grade3maniaThe Beatles for Grade 3

For teachers and parents

Grown-ups’ Corner

Everything on grade3mania is written for 8 and 9 year olds. Here are ready-to-use lesson ideas, a class-friendly listening list, and a few notes.

Lesson ideas

Six ready-to-go lessons

Meet the Band

30–45 min · Music, Listening

  1. Read the four cards on The Band page together.
  2. Play each member’s instrument sound. Can the class name the instrument?
  3. Sort activity: pupils draw each Beatle holding his instrument.
  4. Game: Who Played That? on the board, in two teams.

Timeline of a Band

45 min · History, Sequencing

  1. Scroll The Story page as a class. Stop on 1957, 1964 and 1969.
  2. In pairs, pupils order 6 event cards, then check with Timeline Twist.
  3. Talk about it: what changed for the band between 1963 and 1969?
  4. Local link: their last tour concert was at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, in 1966.

Design an Album Cover

60 min · Art

  1. Tour 4 contrasting rooms: With the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper, White Album, Abbey Road.
  2. Ask: what do the colours and pictures tell you about the music?
  3. Pupils design a cover for an album about their own class.
  4. Hold a gallery walk. Can others guess the mood of each album?

Songs About Places

45 min · Writing, Geography

  1. Listen to Penny Lane. It is about a real street in Liverpool.
  2. Find Liverpool, London and Hamburg on a map.
  3. Pupils list five things they see on their own street.
  4. Turn the list into a short verse and a chorus. Sing it to a simple beat from Ringo’s Beat Studio.

Studio Scientists

30–45 min · Science of sound

  1. Use Studio Magic on The Music page: backwards sounds, speed tricks and fade-in.
  2. Discuss: sound travels in waves. Faster playback means higher pitch.
  3. Make your own sounds for a song with water, rice in a tub, rubber bands and chains, like the Yellow Submarine sessions.
  4. Record them on a class tablet and play them backwards.

Beatles Big Sing

20 min · Music, Community

  1. Songs that work well for a class sing: All Together Now, Yellow Submarine, Octopus’s Garden, Here Comes the Sun, Hey Jude (the long ending!).
  2. Split into two groups for call-and-response parts.
  3. Finish with Beatle Brain Quiz, class against teacher.

Good to know

Notes for the classroom

Class-friendly listening list

All the songs named on the Music page and in the Album Tour were picked for younger listeners. The Apple Music players in each album room play full albums, so for class listening we suggest choosing tracks from the “Famous songs” list in each room.

Talking about John and George

The Story page says simply that John died in 1980 and George in 2001. If children ask, John Lennon was killed in New York in 1980, and George Harrison died of an illness in 2001. You may want to decide ahead of time how much detail suits your class.

Sounds and players

The Play buttons across the site make original sounds in the browser that demonstrate each instrument or studio technique. They are not Beatles recordings. The real songs play only through the official Apple Music players in the Album Tour. Some schools block music services, so check yours before a lesson.

Games and scores

Scores are saved only in the browser on that device. Nobody signs in and nothing is sent anywhere. Rename the two players on the Games page, for example “Team Red” and “Team Blue”.

Want to find out more?

thebeatles.com is the official Beatles website. The Beatles Story is a museum in Liverpool with education resources. The Cavern Club is still open today.

Picture credits

Album artwork © Apple Corps Ltd. / EMI Records. Used for educational purposes. Photo: United Press International, 1964 (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.