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This lesson was taught on October 24,2018, and it was all about time! We discussed the time on the clock and how to tell time, and how beat keeps time in music as we tapped the beat, learned about strong weak beats, and finally conducted. I was a bit nervous that this lesson would make sense and all connect. The students have not yet learned the concepts of time, so I was the first to instruct in a classroom setting. This was a daunting task for me, but the kids caught on quickly and possessed a lot of background knowledge concerning time which was so helpful! There were so many moments during this lesson where I felt myself smiling so big as I watched these students learn, and several more when I felt that the class connected to the content material I was teaching in a fun and creative way. This lesson was so fun and engaging and I loved every moment of it so much I cannot choose a favorite part!
I loved watching the students rock around the clock in our Hello Dance, they moved at all different levels, moved different body parts, and engaged with different energy levels. They listened and implemented hard challenges that I posed for them so well! Later, as we hip hopped around the clock, the students practiced finding where the hour hand would be for a given time. I felt like this activity solidified my explanation so well as they moved and found the correct time. As we moved from tapping the beats, to discussing and tapping strong and weak beats, to conducting, Hickory Dickory Dock, one students exclaimed, "Oh! That's how they conduct? They follow strong and weak beat patterns?!" YESS!! I was so excited about the connections that were being made and how they related to both music and time! The students continued to build friendships and creativity through the game and final create/ perform section of the lesson. They came up with their own times in the game and created their own drums in to keep a beat, and strong weak beats with. The objects they chose were each unique and I loved seeing what they chose and how they made every day objects work for musical purposes.
This lesson solidified for me how meaningful lessons can be when they include multiple modalities of learning and creative processes! In this lesson the students listened, they used their hands to beat, they watched me model, they danced, they ran, they thought and counted beats as we tapped and conducted. We learned about time in such a variety of ways, and although they got the concepts at different times and speeds each student made a meaningful connection with some part of the lesson. During the connection discussion, the students were so excited to tell me all about time and why we need time, and how important it is to tell time as well as how it connects to music, and they each had different favorite parts in the lesson. I hope that Ms. Smith is able to draw upon the concepts discussed in this lesson as she teaches time in weeks to come, and in her everyday class. I further hope that this lesson is helpful to her as the students will have a deeper background knowledge and experience with time in life and in music.
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