APPENDIX 3: SUGGESTED UPPER ELEMENTARY/ MIDDLE SCHOOL (9-13 yrs) TEACHING MATERIALS

Lots of THEORY & LITERACY WORKBOOKS ETC.:

MUSIC RAPS 4U (PB⁄CD)

Reinforce musical concepts in your choir and general music classrooms with these songs by John Jacobson that your students will beg to do again and again!
From dynamics and times signatures to styles and intervals, your students will strengthen their musical skills while having loads of fun. Great for lighter programs and extra minutes at the end of class.
The all-in-one Book/CD Pak features reproduciblemusic pages and lyric-only sheets, dance moves and helpful teaching ideas. Mark Bymer'sLet's Rap 3CD is included with accompaniment tracks in several styles and tempos.
Gr. 4-8 PB & CD

BODY ELECTRIC BOOKS & CD Set

Celebrate the instrument we always have with us—the body! Enhance rhythm skills and stretch imaginations, combining body and vocal percussion Bobby McFerrin style. Add props & costumes for wildly fun performances. Both kits include teacher book andreproduciblestudent scores/ activities. Bk 1 has a playalong CD that also demos the sounds and layering.

JUST JAMS: A WORLD OF RHYTHMS FOR DRUMS, PITCHED PERCUSSION...

By Mark Burrows. 29 diverse jam pieces, based on rhythm patterns from around the globe, use a variety of percussion, plus occasional boomwhackers, found objects, and Orff instruments. Meaningful speech parts allow for a teaching process connecting speech to body percussion to playing, and performance tips make them concert-ready. Strengthen students' rhythm skills, enliven drum circles, or offer a change of pace in a choir concert. Jams celebrate cultures of Africa, Indonesia, Brazil, Ireland, Cuba, Japan, Hawaii, India, USA & more. Jams, and a world map, arereproducible. For Gr. 2-6. Paperback.

THE MUSIC LESSON DVD

10 Boston Youth Symphony players are taken completely out of their comfort zones to meet students inLaikipia, Kenya and discover each other worlds. Both groups become totally drawn into the experience of getting to know each other through music that neither group had heard before.
The naturalness of music to everyday life and celebration, the fact that the Kenyans did not know what a 'concert' was, because when they get together everyone participates, the eagerness with which the Kenyans learned to play the Boston youths' instruments, getting away from the written notes, and living in close relationship to nature give us a peek at this life-changing time.
Take your class on the journey by showing the whole 70 minute dvd, or spend time discussing each chapter.


This site provides all the following & more:

  • practical, effective activities through grade 5 to help you teach the basics of music to your students. They are based on national and state standards as well as on Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Each set of lesson plans focuses on an individual classical music composer and a selected piece of music.
  • Activity sheets for free download
  • Here you can listen to every instrument imaginable & read a short description.
  • an interactive chart of the instruments of the orchestra as well into families and categories.
  • music learning games!
  • composers by name, country, period, & a timeline!
  • A complete archive of Classics for Kids programs, as well as a selection of classical music pieces.
  • Listen to special web programs about periods in music history! (depending on connection/internet availability)
  • Tips & advice for parents.
  • Many excellent books, videos and games that deal with music are currently available for children. Classics for Kids® has compiled a list of some of these resources for you.
  • lists great classical music websites.
  • Training resources will help you become acquainted with various music education methodologies.