Title – Little Mozarts

By – William Ayers

Teaching Team: William Ayers and Page Chafin

Subject – Music, Language Arts

Grade Level – 3rd to 5th

Week’s Theme: Mozart

Lesson Topic: Playing How You Feel

Music Concept: Creating/ Composing Music

Music Used: Essential Recordings From Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Euchida, Tate 1995

Beethoven: 9 Symphonies / Zinman, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich

Other Media Used: Computer Internet Sites:

http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/coxgs/mus362/index.html

http://www.island-of-freedom.com/MOZART.HTM

http://www.openmozart.net

http://www.jccomp.com/~bmwilliams/mozart.html

Other Equipment and materials: CD Player, Pencils, and Paper Keyboards and Guitars

Music Objectives: Students will improvise and create variations and harmonic accompaniments for songs ( Music 6th AL General Music 22) Students will compose and arrange songs as well as using a variety of sound sources when composing (Music 6th AL General Music 26 28)

Related Language Arts Objectives: Students will create poetry

Other Curricular Objectives: Students will Express meaning through writing sentences in an organized manner and Write in a variety of modes to express meaning

( Language Arts 6th AL Writing 1 3)

Key Terms: PITCH RHYTHM MELODY

Focus: HAVE YOU EVER FELT AN EMOTION THAT YOU JUST COULDN’T DESCRIBE USING WORDS. DID YOU HAVE TO JUMP IN THE AIR BECAUSE YOU WERE HAPPY, OR JUST SIT THERE AND CRY BECAUSE YOU WERE SO SAD? THERE ARE OTHER WAYS OF EXPRESSING EMOTIONS. AND ONE OF THEM IS WRITING MUSIC. AND WE ARE GOING TO DO JUST THAT TODAY.

Step 1: EVERYONE BRAINSTORM HOW YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW. ARE YOU FEELING GOOD? BAD? CONFUSED? JUST WRITE IT DOWN. Pass out pencils and Paper

Step 2: THE MUSIC YOU WRITE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE COMPLEX LIKE MOZART’S. Play Ode To Joy by Beethoven. THIS IS ANOTHER COMPOSER’S MUSIC. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHO IT IS. RIGHT, BEETHOVEN. THIS WAS HIS SIMPLEST PIECE, AND ONE OF EVERYONE’S FAVORITE.

Step 3: NOW TRY TO FIT YOUR WORDS THAT YOU WROTE ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS INTO THE RHYTHM F THE MUSIC. IT HELPS TO HAVE THE SAME NUMBER OF SYLLABLES AS NOTES.

Step 4: NOW PLAY THE SONG AND SING ALONG TO IT. IT’S OK IF YOU MESS UP, BECAUSE EVEN THE BEST COMPOSERS IN THE WORLD CAN’T GET THEIR PIECE PERFECT IN ONE DAY. BUT THAT WAS ALONG TIME AGO. AND I’M SURE YOUR PIECES WILL BE WONDERFUL

Step 5: NOW LET’S TAKE TURNS PLAYING FOR THE CLASS.

Summary: Children should learn the creative process, although difficult at times, is a fun and rewarding process. Their Self Confidence should be nurtured, and it will grow. They should learn that their feelings can be expressed in

Assessment: I will observe each child’s participation in the process, observing their performance, enthusiasm, and their nervousness, as the kids who are specially nervous might have performance anxiety, which is understandable.

Follow Ups:

Music: Children will compose additional lines of music.

Other art or Curricular Ideas: Children will do research on Mozart at the sites given above. They will write a paper on Mozart’s Life

Citations for Lesson Ideas: www.mailbox.com

E-Mail

William

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