J.A.M.

Unit Lesson Plan: K-3rd Grade

Unit Plan Reflection

Teaching at Wingate Elementary brought me such joy daily and I was able tom process and apply a variety of teaching pathways from Mrs. DeRemer. Her joy for the work we do as music teachers is inspirational. This Unit plan demonstrates to me in reflection how I utilized teaching and organization methods that I learned from Mrs. DeRemer. Especially effective communication to the students and pacing from activity to activity. Through my curriculum development of Ollie’s Music World I designed this Unit Plan to exist in that world. The unit plan was laid out for each grade to progress in the narrative of characters that were introduced to them and build on the musical skills they had all been working on. In the case of this Unit, students read a story “Stalactite and Stalagmite” that I positioned as a story about the cave that characters Echo and Riff the bat twins live in. Through the cross-curricular nature of the book about geological, biological, and historical science of the earth, students learned, spoke, and sang complex words in a variety of rhythms. My own creation of the song “Drip, Drip, Drip” as a Sol-Mi-Do based melody tied everything together musically. The general unit plan was more than a success with students connecting challenging vocabulary to their music making and transferring spoken and sung rhythms to body percussion. Students in third grade took things even further and sung “Drip, Drip, Drip” and their favorite Ollie song “Wants to Eat His Fruit” in two parts simultaneously. These song were not designed to be sung together, but in the moment of magical music making, that was a special discovery. Teaching at Wingate was amazing and certainly solidified my love for Elementary students. Teaching this unit plan was a wonderful way to tie together all the creativity that I brought to the room with the brilliant imaginations and joy of the students.

This slide deck, for example, was used for grades k-3 over the course of three lessons/days. Some parts of the lessons are the same for each grade, while there was grade specific materials and activities. Over this unit focused on “Carnival of the Animals” by Camille Saint-Saëns and “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev students learned to identify instruments, practiced steady beat, performed John Feierabend choreography and other movements, and made connections from classical music to characterization and story telling.

3rd Grade Lesson: Taught at Corl Street Elementary SCASD

3rd Grade Lesson: Taught at Corl Street Elementary SCASD

PMEA Template Lesson Plan