1. Space Jam
Maybe I'm showing my age here but when I think of basketball music I think of Space Jam. The theme song from the original movie Space Jam is a great track for having students practice steady beat movements- have students take turns choosing a basketball move to do on the beat for everyone to copy! It's also a good tempo for reading and performing basic rhythms- write a few measures of rhythms they're learning on the board and have them practice playing them on instruments with the track. For shorter note durations like sixteenth notes, We Win from Space Jam 2 has a slower tempo that works well for the same activity.
Another track from Space Jam 2 that I love using in my lessons is Crowd Go Crazy- this is another one that can work well if you need something with a slower tempo, but I especially like it as an example of high do. The main line in the chorus has a very clear octave jump that repeats multiple times so it's a great one to have students sing and identify the note.
2. Basketball Percussion Composition
While we're on the topic of basketball-related movie soundtracks, the beginning of the music video for Get'cha Head in the Game from High School Musical is a great, quick example of using basketballs as percussion instruments to perform rhythm patterns. Another great example I love showing my students is this video the Harlem Globetrotters did with STOMP. After showing them an example or two to get the idea, have students create their own rhythm composition just using basketballs! You can use this lesson activity to incorporate a variety of different concepts students may be working on by giving them specific parameters for the composition, whether that's telling them to include ostinati, specific rhythms, or even specific expressive elements like dynamics or tempi, and it's a great way to have students practice notating those by having them find simplified ways to record their compositions.
3. Basketball Routines
I'm sure many of you have seen the basketball routines and play-along's before, but this is an easy activity to throw in to get students moving, practice rhythms, get them to internalize the pulse, and give students some ideas of moves they can do before having them do a composition activity like described above. This play-along with Ho Hey is a clear, easy one to start with, this one with Natural includes whole notes and half rests with some more different kinds of moves, and other routines like this one for In the Wild are a good way to review note names and durations with more advanced routines for older students. There are plenty of other videos like these to use for this!
4. March Madness-Style Song Bracket
For March Madness specifically, my absolute favorite idea is to do a bracket of songs. Because March Madness happens during Music In Our Schools Month®, I love to do a bracket based around the NAfME theme for MIOSM that year, and I have students vote in their homerooms every day for the whole month of March. You can see all of the brackets I've done over the years in this post, and see how I run it in this post. I love doing this each year because it introduces students to a wide range of songs including songs from different genres and time periods, in different languages, and from different cultures.
I hope this gives you some fresh ideas for incorporating a basketball theme into your elementary music lessons for all different grades, no matter what you may be teaching! It's fun to tie in different student interests to get students excited and help everyone feel like their personality and interests are recognized and included. If you're looking for more sports related lesson ideas, I've also written posts on incorporating baseball, American football, soccer, and ice skating! What other sports do your students get excited about? What other sports themed lesson ideas have your students loved? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments.
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