Elementary School Lesson Plan

Sound Scavenger

Grade Level: 2-6

National Music Education Standards:
Music: K-4—3d, 4(a),b,c, 6c, 9c; 5-8—4c, 6a

Arizona Music Standards:
1AM-F5 PO1, 1AM-F9, 1AM-F10, 1AM-E10, 3AM-F1, 3AM-E3

Objective: Students will identify sounds in their environment.  Students will recognize dynamic levels and will create and perform sounds to convey an idea.

Materials: Chart paper, pens

Procedure:
*Send students on a sound scavenger hunt—have them find a place to sit and write down all the sounds they hear in 5 minutes.

*Regroup and teach Italian vocabulary for dynamics, from softest to loudest—pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte, fortissimo.  Write these words on the blackboard or on chart paper.

*Discuss what interesting sounds were found on the scavenger hunt, and write each sound next to the appropriate dynamic.  Perhaps a humming florescent light was piano, while a door closing was mezzo forte.

*Students each choose one sound from the master list and find a way to represent that sound using instruments or using body or mouth sounds.  A very quiet xylophone roll using the bottom ends of mallets, for example, could represent the fluorescent light.  Be creative!

*Students take turns playing their sound for the class and guessing which sound from the list is being represented.  The dynamic level will be an important clue.

Extensions:
*Compose suitable sounds to accompany the reading of a favorite storybook.  Have students invent and perform a movement to go with each sound.

*Discuss crescendo and decrescendo and find examples in music and life.

*Investigate how sound effects are created for radio and movies.

*Talk about John Cage’s 4’33”  What gets to be called music?  Why?  Who gets to decide?

Assessment:
*Have students demonstrate examples of music at various dynamic levels.  They might perform this music themselves, or find recordings. 

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