Lesson #9: Musical Game & Creating a Song

December 21st: Musical Memory Challenge

To begin this lesson, I reminded the students of the music map that we looked at last time for the Overture in "The Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart. I showed the music map again on the projector with the help of three volunteer students. Then each student received a ziploc bag that contained the same music map--just cut into pieces that were phrases or sections in the music. They were to piece the music map back together by remembering what shapes/symbols represented which musical phrases (without having the music map on the projector for reference). This was kind of like a musical puzzle! I was impressed that about 75% of the class completed this within five minutes, some with no difficulty at all! The students then got to listen to the song one more time, following along with the music map on their desk--switching around any phrases that were out of place. 

Creating a Class Rap:

For our second (and final) activity, we created a class rap. I told the students that our rap could be about anything they have learned this semester in school (both musical and non-musical things). Students made several suggestions, most of which were some of the musical activities we had done together. Then the students worked together to come up with sentences that fit within 8-measure phrases. Here is the rap that the class created! 

Hey, we are the Fox Hollow Sixth grade class,

I don’t wanna cut the grass, I wanna see stained glass.

We listened to the troll song, tho it wasn’t very long,

It was a really weird song, but it sounded like King Kong.

Joseph was in jail, eatin’ bread that’s stale,

But that just makes us wonder why Joseph didn’t bail.

There was a baby travelin' down a river,

Pharoah’s wife went walkin’ and saw him thither.

There was a Greek who was a freak and his hair was on fleek,

This is our rap, and it sounds pretty sweet!

The lyrics from the second, third, and fourth section are related to some of our musical lessons we have had--listening to "Peer Gynt and the Mountain King," and watching clips from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" as well as "The Prince of Egypt." The class also has been learning about stained glass in art class and Greek people in another. The class would have loved to have written more if there had been more time!

We performed the rap with a backtrack that I had found. We used the sistrums to keep the beat while we rapped.

Listen to the rap backtrack

Wrap-up:

And that was the end of our class! This was sadly my last time teaching in the ARTS Bridge program. I have loved this opportunity and I will miss teaching these wonderful sixth graders! I was surprised to receive a goodbye-card from the class. I wish them the best!

Music Standards Met:

6.M.CR.3

6.M.P.5

6.M.R.1

6.M.R.6

6.M.CR.4