Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Need lyrics to your favorite patriotic song? Find a wealth of patriotic lyrics here with a quick click. . Play the instrumental audio file, as well. Find Yankee Doodle, Navy Hymn, America the Beautiful, and about twenty other patriotic songs.

Note: Please assume that most songs are copyrighted, so please honor the authors and musicians by not distributing these songs.

tag(s): holidays (187), lyrics (15), memorial day (11), presidents (135), songs (46)

Endless children's music titles await your ears at this site. You will love the wide range of classic and contemporary children's songs. Lyrics to most songs are provided. Download these songs onto your classroom's computer or to an mp3 player, and your class will enjoy the wide variety of music offered.

tag(s): lyrics (15), preK (270), songs (46)

This page has been archived, but the links still work. This highly motivating website demonstrates step-by-step how to prepare a school musical. The website includes lyrics, drama vocabulary terms, musical notations, scenery, props, and an introduction to various types of music (including calypso). There is a Directors link that includes curriculum information, a glossary, and more. Use the website to teach your class about calypso music, drama vocabulary terms, and many other details pertaining to music and drama. Some of the activities require Flash, but most of this doesn't.

tag(s): ireland (11)

Brain Games offers a collection of over thirty interactive logic games, puzzles, music games, and more. Some specific topics include code breaking, coins, arithmetic, music notes, word scramble, and many others. There is even a card game version similar to "24." All of the activities require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): logic (161), puzzles (149), sudoku (10)

Lead your students on an exploration of the art of Ancient Egypt! The Metropolitan Museum of Art has created a treasure trove of lesson plans and activities built around their stellar Egyptian collection. The educational resources integrate Egyptian art into language arts, social studies, math, science, and visual and performing arts. This would be a terrific launch point for a gifted enrichment unit. Dig into the Resources area to get an overview of the printable worksheets, bibliographies, maps, and online features. Be sure to click on the Curriculum Connection area for specific lesson plans and activities for your students.

tag(s): egypt (56)

Africa Focus offers a wealth of digital images and sound recordings from contemporary Africa. This collection from the University of Wisconsin contains more than 3000 slides, 500 photographs, and 50 hours of sounds from 45 different countries. Click Search the Collection to see image categories which include artisans, buildings and structures, cities and towns, education, landscape, religion, and women. Sound recordings include drums, greetings, rites and ceremonies, songs, and signing. The site is easily searched by keyword or by subject heading.

tag(s): africa (148), air (101), architecture (75), black history (133)

This site offers an introduction to symphonic music, the orchestra and its instruments in a child-friendly way. Listen to famous composer music clips, learn about the orchestra seating and the instruments included in each one. There are separate sections for students and teachers. Find lesson plans (searchable by grade and topic) in the Teachers Lounge section of the site, several engaging activities by clicking Activities.

tag(s): composers (14), musical instruments (52)

This Wikipedia-type dictionary includes more than 33,000 biographies on men and women from ancient times to today. Search by birth or death dates, professions, achievements, name or other keywords. Anyone can register to edit or add to a biography. If you do recommend this site as a source for research, be sure to have the discussion about its unknown authorship and usefulness as a general information tool but not as a "scholarly" resource.

tag(s): critical thinking (127)

This ESL site uses cute graphics to illustrate a variety of feelings. Users can view them online or print them out as flash cards. Genki's commentary adds suggestions of how to use the cards. An accompanying song file (RIGHT-click and Save Target As to download onto your computer) and lyrics spice up the lesson. There are also illustrative photos of a Japanese elementary class using hand gestures to reinforce the lesson. A free online game allows users to click on graphics when they hear the description of a feeling, such as, "I'm sad." Although the page itself advertises products, enough of the offerings are free to make this a worthwhile beginning-level ESL/ELL, speech/language, or emotional support lesson. This site requires Shockwave. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

This site provides a multitude of songs and nursery rhymes from North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia. It is a user-friendly site with lyrics as well as audio of the song tunes (requires Quicktime). There are songs listed about colors, phonics, and much more in every language imaginable. Simply reading the titles will bring lesson plan ideas to mind! The options are endless with this site for primary and ESL students. World language teachers will also love the options for teaching basics.

tag(s): french (75), lyrics (15), nursery rhymes (9), rhymes (22), spanish (109)

Memory puzzles, comic stories, action alphabet and math flashcards are just a few features at this site. Art, music, reading, math, puzzles and more are accessed through easy dropdown links. The difficulty ranges from simple primary skills to more challenging puzzles. Use these great interactives to teach music composition, practice with numbers, letters, and colors, do paper cut-outs like Henri Matisse, or practice math and reading skills. ESL or elementary spelling teachers will like the simple "crossword" vocabulary interactive.

tag(s): alphabet (53), animation (64), counting (60), numbers (120), spelling (98)

The National Association for Music Education web site

This holiday website has a multitude of information about Christmas. There are close to 100 articles of interest provided. Topics include Christmas around the world, crafts, cooking, entertainment, games, gifts, history and more! My personal favorite aspect of this website was the information provided about the Christmas traditions in America, Australia, England, France, Germany, Mexico, Scotland, Spain and other countries.

tag(s): christmas (38), cultures (180)

Find the lyrics to favorite children's songs, ready for you to share in the classroom. Many also have MIDI audio files with them for you to sing along. The indexing is well done with songs organized alphabetically by the first word of the song. There is also a subject index helpful for planning a lesson on a certain theme. You can also search by phrase and more (see the explanation of phrase searching as well as substring matching. Some songs include a suggestion how it might be used: dance, fingerplay, etc. Information about song origin, adaptation, and copyright information is available as well.

tag(s): lyrics (15), songs (46)

This website provides ready-to-go PowerPoint presentations. There are well over twenty presentations on topics related to the visual arts and performing arts. Some of the specific topics include music careers, music and culture, rock-n-roll USA, art, impressionism, ceramics, art history and many others. Most of the PowerPoints are extremely well done, featuring graphics, sound, and a wide selection of information. You may need to have PowerPoint software on your computer to view these files, depending on how the site creators saved them. This site has heavy advertising at the top of the landing page. Scroll down to find the presentations.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): air (101), ceramics (2), impressionism (6), van gogh (8)

If there was a "Generosity Award," Kelly would certainly be a front-runner. This site is a wealth of information for Kindergarten or first grade teachers, and it's all free. You will find printable games, phonics activities, classroom photos, music power points, classroom tips, Open Court worksheets, songs, and much more. She invites you to print her worksheets, copyright free.

tag(s): air (101), classroom management (120), worksheets (69)

This curriculum unit is designed to help fourth and fifth grade students acquire musical and dramatic skills and knowledge. The lessons can be taught in the regular enrichment class and can be completed in less than 30 minutes. It will take approximately nine weeks to complete the entire unit. While this is geared to a music class, it is adaptable to literature, history, art, or drama. The history of the theater will help students to understand that personal beliefs and societal values influence art forms and styles. Identifying significant works of drama will allow students to understand the diversity of cultures and styles. Students will be able to recognize the aesthetic qualities of the arts and they will learn to act, analyze and respond to performances, evaluate the quality of performances, and demonstrate performance disciplines.

tag(s): diversity (40)

This compilation site describes websites that use music to teach language skills. Not only useful for limited English speakers, this site offers ideas for elementary teachers, as well, with specific songs and suggestions for including music as part of a regular lesson. You will find that addressing musical/rhythmic intelligence may draw in students who otherwise struggle. And all of them will find the different approach a refreshing change.

Long known to improve accents and intonations, singing with limited English speakers also provides cultural knowledge, fun, and a whole-language way to assist students to memorize English in meaningful chunks. Mainly an alphabetical index to many enjoyable songs, this site also gives suggestions about how to use the lyrics to help improve the students' English.

tag(s): lyrics (15)

Listen to songs to teach important (and less important) science concepts. This collection of MP3 files was generated from an old set of records (yes, those round vinyl things that had scratches). While the actual copyright holder information is a gray area, you can feel safe in playing the songs from the site. Most likely, these songs from the 1950s and 60s are past copyright at this point. In any case, you can click to play from smaller or larger file versions. Be patient while they load, even over a broadband connection. It will be worth the wait to teach parts of plants, the water cycle, weather, motion, energy, electricity, and MANY other topics with just a computer and set of speakers to help students retain the information. Most of the content is elementary to middle school age, but some is high school level. Learning support teachers seeking alternate study strategies will love this one!

tag(s): animals (294), energy (133), mammals (22), motion (47), plants (146), space (222), water (102), water cycle (22), weather (160)