You said yes to teaching music for the day … and then you found out the teacher was called away on an emergency and there are no lesson plans … and it’s in French – ok, so it’s not in French. Here is a lesson that can be done with kindergarten to grade 8 with just paper and writing utensils.

1. Give everyone paper and pencil.

2. Play a piece of music (about 3 min.) and ask the students to draw a line that shows the music e.g. go up if the music goes up, go in swirls if that’s how the music makes you feel. There is no right or wrong way to do this. The only thing is that they cannot take their pencil off the paper – it must be one, long continuous line. (I usually give an example). Of course, the line can cross over itself.

3. Play the music again and have students follow their line around the room. If their line goes up, the student moves forward. Remind them to be aware of others and not to bump into each other.

4. Play the music again and have the students switch papers and follow someone else’s line. Talk about why it’s easier to follow your own line.

5. Have students colour in their page. They can add lines to section off one part and colour it a different colour from another part.