S13: E249 Minecraft Musical Artist House Project

If you’re wanting an engaging activity that students will love, this is it!

Mix Minecraft, Flip and Student Peer Reviews.

Do your students love Minecraft as much as mine do?  I’m guessing that there are many students in your classroom who spend their time creating, designing worlds and collaborating with friends on Minecraft outside of the classroom.  Last year my students were sharing about some of the Minecraft projects they work on in science and social studies to share their learning.  I started to think about ways that we could use this tool in the music classroom and I created this Minecraft challenge as a way for students to learn about a specific musical artist through a house design that includes rooms based on facts, songs, lyrics, and genre.  Students were asked to record a tour of their house on Flip where they could share insights about what they learned about the artist and the choices they made in the house.  It was a huge hit!  

Here is how I’ve used this challenge with my students and if you want to do this with your students, click HERE to purchase student worksheets and project information. Check out the Minecraft Composer House Challenge there as well!

The goal of the Minecraft Musical Artist House Challenge is to allow students to research a favorite artist and design a house that embodies information about them.  There are four levels available (based on the four levels within Minecraft): Peaceful, Easy, Normal, Hard.  This allows you to choose which version you’d like to use with students.  Need a one day activity? Choose the peaceful level.  Want a full unit of study?  Choose the hard level. 

Here is an outline of each level:

Peaceful level - a one page worksheet for students to learn a few facts about their musical artist and the musical genre the artist’s work falls under.  There are two room requirements: one room based on the information learned and one room based on a specific song by the artist.  Students could complete the worksheet and their house design in 1-2 classes, depending on how long your classes are. This level would make a great sub plan or an easy one-day class project!  Students can share their designs using Flip or you could have it be a creative class with no assessment.

Easy level - a two page worksheet where students will do a little deeper dive into learning information over a few classes and required house design that includes three rooms

Normal level - a three page packet where students create at least four rooms based on information learned

Hard level - this is a great level to use if you want to make this a full unit of study about a specific artist over many class periods

So how does this work?

Decide if you want it to be an individual, partner or small group project.  I encourage you to keep it small!  No more than 3 students involved in each group or it becomes too challenging for them to get things done.

Then decide which level you want students to work on.  Print out the packet materials for that level and give each group a packet or each student their own packet.  Give them time to work on finding the information. 

Once students have completed the information on the worksheets and you’ve looked over their information, then they begin working in Minecraft on the house.  Students get to use Minecraft once they’ve researched everything first.  Give students a time frame for when the house must be completed so that they can pace their creation time in Minecraft well.  Students will just keep adding things and may struggle to finish the house design in they’re not given boundaries for time.  If you choose to have students submit video tours of their home using Flip, be sure to provide time for them to do this as well.  Flip is a great way for students to share their design ideas, point out the choices made and share information about their musical artist.

Decide if you’ll be the only one to view their houses OR if you’ll share the house tours with the class.  If you do share the tours with the class, you can print out the student peer reviews for each student to reflect on what they’ve learned from their peers and what they liked about each project.  It’s a great way to allow students to think about what their peers have created and provide valuable, kind, and thoughtful feedback.

You can use this project any time of year.  Leave it as a sub plan if you’re out.  Use the project towards the end of the year.  Integrate it into a study about musical genres or composers.  This project is one that my students have loved and I hope that your students do as well.

Head HERE for the shop resources and while you’re there, join my free mailing list for the monthly newsletter.  Follow me on Instagram at @howtoteachmusicwithjessica to learn more music ideas!