Week One Lesson Plan

Today was the first day of music class at my Homeschool. This is my third year teaching this wonderful group (and my 9th school year overall teaching in Hawaii! Where did the time go??) There were a few new faces today and I gave them a brief outline of what I have in store for this year.

Lesson Plan this week:

Learn about the Carnival of the Animals.

- French composer Camille Saint Saens (pronounced Cami' Say-Saw)

-Child prodigy like Mozart. At 2 he could pick out tunes on the piano; at 3 he composed his own piece; at 7 he was giving public concerts; at 10 he could play any of Beethoven's 32 sonatas from memory. He lived during the Romantic Period (1820-1910) He was afraid Carnival of the Animals would be too light hearted and harm his reputation as a serious composer, so he didn't allow the music to be performed while he was alive. But he did give permission for the suite to be published only after his death. He never got to see how famous it became!

*I wrote a list of animals and a list of instruments on the board. The students had to listen to each recording and guess the animal and instrument. We counted how many times the Cuckoo (played by the clarinet) chimed (23!) and told them often times there will be a clarinetist up in the balcony, one in the front, and one in the back so when the audience listens, the cuckoo sounds like he is flying around the forrest.

*Drama: Today we played Dr. Know-It-Alls. The students sit in a circle and are collectively known as "Dr. Know it Alls" I had them think of several different questions and I wrote them on the board. Each student may answer the question with only one word. One of today's answers went like this:

Question: "Dr. Know it All, what are you going to be when you grow up?"

Answer: When...I....grow...up...I....will....be....an.....astronaut....who....also....likes....to.....dance....

with....camels.

*Instruments: In honor of Labor Day (the only holiday in September) we played hand bells and sang the song "I've been working on the railroad". I wrote out the chords to the song and they chimed the chords on the proper words. Two students played percussion.