Are you looking for some free, online games for your elementary music students? With many schools adopting 1:1 technology post-pandemic, it’s easier than ever to use devices such as Chromebooks in the music room.
The challenge is where to find quality, free online resources for students? I’m sharing some of my favorite sites for free elementary music games that support instruction!
Classics for Kids
Classics for Kids offers a variety of games for students such as
- Note names
- Composition
- Rhythm Matching
- Music Terms
- Instruments of the Orchestra
- Composer Map
- Musical Instruments
Although the games are easy to play, most require some reading to engage in the activity. I would highly encourage teachers to explore the site with students and demonstrate some of the games before having students visit on their own. This site is best used for grades 2-4.
Carnegie Hall Kids
Carnegie Hall Kids has some wonderful features to it that make it quite different than Classics for Kids. One of my favorites is highlighting composers and performers of color as well as female artists. Here are some of the quizzes and games students can explore:
- Old McDonald’s Orchestra
- Tune Crafter
- Music in Outer Space
- Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
- Animal or Instrument
- Sights and Sounds of the Orchstra
- Weird and Wild Instruments
- Instrument Shapes
- Meet Mahalia Jackson, Rhiannon Giddens, Yo-Yo Ma, Marian Jackson, Pete Seeger, and more!
This is a fabulous resource of games and information. I love sharing the “Meet the Composer/Performer” series in my regular classroom lessons. This site is best used for grades 2-5.
Incredibox
Incredibox is a student favorite in my classroom! It’s a great program to teach students about timbre, texture, and composition. The challenge with Incredibox is that the character appear to be in their “birthday suits” until you drag and drop clothing of some sort on them. I tell students that they are wearing bathing suits as if they were at the beach, and that resolves the silly comments for most students. This site is best suited for grades 3-5.
Chrome Music Lab
Many music teachers know about and love Chrome Music Lab. It’s one of my favorite sites to share with young and older students because it’s user friendly and intuitive. Some of the things students can explore are:
- Song Maker
- Rhythm
- Kandisky
- Voice Spinner
- Oscillators
- Piano Roll
- Chords
- Melody Maker
If you are looking for specific ways to use Chrome Music Lab in your lessons, please check out my video, 10 Ways to Chrome Music Lab! I also highly encourage you to check out the Midnight Music website as she has some phenomenal lesson for upper el using Chrome Music Lab. This site can be used for grades K-5.
Dr. Musik
Dr. Musik might be the best hidden gem for music education games on the web! There are so many fun and engaging games for students to explore! Some those games include
- Virtual Instruments (e.g. Xylophone, Recorder, Ukulele, and Unpitched-Percussion
- Rhythm Writer
- Dragon Choir
- Beat Bots
- Robot Sequencer
- Staff Dungeon
- Aquarium (notation game)
- Rhythm Galaxy
- The Forest of Instruments
My students LOVE this site! What I love is that it is super intuitive and requires little reading on the part of the user. Of course, younger students will require some guidance to navigate certain games. This site is recommended for grades K-5.
Do you have a favorite, free site for online games? Share it below!
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