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Free Music Appreciation and Composer Study @ Classics for Kids

Again, I'm sharing one of our family's favorite sites. 

Classics for Kids is a kid-friendly website that teaches children about, well, classical music. 

Each month, a different classical composer is highlighted.  This month:  Gioachino Rossini. 

Each week, a different score of music is highlighted through a weekly "radio" show.

From the introduction on the Classics for Kids website:

This site is designed to help you introduce your child to classical music. Music not only has the power to stimulate the mind, enrich the heart and soothe the soul; it can help children to think more creatively, develop craftsmanship and discipline and learn the value of excellence.

What is available at the Classics for Kids website?  Here is just a sample:

• Lessons plans for K-5th are available for certain composers.
• Games, including Compose Your Own Music (our children's favorite on the site)
• A weekly radio show, based on the current month's composer's music
• Music selections from various classical composers
• An interactive chart of Instruments of the Orchestra

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Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

The BBC Learning Zone: Educational Videos in Many Subjects (UK only?)

(Note: A reader pointed out that these videos seem to be only available to those watching from the UK (I guess they are looking at our IP addresses?).  I wasn't able to view one either ("not available in your area," the screen said), but haven't yet researched how to get around that.  So, for now, this one seems to be just for you in the UK!)

If you like to use videos in your school, you'll probably love frequenting the BBC Learning Zone.  The list of available videos is so long I couldn't possibly justify taking the time to list them, and the subjects?  That's a very long list, too.  Just go to the BBC Learning Zone site and you'll see what I mean:

 
 
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(Thank you, Alice, for sharing this high quality, 100% free educational find with us!)

Free Music Composer Study @ Classics for Kids

Again, I'm sharing one of our family's favorite sites. 

Classics for Kids is a kid-friendly website that teaches children about, well, classical music. 

Each month, a different classical composer is highlighted.  This month:  Zoltn Kodly. 

Each week, a different score of music is highlighted through a weekly "radio" show.  This week: Classical Composers Who Used Folk Music

From the introduction on the Classics for Kids website:

This site is designed to help you introduce your child to classical music. Music not only has the power to stimulate the mind, enrich the heart and soothe the soul; it can help children to think more creatively, develop craftsmanship and discipline and learn the value of excellence.

What is available at the Classics for Kids website?  Here is just a sample:

• Lessons plans for K-5th are available for certain composers.
• Games, including Compose Your Own Music (our children's favorite on the site)
• A weekly radio show, based on the current month's composer's music
• Music selections from various classical composers
• An interactive chart of Instruments of the Orchestra

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here 

Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

Free Music Lessons (including piano, guitar and music theory)

Piano Lessons, Music Theory, Guitar Lessons, and Harmonic Dictation are the courses offered through G Major Music Theory, a site dedicated to providing music lesson free and free of membership.

The site is not pretty, and it has more ads than I normally tolerate, but I took a look at the lessons and think it's a pretty good deal at the price of ...free!

Mandi, a FreelyEducate.com reader, sent in the link.  She wrote this about the free piano lessons:  "[This site] provides everything you need for piano lessons, even theory work pages and first pieces.  There are familiar favorites and original pieces.  This is a fantastic resource."

Thanks, Mandi!

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here 

Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

Connexions: A Free, Open-Education Site for All Grade Levels

Once again, I am awed by what others have taken the time to build and offer on the internet for educators for...free!  100%, no-string-attached free!  Connexions is one of those open-source (free) sites that amaze me.  Because the site is so vast and my (sleepy) mind too small to decipher it all tonight, I'll let an author at Connexions do the explaining:

"Connexions is a non-commercial, open-education resource for teachers and students. All materials are under a Creative Commons attribution license, and so may be freely downloaded, copied, shared, and altered. Because the content is submitted by many different educators, there is a very wide variety of subject matter and "grade level", from pre-school to university.

The Connexions commons can be searched from its home page (http://cnx.org). Or, people who are looking specifically for music education materials may find useful two modules that I have published there, "Music in Connexions: A User's Guide", and "Music in Connexions: A K-12 Teacher's Guide",  both of which explain how to use the site and how to find relevant material. Thank you for your attention and consideration."  ~ Catherine Schmidt-Jones

Thank you, Catherine,  for letting us know about Connexions!

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Have a free educational resource to share? Want to be highlighted in a review and/or giveaway of your educational product?  Email me at loriseaborg@gmail.com

Free Classical Music Lesson Plans: Classics for Kids

Again, I'm sharing one of our family's favorite sites. 

Classics for Kids is a kid-friendly website that teaches children about, well, classical music. 

Each month, a different classical composer is highlighted.  This month:  Johannes Brahms

Each week, a different score of music is highlighted through a weekly "radio" show. This week:  Hungarian Dancing

From the introduction on the Classics for Kids website:

This site is designed to help you introduce your child to classical music. Music not only has the power to stimulate the mind, enrich the heart and soothe the soul; it can help children to think more creatively, develop craftsmanship and discipline and learn the value of excellence.

What is available at the Classics for Kids website?  Here is just a sample:

• Lessons plans for K-5th are available for certain composers.
• Games, including Compose Your Own Music (our children's favorite on the site)
• A weekly radio show, based on the current month's composer's music
• Music selections from various classical composers
• An interactive chart of Instruments of the Orchestra

We posted this high quality, 100% free educational find almost a year ago, and I'd nearly forgotten about it, so thank you to Nicole Jobson for reminding us of it this week!

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Have a resource to share or a giveaway to donate?  Email me at loriseaborg@gmail.com

OpenUW: Free Courses from the University of Washington

Oh, good, more courses from a university!  This time the free knowledge is courtesy of the University of Washington through their program, OpenUW.  They write, "The OpenUW Courses are designed to spark your interest in lifelong learning and familiarize you with online education. The OpenUW Courses are accessible free-of-charge."

Explore a variety of learning in these free online courses from the University of Washington.

• The American Civil War
• Energy, Diet and Weight
• Greek Mythology
• Gulliver's Travels
• Hamlet
• HTML Basics
• History of Jazz: New Orleans
• The American Revolution
• Shakespeare's Comedies
• Heroic Fantasy: Tolkien
• World War II

Please Note:  The University of Washington wants you to register before accessing the information.  The registration is through a simple name/address form.  They promise to not spam you or share your information.

Free Courses from M.I.T. (college level!)

I'm feeling guilty about being away from the computer for the past two days.  I have lots of really good excuses, but, well, instead of blabbering on about those, how about if I give you one of the best educational freebie finds out there? 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (the famous M.I.T.) offers over 1800 of their courses online, for free.  Through this program, you may read through the syllabus, course materials, lecture notes, assignments, exams, videos, and more, as if you are taking a course straight from MIT (you won't get college credit or a diploma; they are offering the knowledge only).

M.I.T. describes OpenCourseWare as:

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.

I hope you'll take the time to browse through the site and the course offerings (start at the list of  1800 courses or go to the list of the most visited courses to get started).  It is truly amazing that they have taken so much time and money to offer these courses for free. 

Music: Classics for Kids

Again, I'm sharing one of our family's favorite sites. 

Classics for Kids is a kid-friendly website that teaches children about, well, classical music. 

Each month, a different classical composer is highlighted.  This month:  Handel. 

Each week, a different score of music is highlighted through a weekly "radio" show.  This week:  The Story of the Water Music

From the introduction on the Classics for Kids website:

This site is designed to help you introduce your child to classical music. Music not only has the power to stimulate the mind, enrich the heart and soothe the soul; it can help children to think more creatively, develop craftsmanship and discipline and learn the value of excellence.

What is available at the Classics for Kids website?  Here is just a sample:

• Lessons plans for K-5th are available for certain composers.
• Games, including Compose Your Own Music (our children's favorite on the site)
• A weekly radio show, based on the current month's composer's music
• Music selections from various classical composers
• An interactive chart of Instruments of the Orchestra

Enjoy this high quality and 100% free educational find from FreelyEducate.com!

p.s.  A publisher wants to send somebody a free Latin curriculum.  Come by here tomorrow to read all about it and enter the drawing for it.  ~ Lori