Integrate literature into the music class with these lesson plans for Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens and illustrated by Monica Mikai. This book is based on the song of the same name and is the story of what happened to enslaved Africans after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Continue reading “Build a House Book Review With Lesson Plans for Music”Category: Curriculum
Native American Music Resources
Find ideas and links for Native American music, dance, and cultural resources from and about Native American culture bearers.
Continue reading “Native American Music Resources”Songs and Dances From Culture Bearers and Authentic Sources
It’s been eye-opening to find that much of the music I used in my 40-year career was NOT authentic and/or had a questionable past. Unfortunately, many educators are still using these same songs and dances. This page is my aim to give you resources that I’ve researched or from sources who aim to research with the same authentic goal. However…
…our job requires much more than the planning time we are given. In your haste to get things done, don’t trust someone’s say-so, even mine. Always do your research.
On this GROWING resource page…
French-Canadian Traditional Music
Use of the most common traditional rhythm by the ancestors from Quebec is the podorythmie & cuillères (foot tapping & spoons). The music is Reel Turluté performed by La Bolduc. La Bolduc was a famous French-Canadian singer.
The singing technique is called jigging.
West Africa
Sona Jobarteh, Gambia, West Africa, and the Kora
Sona Jobarteh has become one of the most renowned kora players in the world, an instrument that traditionally was only played by men. The kora is an instrument of West Africa and dates back to the 13th-century Mali empire.
Sona’s academy focused on learning through Gambian culture, not a colonial focus. Lots of info here on Gambian music and arts culture.
Diwali
Global Variety
A. Cuthbertson Consulting-Authentic Resources in the Classroom
This website is dedicated to culturally responsive music and lesson plans for your classroom. A. Cuthbertson’s site has music from many different cultures.
India
Bhangra – Dance of the Punjab with Gurdeep Pandher
Native Land
Information about Native lands and Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages including a teacher guide, searchable map, and other resources.
Indonesia
Aboriginal Australian Songlines
Some authentic sources for songlines, art, and music. The Playlist of Deadly Songs is where deadly means “great” and “culturally significant.”
Latinx Heritage Resources
For any time of the year, but collated for Latinx Hispanic Heritage Month, a growing group of resources.
Black History Resources
For any time of the year, but collated for Black History Month, a growing group of resources.
Literature With Cultural Variety
A growing list of literature for the music classroom with a wide variety of cultures represented.
The Mitten
Continue reading “The Mitten”Many of us are familiar with the Jan Brett book, but this Ukrainian folk tale has a very interesting history! Here are songs, lesson plans, and resources for the beautiful story.
Elementary Music Curriculum Template & Digital Teacher Planner Guide
Originally published July 10, 2022
Latest Update April 24, 2026
This post may contain affiliate links. I make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read my full disclosure.
If you need a manageable elementary music curriculum template to give you clarity, you’re in the right place. You’re staring at multiple tabs, multiple grade levels, and WAY too many learning objectives.
As a long-time K-8 music teacher, I spent many hours trying to make sense of it all.
What really made a difference was when I created a scope and sequence document with fewer, more focused learning objectives for each grade level.
My aha moment came while reading Jane Frazee’s book, “Artful, Playful, Mindful.” (affiliate link) She straight up talks about the need to simplify and deepen our activities in elementary music.
Let’s lessen your load and simplify elementary music curriculum planning with how-to guides for planners, templates, and lessons.
How Do You Lesson Plan in Elementary Music?
First start with a realistic yearly curriculum overview template. Then use that template to write detailed lesson plans in a lesson planner document.
Let’s look in more detail.
Table of Contents
Yearly Overview |Elementary Music Curriculum Template for Planning
It all starts with your yearly curriculum. Instead of starting with an overflowing number of objectives that you have to cull, let’s start with some basics and add to it.
Less Is More!
Create a template with what you want as your focus objectives for each month. Remember to include space for activities that are important to your program which might include monthly celebrations, holidays, concerts, etc.
Don’t spend hours. Don’t get bogged down and overthink it. It’s a living document that can change and grow with you and your students.
It’s easier to add to our goals than to have too many! Too many means we’re either behind or rushing to teach them and keep up so learning is probably not happening.
The K-5 Elementary Music Curriculum Template Scope & Sequence on TPT
Let me do the heavy lifting for you!
If you’d like a pre-made doc, here’s a manageable scope & sequence TEMPLATE for K-5 elementary music, with very basic rhythm and pitch learning, and flexibility to adjust or add curriculum that reflects your teaching philosophy and your students.
But even better?
This TPT resource also includes 12 (multi-lesson) song LESSON PLANS to get you started. There are two song resources per grade level K-5.
These no/low prep resources are enough to provide guidance and still do that thing I keep talking about, allow you to add the extras to fill in what’s important to your school program.
Bonus
Just for you: If you’d like just the template, you can get it for FREE here on the blog. Follow the link, put in your email address, and you’ll get the info to the Free Resource Library.
Once you have your template, it’s time to write more specific lesson plans to use in your weekly teaching.
Digital Lesson Elementary Music Curriculum Planner
Using Microsoft Word & Google Docs
Once you have your yearly curriculum template, it’s time to write weekly lesson plans. Teachers use everything from physical planners to digital. Planners are often set up in ways that don’t work for special area teacher schedules. And because of multiple grade levels and grading periods, digital documents can be in so many different locations.
Tabs, bookmarks, and folders. Oh, my!
Finding a great teacher planner is SO hard!
Here’s a different approach that puts all of your elementary music curriculum template resources in ONE location. No tabs, bookmarks, or folders but everything in one master document. I created this method and I’m sharing it with you. It’s not for everyone but you should take a look.
It works in both Microsoft Word and Google Docs and because it’s digital, it follows you everywhere.
See it action in the video below.
Master File Planner Instructions DOWNLOADS
These FREE downloads will make MUCH more sense after watching the above video.
Microsoft Word Template
Google Docs Template
K-5 Song Repertoire
Here’s an example of my song repertoire for one year. About 80% stayed the same each year and 20% would change. It would change because of curricular needs, school performance needs, and sometimes because I needed to teach something new.
These images are examples. If you want K-5, download button is below.
The Oodles Newsletter
Join the hundreds of other teachers who receive the Oodles Newsletter every Monday morning with timely tips like this digital planner to help you in your teaching!
Grab FREEBIES in the Teacher Resource Library, plus a once-a-week email full of the best, time-saving lesson plan ideas!
Writing Cohesive Elementary Music Lesson Plans
You have a yearly overview template and a planner that works for you, it’s time to write the plans. Here’s one way to approach it.
Help! I Can’t Keep Up With Lesson Planning
Being truthful here.
Many new teachers and some who are more experienced are not using a curriculum/scope & sequence to write lesson plans and it’s a CREATE-AS-YOU-GO situation.
- If you’re flying by the seat of your pants sometimes or often, keeping track of what you’re teaching is IMPORTANT!
- For example, did you use a play along in third grade in three different lessons with some nice differentiation in each lesson that reinforced quarter notes and eighth notes?
- Maybe you planned it out or it happened as a result of you layering new learning as you saw the opportunities.
Document it!
How I did it!
- I used the systems above.
- There were “fly by the seat of my pants days” and I’d put those lessons (the good ones) in my master document!
How YOU Can Get Started
- Use whatever format you want. How about a simple Google Slide/Sheet and set it up by month and grade level?
- If you do this a little bit at a time, you will thank yourself.
- For example, if it’s the beginning of October, don’t try to go back and pick up August. Start with October and try to copy/paste/write what you taught last week. Just ONE week at a time.
And don’t try to make it look perfect & pretty. Just get last week’s lessons into a simple document!
By the end of the year, you’ll have SO much, organized and ready to go for next year.
Helpful Tools to Save You Time!
🎯 This easy-to-use digital tool lets you design and download barred instrument visuals for your elementary music classroom. FREE!
FAQs: Elementary Music Curriculum Template & Lesson Planning
How do I create an elementary music scope and sequence?
Start by creating a yearly overview template with just a FEW focused learning objectives for the year. Instead of overcomplicating with too many goals, focus on basic rhythm and pitch learning. This creates a “living document” that allows you to add elements as well as monthly celebrations, concerts, and holidays as you go.
What is the best way to organize music lesson plans for multiple grades?
For ME, the most efficient method is using a single “Master File” digital planner in Google Docs or Microsoft Word. By keeping all grade levels and weekly plans in one document, you eliminate the need for dozens of tabs, bookmarks, and folders, ensuring your curriculum follows you on any device.
Should I use a pre-made music curriculum or build my own?
Either will work but often it’s a combination of the two. You find a curriculum that you like such as Musicplay, Gameplan, or Essential Elements then pare it down to what’s manageable for your situation and teaching philosophy (e.g. heavier toward Orff or Kodaly or movement), while also adding/keeping elements that are more important to you.
How do you organize all of your lessons for the year so that it creates a “curriculum” or units?
Jot down what you want each grade level to learn. If you look at online curriculums, many can be quite extensive, having much more than you can accomplish in a year. (depending on your class contact time) Take one of those curriculums and scale it back to the most important things for you, or make one of your own with some general melody and rhythm objectives. Then add those lessons and songs you already have taught, adding where needed.
Tell Me More
Please share your favorite elementary music curriculum template, planner, or lesson writing resource, hint, tip, or trick.
Leave it in the comments below!
The Best Children’s Literature for the Music Classroom
A list of books from newly published to classics for the music classroom with links, music connections, activities, and lesson plans!
If you are looking for captivating books that seamlessly blend literature and music in your classroom, look no further! This e-x-p-a-n-d-i-n-g list of recommended books will provide musical connections information and valuable lesson plan ideas.
Whether you’re seeking to expand your library or searching for fresh ideas to enrich your music curriculum, find great ways to integrate literature into your music curriculum.
Table of Contents
Continue reading “The Best Children’s Literature for the Music Classroom”Amanda Gorman Music Resources and Ideas
Amanda Gorman’s children’s books are the perfect inspiration for elementary music concerts and classroom activities. Here are a variety of Amanda Gorman music resources and ideas based on her books, Change Sings and Something, Someday.
The Playlist
Change Sings
With her poetry of words, Amanda Gorman’s “Change Sings” uses a story full of music vocabulary to invite children to be the change in the world with acts of kindness. Here are songs that fit into that theme.
The Change Is You
Amanda Gorman’s book, “Change Sings”, inspired this new 3-part round song, The Change Is You, that uses an African proverb to begin the journey of a call to action to be the change in the world.
Change the World, With Kindness
Written for younger singers, Change the World With Kindness reinforces the act of kindness themes in Amanda Gorman’s book, “Change Sings.”
With lots of repetition and sequencing, this easy-to-learn song is a perfect concert selection. The resource includes suggested movements and opportunities to create your own movement.
Something, Someday
Something, Someday on Amazon!
“With intimate and inspiring text and powerfully stunning illustrations, Something, Someday reveals how even the smallest gesture can have a lasting impact.”
As an Amazon Affiliate, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Seeds of Change
If you’re looking for a classroom song about Earth Day, the environment, and making a difference or a sparkling elementary music concert selection that’s simple to learn and features students playing instruments, this is it!
Seeds of Change is a song about making a difference, an environmental call to action about caring for our outdoor spaces, set to a Latin-feel Orff arrangement with lots of maracas representing the “seeds.”
Black History Month Songs & Curriculum
Originally Published: January 2022
Last Updated: February 2026
What a wealth of wonderful songs to sing for Black History Month! Not only will you find Black History Month songs to sing but songs for listening, a musician and song database with music that’s appropriate for kids, authentic research articles and information, and decor for your bulletin boards and classroom door.
Table of Contents
This post may contain affiliate links. I make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read my full disclosure.
Continue reading “Black History Month Songs & Curriculum”Culture in the 21st-Century Music Classroom
Songs with a questionable past have no place in our elementary music classrooms. Here are resources to aid in selecting appropriate music.
As we navigate this intricate terrain, it is essential to be mindful of the historical context and implications associated with songs that have a questionable past.
The Playlist
Informational Web Sites About Inclusive Music
- The Know Better Do Better Project-a page dedicated to awareness and providing NEW songs to replace songs with a questionable past.
- Decolonizing the Music Room
- Repertoire & Music Listening Resources for culturally diverse authentic resources (scroll to the bottom of the linked page)
- The Decolonial Atlas and North and South America’s Black music roots.
- DEI Music Education Resources-practical implementation of DEI such as repertoire, lesson plans, and methods. Thanks to Garo Saraydarian for this resource.
Databases of Music and Songs With a Questionable Past
These databases have NOT been fact-checked. They are a place to see the results of some of the discussions currently occurring in music education. I personally use them as a jumping off place when I want to use a particular song. From there, I do my own specific research.
More About Know Better Do Better In Music
The Breakdown on Minstrelsy by Dara Starr Tucker
Articles
- The cultural stereotypes in The Nutcracker and new attempts to change them.
- Five Songs I’m No Longer Using In My Music Room by Aileen Miracle
- Diversity, Inclusive Programming, and Music Education Series-by Jon Silpayamanant-There is so much on this site other than the one series I’ve linked.
- DAW, Music Production, and Colonialism, a Bibliography by Jon Silpayamanant
- This Land Is Your Land-“The Blind Spot In the Great American Protest Song” discusses that America rests on land stolen from Indigenous people.