Teaching East Asian Music in the Elementary Classroom

Lesson Plans from 2005 Workshop

“Singing and Playing the Music of China”
( Third Grade, 50 minutes.)

Teacher: Mary Kepple

Goals:

To become accurate and independent singers
To foster respect for other people, their language and their arts by recreating portions of their culture as accurately and beautifully as possible
To improvise ostinati
To notate and play two part rhythmic score
To accompany new piece with half note
To notate rhythms heard
To experience music, art and literature of China and how they compliment each other when experienced together.

Rhythmic Elements

Quarter note, eighth notes, half note, quarter rest, sixteenth notes, eighth note two sixteenth, two sixteenth eighth note

Melodic Elements – extended pentatonic

Materials Needed for Class:

Globe/map, drums, mallets
Bass, tenor, alto and soprano Metalaphones & Xylophones (E F# A B C#)
Students need to have recorders
Roots & Branches, World Music Press
The Greatest Treasure , retold and illustrated by Demi
Proverbs written in Chinese & English
White Tiger, Blue Serpent – retold by Grace Tseng, illustrated by Jean & Mou-sien Tseng
C.D. – Chinese examples from Asian Music Class
C.D. – Like Waves Against the Sand
(Have on board two line score, 4 measures long)

National Standards Addressed:

A2 Sing, listen and move to music from world cultures.
A5 Recognize and describe ways that music serves as an expression in various cultures.
B1 Sing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of songs with accurate rhythm and pitch and appropriate expressive qualities.
B3 Play, alone and with others, a variety of classroom instruments with proper technique.
B4 Improvise and compose simple rhythmic and melodic phrases and ostinati.
B6 Read, write and perform extended pentatonic melodies………
D1 Participate in developmentally appropriate music activities.
E1 Interpret music through dance, drama and visual art.

Greeting:

Echo clapping as children enter room, forming a circle in the center of the room. Patterns are taken from score on page 30 of The Lion's Roar. “Let's write what we hear”

Clap measure one of drum line, students echo, children help write rhythm in stick notation in first measure of the score
Teacher claps measure two (same), students echo, students help write
Teacher invites students to clap the first two measures
Teacher claps measure three, students echo, students asked to help write
Invite students to clap first three measures
Teacher claps measure four, students echo, students asked to help complete the drum line of the score.
Invite students to clap the entire drum line. Transfer patter to lap, alternating hands.
Students help write cymbal part using the same procedure. Once secure, half of the class claps cymbals part while other half patches drum part on laps. (10 - 12 minutes)

Transition:

White Jasmine Flowers (from Handouts Notebook) will begin in E instead of G. A pentatonic instead of C pentatonic.

Teacher moves to one of the metalaphones and plays A and E in half notes, indicates for children to mimic motion. Teacher continues to play and invites eight students to play pattern as song is introduced by teacher. Students trade places and continue to receive several more free listenings before beginning to recreate song. Students have heard the complete song three times before breaking the song in phrases for teaching purposes. Song is taught aurally (rote). (8 – 10 minutes)

Transition:

Teacher holds up The Greatest Treasure
Students invited to come to reading corner with their recorders. A few students remain at metalaphones. Students shown which notes they may use for the sound of money. Attention drawn to the illustrations.
Counting money – metalaphones, improvise in D pentatonic
Flute – ti ti, ti ti, ti ti, ta
AB AB AB A
(8 minutes)

Transition

Teacher begins singing tune of Hao Peng You (pg. 31 Roots & Branches)

Having learned the previous two class sessions the students know to return to circle for game to begin. “It” skips counter-clockwise around the circle until end of song stands in front of a child in the circle. Child joins it as a train. Continues adding children to “it” train until all are in “it” circle.

(8 minutes)

Music begins #8 from China CD. examples from Asian Music Class. Discuss the instruments played. Pictures of the instruments (erhu and yangqin are shown to the children. They will be hearing the same instruments playing as the following book is read to them. (4 minutes)

Transition:

When seeing book, children return to the reading corner.

White Tiger, Blue Serpent - While teacher reads the book “The Flowing Stream” track #3 from Like Waves Against the Sand

Compare and contrast the art work to that in The Greatest Treasure . Art work inspired by the masterworks of the Ming dynasty. (8 – 9 minutes)

Extensions for library, music, art and classroom:

Additional Literature Books (East Elementary School Library):

Yeh-Shen ( A Cinderella Story from China) by Ai-Ling Louie, illustrated by Ed Young
The Empty Pot by Demi
Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hang
The Emperor and the Kite by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Ed Young
The Man Who Tricked a Ghost by Laurence Yep, illustrated by Isadore Seltzer
The Weaving of a Dream by Marilee Heyer
The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by T. & M. Tseng
The Boy Who Swallowed Snakes by Laurence Yep, illustrated by T. & M. Tseng

Mt. Vernon Public Public Library:

Celebrations by Anabel Kindersley, illustrated by B. Kindersley
The Dragon New Year by David Bouchard, illustrated by Zhong-yang Huang

Web sites:

Chinapictures.org
Travelchinaguide.com/picture/china_great_wall
http://beifan.com/021jinao/21jinoa-page01.html “Rice Harvest”, many links

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