Baltimore City Public School System
Division of Curriculum and Instruction
Office of Elementary Curriculum
MUSIC LESSON PLAN
GRADES 4-5
CONTENT STANDARDS:
· The student will demonstrate the ability to perceive, perform and respond to music.
· The student will demonstrate an understanding of music as an essential aspect of history and human experience.
MATERIALS: (optional) Piano, guitar, or autoharp; as many xylophones as possible bass, alto, tenor, and soprano xylophones; alto metallophone, etc.; Share the Music, Teacher Guide, Grades 2, 3, 4, 5)
ACTIVITY 1
OBJECTIVE: Students will sing and interpret songs representative of different activities, holidays and seasons from a variety of cultures.
MOTIVATION: Teacher hums familiar song (This Land is Your Land) and asks students to identify the song. (Share the Music, Grades 2,3,5)
PROCEDURE:
1. Teacher and class sing This Land is Your Land either a cappella or with teacher accompaniment on piano, guitar, or autoharp.
2. Sing the song substituting students’ names around the room or the circle eg. This Land is made for Leticia, for Andre for Marisol, etc.
ACTIVITY 2
OBJECTIVE:
· Students will learn a new pentatonic song.
· Students will compare and contrast melodic phrases.
· Students will sight read a rhythm involving quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes.
MOTIVATION:
Teacher can say, “ This summer there has been a terrible problem with drought. Who can tell me what a drought is? What is the situation in Baltimore City, and what is being done to address the problem?” Discuss briefly with students.
PROCEDURE: I Don’t Care If The Rain Comes Down (Share the Music-Orff Grade 4)
1. Teacher sings “A” section of I Don’t Care if the Rain Comes Down as students listen.
2. Teacher asks students to listen again and identify the difference between the melody for the first and second times “ I’m gonna dance all day” is sung, and to draw the melodic contour in the air for those two phrases, showing whether each phrase goes from lower to higher or higher to lower in pitch.
3. Students identify that the melody goes from lower to higher the first time and from higher to lower the second time I’m gonna dance all day is sung. If students have advanced sufficiently, phrases can be identified as do, re, mi and mi, re, do and sung as such with melodic hand signs.
4. Teacher and students sing song several times.
5. Teacher has students read bass ostinato rhythm on board using rhythm syllables.
6. Teacher has students add words and say ostinato as “ Drip (rest) drop (rest), on my windowpane (rest). (ta rest ta rest, ti-ti ti-ti ta rest)
7. Students repeat words to ostinato as teacher sings the song.
8. One group of the students sings the song, and another says the ostinato. Then they repeat, reversing the parts. |
9. Teacher demonstrates how to patsch the ostintato pattern for the xylophone.
10. Students practice singing the song and patsching the ostinato at the same time.
11. Teacher demonstrates playing the ostinato on the bass xylophone.
12. Teacher chooses several students in turn who can demonstrate the ostinato, to play it on xylophones as other students sing the song.
13. Teacher encourages students to practice singing the song and patsching the rhythm between classes, and indicates that more parts will be added to the piece in subsequent lessons.
ACTIVITY 3
OBJECTIVE:
· The student will demonstrate an understanding of music as an essential aspect of history and human experience.
MOTIVATION: Ask the children to identify the holiday that was celebrated the day before (Labor Day) Help them identify the reason for the holiday. Ask the students if they know what a labor union is, and help them to understand the concept. Ask them if they know if they have family members who belong to a union. Tell them you have a song to sing while they listen. Indicate that the song was written by the same person who wrote This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie. Explain basically what the song is about, and mention that women were involved in the union movement as well as men.
PROCEDURE:
1. Sing Union Maid, by Woody Guthrie, while children listen.
2. Sing the song again, and have children join in on the chorus.
3. Sing the song a third time, and ask the children to try to sing the verses, reading the words written on a chart at the front of the room.
4. Ask the children to describe what happens in the song. Define any terms that are unfamiliar.
ACTIVITY 4: Closing
PROCEDURE:
1. Ask the children to describe the activities and songs that took place in the lesson.
2. Sing the Union Maid chorus as students line up.
DIFFERENTIATION/MODIFICATIONS:
· Stand near children who have difficulty focusing.
· Seat children with hearing impairment close to you.
· Repeat rhymes or songs more slowly or more often.
· Make frequent eye contact with students.
· Use pointer to assist children in reading words from charts.
ASSESSMENT
Teacher informal assessment of students’ ability to:
1. |Coordinate hand movements to play an ostinato that involves crossing one hand over the other.
2. Sight read rhythms containing quarter notes and rests, and eighth notes.
3. Discriminate between melodic directions in ending phrases.
The following rubric can be used if the teacher wishes to record the assessment:
0= The student does not participate.
1= The student participates, but cannot perform the task.
2= The student performs the task sporadically.
3= The student performs the task consistently.
CURRICULAR LINKAGES:
Language Arts:
· Developing phonemic awareness through saying rhymes
· Identifying question and answer
Social Studies:
· Understanding the purpose of Labor Day
Physical Education
· Developing coordination ( xylophone pattern)
Mathematics
· Identification of patterns
· Spatial awareness ( playing xylophones)
ADDENDUM
THE UNION MAID
(WOODY GUTHRIE & MILLARD LAMPELL) (last verse)
(Tune: "Red Wing") (1940/1941)
There once was a union maid, she never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,
And when the Legion boys come 'round
She always stood her ground.
CHORUS:
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.
This union maid was wise to the tricks of company spies,
She couldn't be fooled by a company stool, she'd always organize the guys.
She always got her way when she struck for better pay.
She'd show her card to the National Guard
And this is what she'd say:
CHORUS
You gals who want to be free, just take a tip from me;
Get you a man who's a union man and join the ladies' auxiliary.
Married life ain't hard when you got a union card,
A union man has a happy life when he's got a union wife.
CHORUS
SOURCE: http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/unionm.html
Also check for websites on Woody Guthrie
Music, Grades 4-5, Lesson 1 Page 1 of 4