"The Moon Moves Me"

by Andrea Kaminski

Title:  "The Moon Moves Me"

Grade Level:    3rd Grade               Area of focus:  Music

Musical Standards Addressed: State Standards Missing 

Instrumental:  
A. The student will perform an instrumental accompaniment in the pentatonic scale.

Reading and Notating:
A. The student will read music notation utilizing a system to represent pitches.

Analysis and Evaluation:
B. The student will listen to and recognize music from other cultures.

Lesson or Unit Objectives:

By the end of this lesson, the students will have done a lot of their own personal reflections.  They students will also incorporate their reflections of music from another culture into a song they read and perform from that culture.  It will include their two new pitches: So and La.

Groupings:

Multiple Intelligences Used:
1.      Verbal Linguistic
2.      Musical
3.      Body/Kinesthetic
4.      Intrapersonal

Materials will include:

1.    Grade 3 editions of Share the Music, and the recording to "Silver Moon".

2.     Instruments

Procedures or activities:

1. Students will quietly find their own space in the room and listen to the music of "Silver Moon".

2. Students will move their bodies in a way they think represents how the music is moving or changing.

3. Students will think of their emotions and thoughts as they listen, possibly creating a story in their heads.

4. Students will be asked to share their story if they would like.

5. Students will be given time to write down main thoughts they had while experiencing "Silver Moon".

6. Students will briefly hear of the Japanese composer of the song.

7. Students will then learn the melody to a different Japanese song: "Deta Deta" (also about the moon).

8. Students discuss as a class where the higher notes of the song are, and label them as SO and LA.

9. Students will then sing through the song with solfege hand sign to indicate change in melodic shape of the song.

10. Students will then learn the Orff accompaniments to the song, and perform the song (in F pentatonic) on the instruments.  Parts will be taught to the class one at a time, giving everyone the chance to learn every part.

Evaluations:

Students can be evaluated on their participation of the movement experience and their written evaluations of their thoughts during it.