Name: Ernesto Hernandez Date: 10/18/16

Orff Lesson Plan Section: 001

MU 3340 - Orff lesson plan

Concept(s): Ensemble Performance, Improvisation, Movement, and singing

Objective(s): singing “the itsy bitsy spider”, performing game/activity, body percussion, and performing
accompanying instrumental parts, improvisation.

State Standard(s):
MU:Cr1.1.4a: Improvise rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic ideas, and explain connection to specific purpose

MU:Pr6.1.4a: Perform music, alone or with others, with expression and technical accuracy, and appropriate
interpretation.

Materials: the students’ voices (or soprano recorder), Glockenspiel, soprano xylophone, tambourine,
cowbell, bass xylophone, the students’ feet and hands, various mallets.

Grade/Age Level: 4th grade/ 09-10 years old.

Procedures:
1. Greet students as they walk into the classroom; instruct them to sit in a circle
2. Once all the students are seated get their collective attention with the musical opener: “hello boys and
girls”
3. T: “Today we’ll be singing a new song”
4. Get children to keep the beat by clapping or patting
5. T: “Listen to this song and tell me what kind of animal this song is about”
6. T: sing song once throughout as children keep the beat
7. T: “what kind of bug/animal did I sing about? Can someone raise their hand and tell me?”
8. T: Call on student to answer question
9. T: “Let’s sing the song now. This time, can someone tell me what the spider is doing?” Bring students
in with starting pitch as they maintain the beat by patting or stomping.
10. Sing the song once throughout with students.
11. T: “Can someone raise their hand and tell me what the spider is doing?”
12. T: Call on a different student to answer question.
13. T: “Great job everyone! Now we’re all going to make a spider with our hands.”
14. T: Introduce the hand movements that accompany the song:

Instructions for hand motion/activity

On the line “the itsy bitsy spider went up...”: Touch your left thumb to your right pointer finger and then your
right thumb to your left pointer finger, like a spider climbing up. The students will move in a circle or walk in
place while doing hand motions.

On the line “down came the rain…”: Wiggle fingers and move hands downward like the rain coming
down. The students will stop walking and kneel down as they do the hand movements.

On the line “out came the sun”: open both fists and move palms outward as if making the shape of a rainbow.
The students will make the gesture as they stand up after kneeling down in the previous line of the song.
On the line “and the itsy bitsy spider went up….” Once again touch your left thumb to your right pointer like a
spider climbing up. This time around the students will stand in place.

15. T: after demonstrating hand motions, bring students in on pitch and sing song once through with
hand motions and movement.
16. T: “Great job everyone! Now were going to add one more part to the song.”
17. T: demonstrate the bass xylophone part with body percussion and words. Chant the words “out came
the sun” while performing the body percussion.
18. T: “Let’s all chant this part.”
19. Students will imitate body percussion and chant the words while teacher sings song on pitch.
20. “Great job everyone! Let’s add one more part. Can everyone do what I’m doing?”
21. T: Chant the accompanying words to the cowbell part while performing body percussion.
22. After students perform the movement and words accurately, split students into two groups. The first
group will perform the bass xylophone part as the second group performs the cowbell part.
23. T: “Great job everyone, were going to add one more part now.”
24. T: Chant and perform the SX/AX part as all the students imitate the movements.
25. T: split the class into three groups this time. The first group will perform the bass xylophone part, the
second group will perform the cowbell part, and the third group will perform the SX/AX part.
26. T: bring one group in at a time. Begin with the first group, then add the second group and finally the
third group. Once all three groups are performing individual parts with chanting and percussion, the
teacher will sing the song.
27. T: “Lets add one more part”
28. T: chant and perform the body percussion for the glockenspiel part and have all the students imitate.
29. T: Split the class into four groups this time. Layer in each part, beginning with the first group (bass
xylophone part) and ending with the fourth group (glockenspiel part).
30. T: Once students are comfortable with each individual part, instruct them to only perform the body
percussion without words. Have everyone sing the song together as each group maintains their
individual body percussion part.
31. T: “Great job everyone! We have some instruments that we’ll be playing today. Can we all walk slowly
over to the instruments?”
32. T: Assign students to an instrument (instruments and mallets will be laid out before class begins).
33. T: Assign some students to sing and perform the game/ hand movement.
34. Students will transfer the body percussion and rhythmic words to each instrument. The teacher will
indicate which part will be played on which instrument.
35. T: After demonstrating parts, give the students 30 seconds to try their individual parts on the pitched
or unpitched percussion.
36. T. Have the students play their parts together; layer in one part at a time as an introduction to the
song. Begin with the bass xylophone part, then bring in the percussion, the SX/AX, and finally the
glockenspiel.
37. T. Bring the remaining students in on the starting pitch. This group will sing the song and perform the
game/hand motions as the other students play the instruments.
38. T: After students sing the song once through, add an improvisation section (section). During the B
section the students will keep on playing the instruments as one instrument at a time is instructed to
improvise for four measures. The students with pitched instruments will improvise on the F
pentatonic scale (remove the pitches that do not belong to this scale from the instruments before
class begins). The students with unpitched instruments will improvise rhythms freely.
39. After the B section, the students will return to the A section to finish the song. (students will sing the
song again and perform the game/hand motions)
40. T: “Great job everyone! Let’s all sing the song back to our seats”
Assessment:

Students will be able to sing the song, chant and perform the body percussion, and play instrumental part
correctly at 100% accuracy

Closure:

1. Ask students to think about what they learned today.

2. Call on a couple students and ask them to share what they learned
3. T: “What part of class did you like the most today.”
4. Call on a couple students to share
5. “What instruments did we play today?”
6. Call on students until they name all the instruments involed
7. “great job everyone!” sing musical closer such as “goodbye boys and girls”

Song Notation/Orffestration: (song notation and visual attached)