Elementary School Class Session Template

Lesson Plan for the Elementary Class Session - January 31 - February 2

Objectives:

By the end of this Prepare lesson, students will be exposed and experience music that can be
identified as harmonic or nonharmonic.

By the end of this Prepare lesson, students will identify excerpts of music as harmonic or
nonharmonic without using the musical vocabulary.

Standards Being Addressed:

Pr.2.5.a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of music (such as
rhythm, pitch, form, and harmony) in music selected for performance.

Materials of Instruction:

- Projector/Promethean Board
- Youtube
- Personal iPad
- Ukuleles
- Open space

Lesson Sequence (lessons may have more or less activities as appropriate):

Entry Activity/Transition: Ho Hey

- Students will refine their strumming skills using chords C and Am.
- Ta ta titi titi

Activity #1: Prepare lesson - Students are solely exposed to the two categories of
music: harmonic and nonharmonic.

1. Play Can Can (Harmony)

2. How did that song make you feel?
3. Play Shoenberg’s Suite for Piano (Nonharmonic)
4. How did that make you feel? How was it different from the other one?
5. Play Messiah (Harmonic)
6. How did that make you feel?
7. Play Webern’s Five Movements(Nonharmonic)
8. How did that make you feel?
 9. Play Pentatonix’s Bohemian Rhapsody (Harmonic)
10. How did that make you feel? Why?
11. Play The Rite of Spring (Nonharmonic)
12. Show if that music went together or not!
13. The Great Gate of Kiev (Harmony)
14. How did that make you feel?

Transition: Let’s get our Ukuleles!

Activity #3: Free choice chords on the Ukulele

1. Who has a school appropriate song they’d like us to learn on the ukulele?
2. Start song and encourage kids to choose the chords they play.
3. Did that song we played sound good? No!
Elementary School Class Session Template

Lesson Plan for the Elementary Class Session - February 5-7

Objectives:

By the end of this present lesson, students will categorize excerpts of a vocal or instrumental
pieces as containing or not containing harmony.

By the end of this present lesson, students will identify and define the word “harmony.”

Standards Being Addressed:

Pr.2.5.a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of music (such as
rhythm, pitch, form, and harmony) in music selected for performance.

Materials of Instruction:

- Projector/Promethean Board
- Youtube
- Personal iPad
- Ukuleles
- Open space

Lesson Sequence (lessons may have more or less activities as appropriate):

Entry Activity/Transition: Ho Hey

- Students will refine their strumming skills using chords C and Am.
- Ta ta titi titi

Activity #1: Prepare lesson recap

1. What did we do last time in music? Listen to a bunch of songs.

2. What two types of songs did we listen to? Songs that had good sounding
notes and bad sounding notes.
3. Sometimes notes get along and sound like they fit together, and
sometimes they don’t.

Transition: Today, we are going to listen to the same songs we did last time and
put them into categories.
Activity #2: This or That

1. I’m going to play a song and I would like you to move to the side of the
room that you think the song belongs to. We’ll call the door side
“Harmonic” and the piano side nonharmonic.
2. For each excerpt, remind students if they can hear the notes getting along
or not.
3. Between each excerpt ask a different student why they chose the side
they did. Note the students who were undecided or chose the opposite
side.
4. After each excerpt, have a student categorize the name of the excerpt on
the board of harmonic or not.

Assessment: *Informal* Teacher notates who is consistently undecided or

choosing the opposite side. If more than 20% of the class is in this category, teacher will
spend more time on Activity #4.

Transition: Let’s get our Ukuleles!

Activity #3: Free choice chords on the Ukulele

1. Who has a school appropriate song they’d like us to learn on the ukulele.
2. Start song and encourage kids to choose the chords they play.
3. Did those chords play along? Which side of the room would we put how
our class sounded? Nonharmonic.

Transition: We’re going to go back to our seats.

Activity #4: Guided Discussion

1. What is the name of the side we gave to songs that had notes that played
along? Harmony
2. How did you know if the notes played along? What did it sound like? Nice,
easy to listen to, happy, etc.
3. What do we call those notes that play along? Harmony
4. Did the songs on the piano side of the room have notes that made a
harmony? Not really.
5. So, if we hear instruments or voices singing multiple notes, will it always
be pretty? No.
6. What would we call it if they sang or played different notes and they
sounded like they fit together? Harmony
7. Is it okay if they play notes that don’t always play along? Yes
8. Is it still music? Yes.
9. In music, there isn’t a right and wrong answer for everything. When we
talk about harmony, which is what? Notes that play along. Sometimes it’ll
 sound different to everyone. Some people may think this song is for a
celebration, and some may think it is sad. It is about interpretation. BUT,
there are harmonies in songs that have more than one note playing at the
same time.

Activity #5: Let’s Sing!

1. Let’s sing a round!

a. Row Row Row Your Boat
b. Are you Sleeping

Closure/Summative Assessment: Exit ticket - students exit from piano identifying my

chords as harmonic or not.
Elementary School Class Session Template

Lesson Plan for the Elementary Class Session - February 8-12

Objectives:

By the end of this Practice lesson, students will compose a short piece of music that they
identify as containing harmony.

By the end of this Practice lesson, students will compose a short piece of music that they
identify as not containing harmony.

By the end of this Practice lesson, students will compose music as a small group using
classroom instruments.

Standards Being Addressed:

Pr.2.5.a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of music (such as
rhythm, pitch, form, and harmony) in music selected for performance.

Materials of Instruction:

- Projector/Promethean Board
- Piano
- GLockenspiel
- Ukuleles
- Boomwhackers
- Xylophones

Lesson Sequence (lessons may have more or less activities as appropriate):

Entry Activity/Transition: Ho Hey

- Students will refine their strumming skills using chords C and Am.
- Ta ta titi titi

Activity #1: Present lesson recap

1. What did we do last time in music? Listen to a bunch of songs and move
to the place in the room where they belong.
2. What two types of songs did we listen to? Songs that had harmony and
songs that had no harmony
3. Sometimes notes get along and sound like they fit together, and
sometimes they don’t. What do I mean by that? They way the notes go up
and down or sound at the same time, not speed or volume.
 Transition: Today, we are going to compose music with harmony.

Activity #2: Composition Project

1. Everyone will be split into a group of three and given the choice of any
Pitched classroom instrument. Everyone in the group must play the same
family of instrument, but can be on different pitches.
2. Each group will compose a short song with harmony and a short song
without harmony.
3. Teacher will set a 20 minute timer for each group to have time to compose
and practice. Students do not need to notate or write down their
compositions.
4. After time is up, each group will perform their two short songs to the class.
5. What are some ways we can be good audience members? Not talking,
watching the performers, clapping at the end, using kind words to
encourage them, etc.
6. Everyone will work as a group together to create music, so be kind when
talking with your group members.

Closure/Summative Assessment: Performance of their two compositions. Audience will

identify which short song was the song containing harmony, and which was not.