Music Elements

After the last lesson about music in Mesopotamia, I wanted to focus on the musical qualities with my sixth grade class. I decided to teach the qualities to them and then have them listen to be able to identify the qualities in music.

 I started off by showing the class a powerpoint presentation that I created to teach them the melody, timbre, dynamics, and harmony of a song. 

We listened to a song together and we filled out this graphic organizer together:

(https://docs.google.com/document/d/18PT_Prp4cKV0hRxWbFjZSSzlEd9Y1tlEXKTN-y7DgEI/edit?usp=sharing)

After we had listened to the song Shenendoah and filled out part of the graphic organizer, I could tell that the students connected with these songs and were enjoying themselves. I was excited that I was able to plan somthing that they found interesting for them. 

 I had the students get into groups and then listen to the song Akra (a Russian folk song) and fill out the graphic organizer as a group. 

I think that this lesson has been my favorite so far because the students really thought that it was interesting and they enjoyed having time to listen to the music and identify the elements in the songs. I think that I did better on modeling for them and working with them on the first song. I found that to be really helpful for them and they were able to do the rest of the lesson a lot easier. I heard them commenting on their favorite songs and it made my heart happy that they loved them as much as I did. 

Here is a picture of the students working as I walked around the room to help and monitor.