Resources for Elementary Students

Alina Celeste

Award-winning English and Spanish songs, puppets, fingerplays, and more for kids!

Beat-Boxing with GoNoodle

This video from GoNoodle will show you how to make an instrument with just your mouth!

Classics for Kids

Missing music class? Try these lessons and games for music appreciation, created by Cincinnati Public Radio.

DK Find Out!

For more information, videos, and fun quizzes about musical instruments, check out this website! What type of instruments are your favorites?

Franklin’s Music Lesson

This episode of the TV show Franklin all about music is available to watch for free with Access Video Just for Kids.

Gale In Context: Elementary

For articles, pictures, and news about different types of music and instruments, visit Kids InfoBits.

Miss Nina

Sing and move-along songs for early learning and literacy

Music : Investigate the Evolution of American Sound by Donna Latham

Learn about how instruments make sound, experiment by making more of your own instruments, and discover the history of music in America.

Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s Learning Lab

An instrument "petting zoo" for kids, and more!

Wonderopolis

Learn how to make music with just water and a glass!

Gather materials: You will need a coffee filter and a non-permanent marker. Blacks and browns will have the most dramatic effects, but any color will do. You will also need a container and some water. A clear cup or glass makes it easiest to see what is happening, but any container will do.
Fill the container up will a small amount of water. The water should come up about a quarter of an inch high.
Draw a thick circle about 1.5 inches in diameter in the middle of the coffee filter.
Fold the filter in half, then in half again.
Stick the point of the filter in the water, making sure that none of the maker line dips into the water, as this will cause the color to bleed out into the water. Hold the coffee filter in the water for about one minute. What is happening to the ink color?
Carefully pull the filter out of the water and unfold to reveal your art! You may want to do this over a sink or some paper towels, as some colored water may be trapped in the bottom of the filter. Hang or lay your filter to dry completely.
Experiment! Do the same colors from different brands of makers produce different results? What will you make with your chromatography art?

Why it works: The ink in your marker is actually several different colors mixed together. When you see them on top of each other, your brain interprets them as one color. Because the different pigments have different properties from each other, they separate when the water runs up the coffee filter.

Dig Deeper: Explore More Color

Artist Study: Claude Monet

See Monet’s water lilies up close in a virtual visit to Musée de l’Orangerie. Then get a glimpse of Monet’s personal life with a virtual tour of his late-life home.

Activity: Optical Mixing

Explore the concept of optical mixing, placing colors side by side on the canvas instead of mixing on the palette. Monet accomplished this by using broad strokes and layering. Experiment with this effect with a paper plate and markers.

Supplies: paper plate, primary colored markers

Divide plate into six equal sections
Using markers, tap to “color” every other section with a primary color (red, blue, yellow)
Make the secondary color purple by making a layer of red dots and then filling in the white space with blue dots. Notice how your eye mixes the separate red and blue dots so that it appears purple even though the colors were not actually physically combined.
Continue making the other secondary colors (yellow + blue= green, yellow + red= orange)

Activity: Make your own Masterpiece

Supplies: cardboard cut into pond shape (corrugated works best), paint (blues/ green/ white/ pink/ yellow/ orange), green paper, pink tissue paper, glue, circle template, scissors, plastic spoon

Squirt background paint onto “canvas.” I used multiple hues of blue
Spread paint by gliding spoon over surface. Try not to blend.
Add accent colors (yellow, green, pink, orange) and white highlights
Use the bumpy side of scrap cardboard to add texture
Set aside to dry
Draw circles on green paper (will be lily pads)
Cut out circle then remove a ‘pie slice’ from each. For added dimension, fold then unfold accordion style.
Add pink tissue paper for the lotus flower
Glue lily pads to pond and proudly display your masterpiece.

More Activities

Monet Coloring Pages from SuperColoring.com

DIY Portable Easel and Paint en Plein Air - If you are really feeling creative, you can make your own portable cardboard easel to paint “en plein air” (outside) and draw your inspiration from nature just like Monet.