| Navigating the Mekong |
| Website has visitors click on a map to read journals of young people who journeyed by boat through China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. Includes lessons, regional recipes, and traditional music. Targets grades 6-10. |
| Provider: Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
|
| Owney the Dog! A Curriculum Guide for Teachers |
| Interdisciplinary lessons based on the travels of a dog named Owney who became a mascot for the Railway Mail Service in the 1880s and for the National Postal Museum today. Designed for second-grade classes, it includes lessons for students with special needs in reading, math, and writing. |
| Provider: National Postal Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): PreK–3 |
|
| Rebel Music: A Musical Tour of the Maroon Communities |
| Focuses on the music of the ex-slave communities in the Americas. Songs reflect the influence of African, Native American, and European music. Includes music samples and videos of performances. |
| Provider: Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|
| Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |
| Webpage of Folkways Recordings. Explore, research, order, and download recordings from the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian. Includes music from the United States and around the world. Search by album, artist, country, or genre. |
| Provider: Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|
| The Invention of the Electric Guitar |
| Online exhibit showing how the need for louder guitars led to the invention and proliferation of the electric guitar and how the emergence and popularity of rock and roll led to the guitar’s commercial success and more innovative designs. View the collection of guitars, click on each guitar to learn more, and listen to audio commentary by guitarist G.E. Smith. Listen to recordings of different types of guitars in a section entitled "How Guitars Work.” |
| Provider: National Museum of American History |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|
| The Music in Poetry: Ballad and Blues Stanzas |
| Webpage discusses the poetic forms of the traditional English ballad and the blues stanza developed by Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance. Includes music samples and performance videos. |
| Provider: Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|
| The Rainforest |
| Ecology-based teaching kit provides a unique look at a popular subject. Through Lynne Cherry’s The Great Kapok Tree, children explore artists’ perspectives on the rainforest by investigating their works. Lesson plans include language, science, music, and motor activities as well as extensive art enrichment. Based on the philosophy and approach of the Smithsonian’s museum lab school. |
| Provider: Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): PreK–3 |
|
| Women Breaking Musical Barriers: She Isn’t Supposed to Play That |
| Website traces the history and diversity of women in music through text, video recordings, and audio recordings. |
| Provider: Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
|
| Creativity & Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the Americas |
| Online exhibition highlighting the history and cultural traditions of Maroons, descendants of Africans who freed themselves from captivity in the Americas. Contains exhibit description, virtual tour, and teaching guides that can be utilized to create lesson plans covering topics relevant to slavery, culture, migration, and language. |
| Provider: Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
|
| Smithsonian in Your Classroom: The Music in Poetry |
| Lessons introducing students to the rhythms of poetry. The focus in on two poetic forms that originated as forms of song: the ballad stanza, found throughout British and American literature, and the blues stanzas of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. Poetry is taken off the page and put into terms of movement, physical space, and, finally, music. |
| Provider: Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): PreK–3, 4–8, 9–12 |
|