Teaching East Asian Music in the Elementary Classroom

Lesson Plans from 2005 Workshop

“Incorporating Japanese Music into the Music Classroom”
(Fourth Grade, 50 minutes.)

Teacher: Mary Kepple

Goals:

To experience the music and arts of Japan with my fourth grade students.
To foster respect for other people, their language and their arts by recreating portions of their culture as accurately and beautifully as possible.
To accompany ourselves on our own musical instruments.
To improvise ostinati.
To be accurate independent singers in both unison and part singing situations.
To introduce to students the idea that Japanese students do not learn only folk and traditional music. They learn to read traditional notation and western notation.
To work cooperatively in small groups

Materials Needed for class:

Suzuki metalaphones and xylophones (bass, tenor, alto) nine instruments
Recorders and music folders
C.D. – Labana, “Fire Within”
Tanabata-sama – example of Shoka from East Asian Music Handouts (on the board as students enter the room)
Pictures of Japanese Flutes (Fue)
Bamboo
"One Leaf Rides the Wind" by Celeste Davidson Mannis, Illustrated by Kathleen Hartung
Technology to project from computer to screen
C. D. – Splendor of the Japanese Instruments, Volume 2 & 3
Koto notation handouts

Resources:

Haiku for People http://www.toyomasu/haiku/-28k
Children's Haiku Garden http://www.teenet.org.jplmhaiku/
Virtual O-Koto http://www.genkienglish.net/genkijapan/koto.htm
Cherry Blossoms in Himeji, Japan tellegalleria.com

National Standards Addressed:

A2 Sing and respond to music from world cultures
B1 Sing, alone and with others a varied repetoire 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.
B6 Read, write and perform extended pentatonic melodies…………on the treble staff in G- do, F-do, and C-do using a system (e.g. solfege, numbers or letters.
C1 Identify and demonstrate elements of music using developmentally appropriate vocabulary and music terms.
C2 Identify how elements of music communicate ideas or moods.
D1 Participate in developmentally appropriate music activities.
D2 Develop criteria for reflecting on their performances and the performances of others.
E1 Interpret music through dance, drama and visual art.
E2 Identify the use of similar elements in music and other art forms.
E4 Identify similarities and differences in music of the United States and various cultures

Greeting:

As students enter the room and move into their standing circle they place their recorders on the floor in front of them and echo extended pentatonic patterns sung by teacher using Kirwin hand signs. Teacher sings patterns without aid of syllables, students sign what teacher is singing, again in the extended pentatonic.

Greeting in Japanese in extended pentatonic (have written in Japanese characters)

Students echo greeting. Several patterns are explored.

Good morning – ohayougozaimasu

Good afternoon – konniciwa

(5 minutes)

Transition – singing of tune/ no text

Students identify song and prepare to sing in unison.

Hotaru Koi – (The children have been learning in previous two lessons)

Children listen to recording to check their pronunciation. Sing again with teacher making any corrections necessary. It is important for the children to be as accurate as possible. Discussion is important at this point in the learning process with suggestions being made by students.

Teacher places pairs of students at each barred instrument. Each instrument is arranged in all naturals. (Depending on class, may remove the C's and F's.)

The following ostinato is given to the students:

Half note, half note, quarter note, quarter note, half note – E's and A's played together. After several repetitions the bass and tenor instruments continue while the alto instruments and resonator bells are asked to improvise within the pentatonic.

Children play instruments and sing Hotaru Koi.

(10 minutes)

Transition – Teacher holds up her recorder and signals children to come to board.

Students move to in front of board and have a seat on the floor.

*Tanabata-sama –

Students to clap using rhythmic syllables.

Do is G. “Please show me with your hand sign what syllable begins the song.”

After some prompting and reminding the students sing the first phrase using hand signs and melodic syllables. They are then asked to sing the first phrase with absolutes. Once they are secure they are asked to take out their recorders and to finger the notes. After several practices the children play the first phrase. Students are asked to look through their music and see if there are any notes that they have not used so far today. Low la (E) and sol (D). Fingerings reviewed. Students are asked to please prepare the rest of the piece for the next class.

(10 minutes)

Children are divided into groups of three or four.

Students are given the following questions to discuss in their groups:

What material is used to make your recorder?
If you had played a wind instrument hundreds of years ago in Japan, would it have looked and sounded like your recorder?
What material do you think they might have used?

After two or three minutes two groups are combined and asked to share their answers.

Answers are shared and children pass around bamboo and pictures of various different fue as a music is played.

Azuma No Nyoku Track #2 – Splendor of Japanese Instruments Vol. 2

(5 minutes) (Students silently put recorders in cases as music continues)

*Introduction to Sakura and reading koto notation.

Transition (Children have previously learned to count to twenty in Japanese and to recognize the characters through at least thirteen)

Children count as teacher prepares for computer and projector for presentation of:

Virtual O-koto

Children experience the sound of the koto and the score from which the musician reads.
Teacher shares with the children that koto notation did not happen until the 20th Century.
Give children their own koto notation of Sakura.
(10 minutes)
Teacher sings Sakura to children. (Pictures of cherry blossoms)

Transition – Appearance of book signals to children to come to reading corner.

One Leave Rides the Wind

Music of the koto plays quietly in the background as the book is read
Splendor of the Japanese Instruments – Volume 3 Track # 8

Children's Haiku Garden – show examples of Haiku created by children from other countries and their art work .

(10 minutes)

Extensions in the music, art and 4th grade classrooms

Create our own Haiku Garden

Books from East Elementary Library:

Tree of Cranes by Allen Say
Tasty Baby Belly Buttons by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Meila So
Turtle Bay by Saviour Pirotta and illustrated by Nilesh Mistry
The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks by Katherine Patterson and illustrated by L. & D. Dillon
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

Mt. Vernon Public Library:

All My Shining Silver by Barbara Bumgartner and illustrated by Amanda Hall
The Samurai's Daughter by Robert San Souci and illustrated by Sephen Johnson
Mysterious Tales of Japan by Rafe Martin and illustrated by Tatsuro Kiuchi
The Silver Charm by Robert San Souci and illustrated by Yorika Ito

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