a fun, exciting, challenging, and engaging way to reach students in your upper elementary or lower middle school grades? Try this all-inclusive lesson that will get your kids racing against the clock and each other with The Great Escape!

In “THE GREAT ESCAPE”, students will be given a specific amount of time to perform tasks successfully (as designed by the teacher). Each one of these tasks is a musical task and the theme for this escape room are the notes of the treble clef staff.

There are five rooms, and in each room are several "tasks" students will have to perform (either individually, as a class, A vs B, side by side, or however you wish). As soon as the task is completed, advance the slide for the correct answer (the teacher will control the game).

After a certain number of tasks, a key will be issued to exit the room and head into another room with a different set of tasks.

The five rooms and tasks are as follows:

• Room One: Bedroom (Name the instrument)
• Room Two: Lounge (Classify instrument family)
• Room Three: Kitchen (Classify lowest or highest sounding instrument)
• Room Four: Guest Room (Put instruments in order)
• Room Five: Hallway (Classify instrument accessories into the correct family)

If students complete all tasks and open the door to all five rooms they win the game!

You can play this one of four ways

• Set a timer (5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc). You can designate how long students should receive to complete the entire game
• Keep track of time to beat another class or grade level
• Keep track of time and try again during another class to name it faster
• Play it side vs side, boys vs girls, and see who can get to the end the fastest (or before time ends)

If you would like music to accompany this to make it a bit more engaging, try using this in the background:

Escape Room Background Music

Have a terrific time with this and let us know how it goes!

In this ValuPack, you will get the Top 6 Instrumental resources that tenders to your instrumental unit with engaging and relevant content on the four instrument families, Brass, Woodwinds, Strings, and Percussion!

20% off all of the resources when purchased here, you get the following:

• Instrument Imposter ("Among Us" theme timbre lesson!)
• Instrument Jeopardy!
• Catch Wind of it! - Identifying Woodwind Instruments
• The BRASSroom - Identifying Brass Instruments
• Pitch Perfect - Identifying Percussion Instruments
• Turn up the Aux! - Identifying Auxiliary Percussion Instruments

Have a terrific time with this and let us know how it goes!

One of the favorite end-of-the-year (or even beginning-of-the-year) activities for the kids to get them sight reading and of course, keeping their eyes and ears out for one of those DEADLY Poison Rhythms/Poison Patterns!

Poison Bucket Patterns! takes students through 78 slides and 5 levels of Bucket Drumming sight reading. Students will play a variety of rhythms as the teacher scrolls through the slides. Each slide contains one rhythm they will play and after advancing to the next slide, you can elect to give them a 4 beat or 2 beat prep to read the next rhythm, whichever works for you. The less prep they have, the better because...

There will be one rhythm (the poison rhythm, poison pattern, or OOPS! rhythm as we'll call it) that students DO NOT play! If they do, they're out of the game.

Students learn the rhythm before the round is played. Be careful or you will be ELIMINATED!

• 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)

You can play this in teams, As vs Bs, however you wish! There are 5 background grooves that go from 80 bpm to 120 bpm to challenge your kids as they go through the levels. Levels begin with 4 beat rhythms and end with 6 beat rhythms with rests, quarter notes, and 2 eighth note patterns.

Have a great time with this!

Want your kids to have their cake and eat it too? Turn pop music into an engaging and fun lesson with "Identify Timbre in Pop Music!"

Before your begin this lesson, make sure your kids have an understanding of the four families of instruments, Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, and Strings and know multiple instruments in each family as they will utilize their aural skills during this activity.

As we know, timbre is the quality of sound an instrument makes. Students will listen to 11 examples of popular music and be given 3 multiple choice answers of instruments in the song example. They will then have to choose answer 1, 2, or 3 after listening to the example.

Advance the slide to illuminate the correct answer (in light blue) and assess from there! You can play this individually, as a class, have students write it down, or even play it as a race to see who can get the answer correct first!

All mp3 files are embedded into the slides -- just extract right to your desktop and they should link up and play.

Song examples included:

• High Hopes, Panic! at the Disco

• Hotline Bling, Drake

• 24k Magic, Bruno Mars

• Believer, Imagine Dragons

• Perfect, Ed Sheeran

• Levitating, Dua Lipa

• Into the Unknown, Panic! at the Disco

• Old Town Road, Lil Nas X

• BANG!, AJR

• Don't Start Now, Dua Lipa

• Watermelon Sugar, Harry Styles

  Have a terrific time with this!

Looking for a fun, exciting, challenging, and engaging way to reach students in your upper elementary or lower middle school grades? Try this all-inclusive lesson that will get your kids racing against the clock and each other with The Great Escape!

In “THE GREAT ESCAPE”, students will be given a specific amount of time to perform tasks successfully (as designed by the teacher). Each one of these tasks is a musical task and the theme for this escape room are rhythms.

There are five rooms, and in each room are several "tasks" students will have to perform (either individually, as a class, A vs B, side by side, or however you wish). As soon as the task is completed, advance the slide for the correct answer (the teacher will control the game).

After a certain number of tasks, a key will be issued to exit the room and head into another room with a different set of tasks.

The five rooms and tasks are as follows:

• Room One: The Library (Perform the Rhythm shown)
• Room Two: The Kitchen (Identify Rhythm)
• Room Three: The Den (Perform the Rhythm BACKWARDS)
• Room Four: The Boiler Room (Identify Rhythmic Value)
• Room Five: The Lobby (Perform Polyrhythms (1-4 groups of class split)
• Room Five: The Lobby (Diagonal Rhythms and Shapes)

If students complete all tasks and open the door to all five rooms they win the game!

You can play this one of four ways

• Set a timer (5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc). You can designate how long students should receive to complete the entire game
• Keep track of time to beat another class or grade level
• Keep track of time and try again during another class to name it faster
• Play it side vs side, boys vs girls, and see who can get to the end the fastest (or before time ends)

If you would like music to accompany this to make it a bit more engaging, try using this in the background:

Escape Room Background Music

Have a terrific time with this and let us know how it goes!

Looking for a fun, exciting, challenging, and engaging way to reach students in your upper elementary or lower middle school grades? Try this all-inclusive lesson that will get your kids racing against the clock and each other with The Great Escape!

In “THE GREAT ESCAPE”, students will be given a specific amount of time to perform tasks successfully (as designed by the teacher). Each one of these tasks is a musical task and the theme for this escape room are the notes of the treble clef staff.

There are five rooms, and in each room are several "tasks" students will have to perform (either individually, as a class, A vs B, side by side, or however you wish). As soon as the task is completed, advance the slide for the correct answer (the teacher will control the game).

After a certain number of tasks, a key will be issued to exit the room and head into another room with a different set of tasks.

The five rooms and tasks are as follows:

• Room One: The Office (Name one note on the staff)
• Room Two: The Laboratory (Name two notes on the staff)
• Room Three: The Library (Spell out the word)
• Room Four: The Lounge (Pick the correct note to match the letter)
• Room Five: The Foyer (Pick the correct tile to match the word)

If students complete all tasks and open the door to all five rooms they win the game!

You can play this one of four ways

• Set a timer (5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc). You can designate how long students should receive to complete the entire game
• Keep track of time to beat another class or grade level
• Keep track of time and try again during another class to name it faster
• Play it side vs side, boys vs girls, and see who can get to the end the fastest (or before time ends)

If you would like music to accompany this to make it a bit more engaging, try using this in the background:

Escape Room Background Music

Have a terrific time with this and let us know how it goes!