English Blast Unit of Inquiry Lesson Plan

Unit of Inquiry Name: MUSIC - Composers, Conductors and Dancers

Unit Contributed by: Tomi and Lynda

Duration of Unit (in classroom hours): 4

Target Age Group (in years): 6 - 8

Basic Goals and Objectives: Introduce students to the different kinds of people professionally involved in music.

Reference Materials Recommended (texts, workbooks, picture books, maps, videos, websites, audio materials, etc.): There are many excellent recordings specifically written to introduce children to music including Bernstein Favorites Children's Classics, Tchaikovsky Discovers America, Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery and  Mr. Bach Comes to Call. Barron's  Famous Children includes biographies of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart.

Additional Notes, Suggestions or Comments about the Unit: A

Week 1

Materials Required: Photographs or pictures of an orchestra and the different kinds of instruments; one recording of Peter and the Wolf for each family.

Class Content and Activities: Review/introduce classifications of instruments: percussion, woodwinds, strings, brass. Introduce placement of instruments in orchestra. Introduce the composer Sergei Prokofiev, the composer of Peter and the Wolf. Begin listening to recording of Peter and the Wolf. Assign a type of music (blues, classical, country, jazz, musicals, opera, reggae, rock, Japanese folk music, other) to each child.  Each child will then prepare to explain this type of music and will choose a composer of this type of music about which to prepare a brief biographical report.  Student should also find a selection of the music written by the composer.

Homework: Make a list classifying the instruments used in Peter and the Wolf into the 4 categories: percussion, woodwinds, strings, brass.  Begin work on report for Week 4: A Composer

Week 2

Materials Required: Information about one particular conductor (for example Seiji Ozawa), batons or similar stick-like objects, video clip of a conductor, one instrument per student for conducting practice.

Class Content and Activities: Introduce a conductor.  Focus on his/her childhood, how s/he became a conductor. Learn conducting technique.  Show a video clip of a conductor. Students practice conducting technique using basic musical instruments: triangle, woodblocks, tambourine, etc.

Homework: Continue research on composer of choice. In word books, list words that describe the conductor's body movements as seen in the video.

Week 3

Materials Required: Information on one particular dancer; recording of the Virginia Reel or music for other similar easy-to-learn folk dance; copy of words to Bundi Ana or similar song that is easy to substitute words for.

Class Content and Activities: Introduce life of a dancer.  Focus on his/her childhood and how s/he became a dancer. Learn the Virginia Reel.  Introduce basic folk dance terms and practice. Dance to the music.

Homework: Children change the words to the song Bundi Ana. Bundi Ana I love the mountains.                         I love the... I love the rolling hills.                        I love the... I love the flowers.                             I love the... I love the daffodils.                           I love the... I love the firesides                             I love the... when all the lights are low.                 when all the... Bundi ana, bundi ana, bundi ana,         Bundi ana, bundi ana, bundi ana Bundi ana Bun-bun-bun.                     Bundi ana, bun, bun, bun

Week 4

Materials Required:

Class Content and Activities: Each student introduces a composer, talkes about the composer's life and describes the kind of music written.  Sample selections of the music are played. In between reports, sing the different versions of Bundi Ana written by the students for homework.

Homework: .