Music
Classics for Kids
Kids hear composer stories on a weekly radio show, play note and rhythm games, and write little tunes of their own.
Classics for Kids comes from WGUC, Cincinnati’s public classical radio station, and it is built around a short weekly radio show, also offered as a podcast. Each episode tells the story of one composer or piece and plays generous excerpts. Around the show sit games: naming notes on the staff, matching a rhythm by ear, and composing a short tune that plays back. A Composer Explorer and a timeline let kids roam from Bach to Gershwin and see who overlapped with whom. A musical dictionary unpacks terms like allegro, and an instrument section with sound clips means a child can finally hear what a bassoon is. Printable activity sheets and lesson plans extend things off-screen. It looks pitched at early elementary classrooms, though a curious family could use it just as easily.
- Ages
- Kindergarten to fifth grade
- Works on
- Web browser
- Topics
- Music, History
- Languages
- English
- Listed
- 2026-10-18
What kids do
- Listen to a short composer episode
- Play the note-names game
- Match a rhythm by ear
- Compose a little song and hear it back
- Wander the composer timeline
Who it suits
Kindergarten to fifth grade.
Notes for parents
An educational outreach project of Cincinnati Public Radio’s WGUC. Lesson plans are split into K–2 and 3–5, and the site seems to add new episodes and worksheets on a regular basis.
What you need
- Web browser
- Speakers or headphones
More Music
- musictheory.net: Short lessons and drills on reading notes, rhythm, scales and chords.
- Chrome Music Lab: A collection of browser experiments for playing with sound, pattern and rhythm.
- Ableton Learning Music: Browser lessons from Ableton on how beats, basslines, chords and melodies fit together.
- Ableton Learning Synths: Interactive lessons on how synthesizers shape sound, with controls kids drag and then listen to.
- Incredibox: A music game in which kids drag sounds onto animated performers to build a mix.
- Blob Opera: Kids appear to conduct a quartet of singing blobs, dragging each one to shift its pitch and vowel.
- Piano Maestro: Kids play a real piano or keyboard while the iPad seems to listen in and light up the notes they hit.
- Prodigies Music: Kids sing, use hand signs and ring colorful bells along with short video lessons.