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Art, Music & Drama in the Classroom

Youth Art Month (a yearly event spotlighting the value of art education for all children) began March 1 and we're excited to support your art education programs, edtech style! We're dedicating this edition of the TeachersFirst Update to share a variety of tools perfect for art, music, and drama instruction!

Grades 4-12

Arts Alive - Dance

Dance away! Find engaging and interactive resources, videos, games, and more. Learn about the history of dance and biographies of hundreds of dancers and choreographers. Learn how to become a professional dancer. See the full review for more ideas.

Grades K-6

Drama Resource - Creative Ideas for Teaching Drama

This treasure trove of drama resources offers lessons, games, and strategies. Choose the Games link to find a game of the week and other activities for icebreakers, improvisation, storytelling, and more. Don't miss the descriptions, videos, and downlads.

Grades 2-12

Drama in the ESL Classroom

Navigate your way through drama in the ESL/ELL classroom at this simple site, full of ideas! Find improvisation techniques plus activities, links, and visual examples. Learn ways to use plays, process drama, and reader's theater for language teaching.

Sing a Song or Play a Tune!

Find resources to inspire musicians in this collection. There are virtual instruments to play, book lists to explore, and online tools to help you to create music. 

Grades K-12

CurriConnects Book List - Music and Musicians

Liven up your STEAM lessons! Find books for all grade levels. Dance to the beat with books about musicians, composers, and the way they make music. This list includes fiction and nonfiction books, as well as books about instruments and how they are made.

Grades 4-12

Musink

Check out this free software download for music composition for Windows devices. Create sheet music by placing and clicking notes onto the desired location. The site automatically moves notes, rests, and more. See the full review for more details.

Grades 5-12

The World in Tune

Inspire your students with this international musical masterpiece. Click on any of the 16 videos to hear and view a song played by an international artist on an instrument representing their home country. Choose two or more videos to hear them together.

Grades 4-12

Justin Guitar

Pick up the guitar and learn to play! This site offers free online video lessons. Beginners lessons include chords, music theory, and rhythm. Intermediate lessons move on to scales, chords, and many different musical patterns. Create your own songs!

Get Smart with Art

Whisk students away on virtual field trips to some of the world's best-known art collections. Visit ArtyFactory to try your hand at creating classroom masterpieces. And don't miss the American Art Mystery site: Murder at the Met!

Grades 5-12

Murder at the Met: an American Art Mystery

Everyone loves a good mystery! Grab your students' attention with this art mystery about the murder of Virginie Gautreau, AKA Madame X. Take a virtual trip to the Met to tour American paintings, sculpture, and more. Read all about it in our full review.

Grades 1-12

Artyfactory

Peruse these step-by-step tutorials to learn to draw, paint, or design. Learn about drawing and painting through Still Life lessons. Find details about perspective, proportions, drawing animals and portraits, and more. View the full review for more ideas.

Grades 2-12

MetKids

Take your students to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and view 5,000 years of art in three exciting ways at this vibrant site. Explore the maps, read the fun facts, travel on the time machine, and view the videos about art from all over the world.

This Week at TeachersFirst

Need to learn or improve your persuasive writing? Then don't miss our free virtual workshop this Tuesday (3/22) at 7pm ET as our edtech coaches share their insights, tools, and tips for enhancing persuasive writing skills. Speaking of our K12 edtech team, they've been busy publishing a number of posts to the TeachersFirst blog -- be sure to check out recent posts for countless ideas and helpful classroom strategies!