SOUNDS OF NATURE - Teacher's notes

Topics: General English - music - sounds of nature

Level: A2+ and above

Skills: Speaking and Listening

Links to videos: Bee Music | Bioni Samp / Organismic Music /

Wildlife DJ Travels World aking Music From Nature

Aims:

To talk about the sounds of nature

To express opinion and reaction towards the sounds of nature
To make predictions before watching videos
To develop visual literacy
To listen for gist and for detail
To express opinion and reaction towards experimental music
To do some research on experimental music

Use of language & lexis:

To use different tenses to talk about experiences with music and

nature
To learn / review vocabulary related to nature
To learn / review vocabulary related to music (genres,
equipment, etc.)
To learn / review adjectives to express feelings
To learn / review contextualized chunks with the preposition
"into": I've been immersed into... / I'm into... / I've tapped into...
Before watching

Ask students to read the title of the lesson and make predictions: what
comes to mind when you think of sounds of nature? Elicit vocabulary and
write it on the (digital) whiteboard.

1. You can also do a visualization exercise and use some sounds of nature
from the internet before discussing the questions. You can either tell a story,
students close their eyes, listen to you and the sounds of nature you play.
(https://pixabay.com/es/sound-effects/search/nature/). Then, they can say
which of the sounds from question 1a they heard and which one(s) they like
the most / the least. Answers may vary. There is no right or wrong answer.

2. Students share their feelings about sounds of nature. They can either use
the adjectives from the word cloud or add others. Assist with vocabulary, if
necessary. Answers may vary. There is no right or wrong answer.

3. Students make predictions based on the names of the videos. Answers

may vary. There is no right or wrong answer.

While watching

4. Students watch the three short videos and write down some main ideas.

5. Students compare their notes. They can add more information in their
mind maps if wanted.

6. Students check if their predictions on exercise 3 were right.

7. Students watch the Bee music video again and focus on details.
Encourage them to pay attention to the people speaking rather than the
subtitles to make it more challenging. For extra support, they can rely on the
subtitles. Also you can slow down the video speed.
Answers:

a. Bioni uses "Do It Yourself" equipment.

b. He extracts rhythms from his bees.
c. The global bee population has decreased in the last decades.
d. He produces music to raise awareness of environmental issues.

8. Students watch the Organismic music video again and match the
sentence halves with the images.

Answers:

1. Over the last few years.Tarun Nayar has been building his own
synthesizer. (c)
2.Tarun learned that everything has bioelectricity. (d)
3.Tarun, his fiance and friends are into mushrooms. (e)
4. He goes out in search of food or provisions, he is a forager. (b)
5. We are surrounded by electromagnetic waves. (a)

9. Students take turns to share their ideas from exercise 8 using the
vocabulary from the video.

10. Students watch the Wildlife DJ video again and write true (T), false (F) or
doesn't say (DS). You can ask students to correct the false ones.

Answers:

a. Ben Mirin does magic tricks with science and natural elements. F
b. He is equally proud of all the recordings in his library. F
c. The last place he visited was Galapagos Islands. DS
d. Ben is passionate about sound and nature. T
e. By making music he wants to connect people with the natural world. T

11. Students can use their notes from exercise 4 to do this exercise or watch
the videos again if necessary. Remind students they can tick more than one
speaker in the sentences.
Answers:

a. He studied Biology. Organismic music / Tarun Nayar

b. He travels the world. Wildlife DJ / Ben MIrin
c. He is passionate about what he does. Bee music / Bioni Samp - Organismic
music / Tarun Nayar - Wildlife DJ / Ben MIrin
d. He talks about vibration. Organismic music / Tarun Nayar
e. He uses three notes in his music. Bee music / Bioni Samp
f. He talks about conservation. Bee music / Bioni Samp - Wildlife DJ / Ben
MIrin
g. He makes his own equipment. Bee music / Bioni Samp - Organismic music /
Tarun Nayar

After watching

12. Students discuss the questions and express their opinion and reaction
about these types of music and artists. Answers may vary. There is no right or
wrong answer.

Focus on lexis

13. Students read the excerpts from the videos and discuss the questions
below. This is one possibility but you can choose other grammar points or
lexical items from the videos.

Answers:

a. The three expressions contain the preposition "into".

b. To be immersed into something: to be involved in an activity. / To be into
something: to be interested in something. / To tap into something: To manage
to use something in a way that brings good results.

14. Students use the phrases in meaningful and contextualized sentences.

They read them out loud and their classmates / teacher ask(s) a follow-up
question. Answers may vary. There is no right or wrong answer.
Follow-up tasks

15. Students listen to the three artists from the videos perform in different
contexts and share their opinion, feelings and reaction. They can use
adjectives from exercise 2.

16. Optional activity: students do some research on experimental music and

share their findings in class.

You can also ask them to do different tasks using some vocabulary from the
video.

Some suggestions:

A role-play would be another option: interview one of the artists.

Reading comprehension: You can adapt an article about the topic:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/13/artists-making-
music-from-mushrooms

Make your own experimental music live in class or recorded (audio or

video).

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