Week 4- The Giving Tree

Planning this lesson was such a blast!  I used a lot of resources to really help this come together.  I first got the idea to make a soundtrack for the book "The Giving Tree" off the the NAFME (National Association for Music Education) website.  I then combined it with a rhythm lesson suggested to me by my mentor to serve as the base for our soundtrack.  The rhythm also served another purpose...to teach the students various rhythms we chanted vocabulary words they had learned from their "Environments of Utah" unit.  Thus, this was a great review to wrap up the unit.

I started off the lesson reading "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein without music, then again with music playing in the background.

After responding to a prompt about the experience in their writing journals, we began creating our own soundtrack.

Integrated lesson plan

Subject
Content coveredReview of terms associated with Utah’s environments
Standard: Students will understand the physical characteristics of Utah's wetlands, forests, and deserts and identify common organisms for each environment.
Learning Outcomes: Students will recognize and understand the relationship between terms covered in this unit.
Art
Content coveredRhythmic composition
Standard: Improvise simple rhythm patterns to echo back and forth, and manipulate in a variety of way to organize into different forms.
Improvise a soundtrack for a story.
Learning Outcomes:  Students will be able to create their own rhythmic pattern to use in their own improvised sound track for “The Giving Tree.”
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Lesson Plan
Objective: Students will be able to create their own rhythmic pattern using vocabulary from the environments unit, to use in their own improvised sound track for “The Giving Tree.”
Assessment: Performance for the class.

Sequence:
    •    Read “The giving Tree”
    •    Read “The giving Tree” with Vivaldi’s 4 seasons. 
Writing prompt: How does the story feel different with music?
    •    Venn diagram.  Without. Combine. With. 
    •    List 10 words that have to do with the environments/animals. 
    •    Pick three.  Repeat the words to make a pattern.
    •    Body percussion while speak.
    •    Body percussion while thinking the words.
    •    Now play instruments while thinking the words.
    •    Divide in groups. (give worksheet to each child)
    •    Pick parts. Boy, tree, narrator, background noise, body percussion, instrument.
    •    Pick instrument.
    •    Practice play.
    •    Perform for class.  I will film you!
Materials
    •    Instruments
    •    The Giving Tree
    •    The Giving Tree pieces
    •    C.d. of vivaldi’s 4 seasons

* Note: If any of you are planning to use this lesson plan, I would suggest creating the soundtrack as an entire class instead of breaking up into groups as mentioned above.  I believe it will be a more efficient use of time.