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Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

High school sub plans: music

One music plan for every period of a high school day, written for a sub with no music background: five minutes to settle, then “Count and clap” with the whiteboard and paper, a backup if it runs short, and the last five minutes. Three things a sub never does in this room are on the plan, and the timetable runs 7 periods of 50 minutes.

Checked October 31, 2026. Written for a sub with no specialist skill: everything works on paper, with no equipment. Print it, or save it as a PDF from the generator.

Make the whole day at high school ▸

The lesson, every period

Music: count and clap

  1. First 5 minutes, settle. Say who you are and that you're covering music (band, choir or orchestra) today. Students sit in their usual seats or sections with a pencil and paper, instruments left in their cases. Take attendance from the seating chart; the task is on the board.
  2. The main part, about 35 minutes. Count and clap: Ask a section leader or a volunteer to write four one-bar rhythms on the board, with quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes and rests. The class counts each one aloud (one and two and), claps it, then claps all four in a row. Sections take turns writing a fifth bar for the rest to clap. Then each student writes an eight-bar rhythm of their own and swaps with a neighbor to clap it. You need: the whiteboard and paper.
  3. If it runs short, the room changes or the class needs something calmer: Every music word we know: Students list every music word they know (tempo, forte, piano, crescendo, rest, key signature) and write what each means. Pairs compare, and the class builds one list on the board for the teacher. You need: the whiteboard and paper.
  4. Last 5 minutes: Folders back on the shelf, chairs and stands left the way the room was, and the papers collected with the period written on top.
Never, as a sub in this room
  • Don't unlock the instrument storage or hand out the school's instruments, and don't move the piano, the risers or the sound system.
  • Students play or sing only if the teacher's plan says so. A sub doesn't run a rehearsal of the concert music.
  • Nobody goes to a practice room out of your sight.

Subbing high school

High school runs like middle school, a period at a time, with older students who will test whether the plan is real. Say the plan, the task and when it is due in the first two minutes, and hold to it calmly. Many will work alone if the task is clear.

  • Write the task and what is due by the end of the period on the board before the bell.
  • Phones follow the school's own rule; ask the office what it is before first period.
  • If a class says the teacher lets them, follow the plan and leave it for the teacher to decide.

More plans

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