The Kennedy Center: ARTSEDGE — the National Arts and Education Network

Lesson: All Around the Baseball Field
Students construct a mock baseball field and from there explore the sport of baseball through art, movement, and sound.

Lesson: Amazing Fibonacci
Using the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, your students study math concepts of pattern, recursion, Pi and the Golden Ratio, developing their ability to analyze the structure of music.

Lesson: America, A Home for Every Culture
Students will discuss and explore the cultures that have contributed to making the United States the unique and diverse country it is today.

Lesson: Animal Habitats
Pre-readers are introduced to animal habitats through story, song, and dramatic play using children’s books

Lesson: Brass Instruments and Pitch
This lesson introduces students to the instruments of the brass family.

Lesson: Chinese Instruments
Explore the similarities and differences between traditional western instruments and Chinese instruments while creating a Chinese instrument.

Lesson: Civil War Music
Learn how music was used in the Civil War.

Lesson: Corridos About the Mexican Revolution
In this lesson, students will be introduced to causes of the Mexican Revolution and key revolutionary figures.

Lesson: Creating AB Patterns
Patterns exists both in the natural and manmade world. It is an element in art, as well as math and science.

Lesson: Finding Your Own Frog Prince
Students will use a traditional tale, “The Frog Prince,” and Jon Scieszka’s variation of it, The Frog Prince Continued, to create improvised scenes and then a book for a mini-musical.

Lesson: First Rhythmic Composition
This lesson introduces students to rhythm concepts, including the names and symbols associated with music notation.

Lesson: Form and Theme in the Traditional Mexican Corrido
Students will learn about the traditional Mexican musical form of corridos, which dates back to the 1800s and continues to be very popular.

Lesson: Guantanamera: A Poem and a Song
Students will listen to "Guantanamera," a Cuban folk song made famous by Pete Seeger with lyrics from a poem by Jose Marti.

Lesson: Harriet Tubman: Secret Messages Shared through Song
In this lesson, students are introduced to the African-American spiritual and its use of a secret language to share information within the slave community.

Lesson: Haunting Music
Learn about orchestral “program music” inspired by the spooky and bizarre.

Lesson: Jazz Music, Dance, and Poetry
In this lesson, students will be introduced to jazz dance and jazz music. They will explore basic jazz dance movements, and will create a cinquain poem inspired by jazz music.

Lesson: Learning From Lyrics
Students research contemporary songs (alternative, country, metal, pop, rap, and rock music) to study current social issues.

Lesson: Life of a Navajo Weaver
Students experiment with interpretative dance as they recreate the weaving process to Native American music.

Lesson: Lift Every Voice and Sing
Explore and analyze Lift Every Voice and Sing, a poem by James Weldon Johnson.

Lesson: Making Rain
In this lesson, students experience rain through several activities, experiments, reading, and performing.

Lesson: Melodies and Math
After reviewing basic music theory, students compose their own music for the touch-tone phone.

Lesson: Monsters
This lesson is intended to have students investigate the idea of "monsters" in society.

Lesson: Musical Harlem
Students will learn to identify musical styles and musicians associated with Harlem, focusing on jazz.

Lesson: Nureyev: After Petipa
Nureyev’s early life and work were affected by changing social, political, and cultural forces in Russia. His artistic genius was influenced by the work of Marius Petipa.

Lesson: Nureyev: Bringer of Light
This lesson focuses on the alignment of Nureyev’s artistic endeavors and achievements in the dance world of the West.