Lesson Plans October 10th- November 4th
Kindergarten- Styles of Music: “A New Family, The
String Family”
Overview- Guitars and fretted instruments are among the most popular in the world. This unit
looks at frets, chords, tuning, and how to play a wide variety of guitar-like instruments.
Students will be learning how to create high sounds and low sounds on string instruments, and
soft and loud sounds from different fretted instruments. At the end of the unit, students will
create their own homemade string instrument.
Lesson ObjectivesStudents will learn:
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How one guitar, when skillfully played, can produce many different styles of music.
How the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, classical guitar, banjo, and dulcimer all produce
different sounds.
How the shape of the body, the thickness of the string, and the way the strings are
played affect the sound.
How to tune a guitar and why tuning is important.
How different guitar types are appropriate for classical, folk, and rock music.
VocabularyNecks
Strings
Frets
Body
Tuning
Rock
Classical
Country
Heavy Metal
Bluegrass
Additional Vocabulary: Loud and Soft, High and Low sounds
Plucking
Strumming
Amplifier
Effects pedal
Finger-picking
Standards1. Singing alone and with others.
2. Playing instruments.
6. Listening to, analyzing and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performance.
Lesson One: Introduction
Survey the students to see who has attended a rock, pop, or country concert. Ask them to
describe the experience.
Play Track 1 from DVD. “Don’t Say You’re Sorry” Ask the students what instrument was most
noticeable. Invite them to take turns performing their best rock air guitar solo. Ask students to
name instruments that are normally used by a rock band. (Drums, keyboards, electric guitars,
bass, singers)
What makes a guitar a guitar? Make a list of its unique parts on the Smartboard. (Later
transfer the ideas to a large sheet of paper for students to look at)
Strings
Neck
Body
Tuning pegs
Frets
What other instruments have similar frets, neck, and bodies, but are not a guitar?
Show students pictures of a banjo, ukulele, bass, mandolin, sitar
Lesson Two: Play Episode of Quaver, Guitars and Fretted Instruments
Bring in examples of different types of fretted instruments: Acoustic, classical, electric,
mandolin, and dulcimer. Review the parts of the fretted instruments.
Show the video. Approximately 15 min. in length.
Name four of the instrument tat played in “The Big Strum”? Acoustic Guitar, banjo, electric
guitar, classical guitar
What does a fret do for a guitar? They show you where to put your fingers
Which is the quietest fretted instrument shown in the episode? Classical guitar
What is the difference between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar? An electric guitar uses
electricity to make the sound louder.
Lesson Three: Class Activities- Chord Quick draw
Cut out guitar necks from a worksheet. Practice the finger placements for each chord, be sure
to write their names on the back of their guitars.
Lesson Four, Five, and Six: Homemade Harmony- Create your own shoe box guitar!
Have students bring in a shoe box from home to create their own rubber band guitars. Have
students decorate their boxes.
First- “Elfis and the Elves, All Shook up”
Overview: Students will be educated in the variety of ways that people from different cultures
celebrate during the holiday season. Using vocabulary they have already learned, students will
connect terms to music that they are learning for the play and begin to READ music. During
October, students will learn the two main songs for the play, learn choreography, and prepare
to put on a performance for the public in December.
Lesson ObjectivesStudents will learn:
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Where to find the tempo markings in a song, and how determine the speed of the
music.
Where to find the meter. (How many beats in a measure)
That music is written on a staff of 5 lines.
The sign at the beginning of the music is called the “Treble Clef” Sign.
Vocabulary:
Beat
Measures
Meter
Treble Clef Sign
Tempo
Metronome
Strong beat
Weak beat
Culture
Staff
Lyrics
Repeat sign
Standards:
1. Singing alone and with others,
2. Playing instruments
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
7. Evaluating music and music performance
Lesson One: Introduction. Beginning to read music.
Announce to the students that it is now their turn to prepare a performance for the school. Tell
students that they will be preparing a Christmas play and will perform it on December 15 th for
the whole school and their parents.
Tell students that this is a very exciting time of the year, because they are now ready to take
the things that they have learned from the beginning of the year and start to see what it looks
like when it is written on music.
Show student the music of “The Magic Sleigh”. Point out some key terms: where the Title of
the song is, where the author’s (or composer’s) name is. Next point out the Number written on
the music that tells the children how fast the speed of the music is- the Tempo!
Turn on the Metronome to the number on the song. Have the students guess whether they
think this song is largo, moderato, or presto.
Next show the students where to find the Meter Sign. Explain that the number on the top tells
us how many beats are in the measure. Explain that the number of the bottom is very
complicated and they will learn what that means when they get to the third grade! Haha!
Point out that there are a couple other things that they will learn about that we haven’t learned
yet. First, point out that music notes are written on a Staff (5 straight lines). Also point out that
at the beginning of the music is the Treble Clef Sign. (We will learn more about the Treble clef
sign later!)
Next point out where the Lyrics begin. Go over the lyrics with the students.
Have the students listen to a recording of the song. Have students follow lyrics with the CD
performers.
Next have students tap out the meter with the CD.
Now have the students try to sing it themselves!
Lesson Two:
Review all of the information learned from the first lesson. Also review the lyrics from “The
Magic Sleigh” . Practice three times.
Today we will learn more about the Treble Clef sign and the staff by reading “Freddie the Frog
and the Treble Clef Island”.
Lesson Three:
Review all of the information learned from the first lesson and second lesson. Also review the
lyrics from “The Magic Sleigh”. Practice two times.
Show students “The Humdrum Holiday”. Find and point out all of the key points to the
beginning of the music (meter, clef, tempo, title, composers, lyrics. Learn that the first time we
sing a song we read the top line of text, show students how to skip down to the next line of
music. Teach the students the first verse and the choreography. Practice three times.
Lesson Four:
Practice “The magic Sleigh”, and “Humdrum Holiday” Two times each. If students are ready to
learn verse two of Humdrum holiday then progress appropriately. Teach students about what a
repeat sign means. Learn verse 2.
Lesson Five:
Review everything. Practice songs each two times. Learn the ending to Humdrum Holiday.
Lesson Six:
Students should know and be familiar with the choreography to the “Magic Sleigh” and
“Humdrum Holiday”. Practice each until they are comfortable with each song. In November,
students will learn additional songs for the play.
Second Grade “Beat, Meter, Tempo” Review of
terms from First Grade
Overview: Students will review key concepts learned in the first grade. Students will take a preassessment to determine how much was retained from first grade. Key concepts will be retaught in October. In November, students will be taught how to recognize bluegrass music and
culture and learn how to do a barn dance.
Lesson ObjectivesStudents will learn:
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How beat is the heartbeat of music.
How to identify beat in music by hearing, feeling, and finding the beat.
How to distinguish strong and weak beats
How to organize beat into measures.
How tempo is an essential part of music.
How to spot three fundamental tempos: largo, moderato, and presto
How tempo affect the feel of a piece.
How a metronome displays the speed of the beat.
Meter is the organization of beats in 2,3, and 4.
Music is written on a Staff.
The staff consist of lines and spaces.
Music notes are written on either a line or a space.
What a quarter note looks like.
What a quarter rest looks like.
The Musical Alphabet
Vocabulary:
Beat
Strong beat
Weak Beat
Measures
Meter
Moderato
Presto
Treble clef
Bass clef
Largo
Quarter note
Rest
Tempo
Staff
Lines
Spaces
Music Notes
Metronome
Musical Alphabet
Standards:
1. Singing alone and with others,
2. Playing instruments
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
7. Evaluating music and music performance
Lesson One:
Show students a copy of the first page of “This is Why We Sing” Explain to the students that
this month we will be reviewing the things we learn from first grade. Go over the parts of the
music: Title, composer Treble Clef, Bass clef, Meter sign, Staff, music notes, rests, lyrics.
Explain that in today’s lesson and the next lesson, we will review everything we know about
music so far, then, on the third lesson we will take a test to see how much everyone
remembers from first grade.
To get things started let’s start with the “Freddie the Frog” Series of books and Review the staff,
lines and spaces, and the clef signs.
Lesson Two:
Today we will look at “This is Why We Sing”, Point out all the parts to the music that students
should know so far. Last lesson we talked about….. This lesson we will review meter, strong
and weak beats, measures. Watch the episode of Meter from Quaver. Talk and discuss the
main point of the video.
Announce that the next time the students come to music, we will be having a test over the
things they learned in music last year.
Lesson Three:
Give the students the pre-assessment. If there is time read to the students another of the
“Freddie the Frog” series to review the things they have learned from last year.
Lesson Four:
Class activity about meter: Pretzel breaking and balloons popping. Watch the video clip again
about meter and play the activities associated with meter from Quaver. Review all the parts of
music that we have been discussing.
Lesson Five:
Line and Space activity, have the students play a game from first grade that teaches about lines
and spaces with the beanie babies and the large chart.
Lesson Six:
All about music notes: Review what a quarter note looks like and what a rest looks like. Do a
class activity which students play percussive instruments to a variety of different rhythms.
Show the students the music to “Alabama Gal” point out all the different sections to the music.
Explain to the students that when we come back from Election Day, we will be learning about
Folk dancing and bluegrass music.