Title – Teaching Adjectives With Music

By – Wajid Ali

Primary Subject – Language Arts

Secondary Subjects – Music

Grade Level – 3-5

Concept:

The students will broaden their knowledge about adjectives
through music and by using them to describe both objects and music.

Objectives:

The student will be able to:



1. write down adjectives to describe objects in a bag.
   
2. report to the class the adjectives they used.
   
3. write down adjectives that describe the music they listen to.
   
4. share their adjectives with the class.

Materials Needed:

• 5 paper bags
  
• 5 different objects to place in each bag (potato, granola bar,
  fabric softener, apple, and bagel)
  
• various samples of recorded music (Classic Disney Volume I )

Musical Element:

The song Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah can be taught using the
repeated melody and form that it has throughout the song. Children
between the ages of kindergarten and second grade would all know this
song and they would understand form and repeated patterns more easily
when working with a familiar song.

Procedure:

Introduction:
The teacher asks the students what an adjective is: a
word that describes. The teacher then talks with the class about the
work they have done with adjectives the past few days. They have been
identifying adjectives in sentences. Explain that today they are going
to do a fun activity using adjectives.

Activities:

• Five mystery bags will be distributed around the room. Each
  student is asked to place one hand in the bag and feel the object.
  They can touch the object, shake the bag, etc., but they can not
  look at the object.
  
• The student should then write down as many adjectives as they can
  to describe the unknown object. After each child has written
  adjectives for all five bags, the adjectives will be shared with
  the class. The teacher will ask the students if they can name the
  object. The teacher will then display each object to the class.
• We will then talk about the fact that adjectives can help us
  figure out what objects are. Next, the teacher will play a sample
  of music (Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah) and the students will write down
  adjectives that describe the music (elements of the music, how it
  makes them feel, what it makes them think of). The students will
  then share their adjectives with the class.

Closure:

The teacher will discuss that adjectives can be used to
describe many objects and can also be used to describe music. Even
though we can’t actually see the objects or the music, we came up with
many descriptive words to help others understand what are senses are
telling us about the objects and music. The song Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah uses
many different adjectives in the song that can help students better
grasp this concept.

Evaluation:

The students will hand in the papers on which they
recorded adjectives. If the students’ words were indeed adjectives, then
they will receive full credit for this assignment.

Follow-Up:

The students can pair up and use adjectives to describe an
object to their partner. The student describing will have an object to
describe while their partner sits quietly with their eyes shut. The
student describes the object using detailed adjectives so that the
partner can guess the object. The same can be done with music. One
student describes a popular piece of music while the other tries to
guess the music by listening to the adjectives.

E-Mail

Wajid Ali

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