Math & music
Song Lyrics and Math
Use song lyrics to reinforce mathematical vocabulary or concepts, or create new songs to learn math facts. With a number of songs, like "Ten Green Bottles," and "One Potato, Two Potato," you can incorporate fingerplays and hand gestures while singing along. Develop further with skip counting and multiplication songs.
Rhythm and Counting
Play rhythmic patterns with instruments or body percussion (clapping, stomping) to reinforce counting and number patterns.
Create Musical Instruments
Encourage students to make simple instruments (shakers, whistles) and use them to explore musical sounds and their corresponding mathematical relationships.
Fractions and Ratios
In music, many notes are fractions of a whole note and these notes are distinguished based on the length of time they are played. So a whole note is a length of time; a half note is half that length of time, and so on.
Musical Scales and Number Sequences
Connect musical scales (ascending and descending) to serial order for numbers.