Elephants in Tutus

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

English Language Arts
Arts Education

Grade(s)

2, 3

Overview

Students will listen to the story Ballet of the Elephants by Leda Shubert and the music Circus Polka: For a Young Elephant by Igor Stravinsky. They will analyze rhythm patterns, create choreography for animal movements, and choose an instrument to accompany them. They will write a paragraph to describe the animal and its movements. They will perform their animal ballet for the class.  

English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 2

ELA21.2.40

Write a personal or fictional narrative using a logical sequence of events, including details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings and providing a sense of closure.

UP:ELA21.2.40

Vocabulary

  • Personal narrative
  • Fictional narrative
  • Logical
  • Sequence of events
  • Details
  • Actions
  • Thoughts
  • Feelings
  • Closure

Knowledge

Students know:
  • A narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story.
  • A narrative story describes a sequence of events in a logical order (beginning, middle, end).
  • A narrative story describes the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the characters.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Write a personal narrative that recalls a personal experience or write a fictional narrative with a made-up story.
  • Write a narrative with a logical sequence of events and provide details that describe how the character feels, acts, and thinks.
  • Write a narrative that ends with a sense of closure.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Narrative writing includes predictable elements, like a logical sequence of events and an ending that provides the reader with a sense of closure.
  • Narrative writing can be used to tell about something that happened to them personally or it can tell a story they made up.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

ELA21.3.33

Write personal or fictional narratives with a logical plot (sequence of events), characters, transitions, and a sense of closure.

UP:ELA21.3.33

Vocabulary

  • Personal narrative
  • Fictional narrative
  • Logical plot
  • Sequence of events
  • Characters
  • Transitions
  • Closure

Knowledge

Students know:
  • A narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story.
  • A personal narrative tells about an event that was personally experienced by the author, while a fictional narrative tells a made up story.
  • A narrative story describes a sequence of events in a logical order (beginning, middle, end) and provides a sense of closure as an ending.
  • A narrative story describes the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the characters.
  • Narrative transitions indicate when and where the story is occurring.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Write a personal narrative that recalls a personal experience or a fictional narrative with a made-up story.
  • Write a narrative with a logical sequence of events and details that describe how the characters feels, acts, and thinks.
  • Use appropriate transitions in narrative writing.
  • Write a narrative that ends with a sense of closure.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Narrative writing includes predictable elements, like a logical sequence of events and an ending that provides the reader with a sense of closure.
  • Because narrative writing describes a chronological sequence of events, it includes transitions that indicate the time and place in which the story is occurring.
  • Narrative writing can be used to tell about something that happened to them personally or it can tell a story they made up.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 2 - Music

AE17.MU.2.2

Generate musical patterns and ideas within the context of a given tonality and meter.

UP:AE17.MU.2.2

Vocabulary

Rhythm
  • Eighth note, eighth rest, half note, half rest, whole note, whole rest
  • Strong/ weak beat — 2/4; 3/4 meter
  • Accelerando/ ritardando
Melody
  • Pitch Set: Do , Re, Mi, So, La
  • Five-line staff
  • Treble clef
  • Names of lines/ spaces (treble staff)
Harmony
  • Melodic ostinati
  • Partner songs
Form
  • AAB, AABA, Rondo
  • Verse/ Refrain
Expression
  • Orchestral instrument families
  • Piano (p), forte (f)
  • Crescendo/ decrescendo
  • Orchestral Music: programmatic
  • Indigenous music: Native American
  • American music: slave songs, colonial folk songs
Other
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (B3-D5)1
  • Mallet/ drumming technique: alternating hands

Essential Questions

EU: The creative ideas, concepts, and feelings that influence musicians' work emerge from a variety of sources.
EQ: How do musicians generate creative ideas?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Perform original melodic patterns in do pentatonic as an introduction to a known song.
  • Perform original rhythmic patterns on body percussion or unpitched percussion, containing eighth note, eighth rest, half note, half rest, whole note, whole rest, as an introduction to a known chant.
Creating
  • Create a melody on pitched instruments using speech rhythms from a selected poem.
  • Improvise with a partner in question/answer style, using pitched or unpitched percussion instruments.
Reading/ Writing
  • Notate speech rhythms from a selected poem, using iconic or standard notation.
  • Using music composition software, create an original composition based on a personally selected topic.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Refine compositions based on self-evaluation of a recorded performance.
  • Indicate dynamic markings for original compositions.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 3 - Music

AE17.MU.3.2

Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms and melodies) within a given tonality and/or meter.

UP:AE17.MU.3.2

Vocabulary

Rhythm
  • Bar lines
  • Measures
Melody
  • Pitch set: Low So, Low La, High Do
  • Treble clef reading (Mi, Re, Do)
  • Middle C to high G
  • Ledger lines
Harmony
  • Partner songs
  • Rounds
  • Ostinati
Form
  • Theme and variations
  • Coda
  • D.S. al coda
  • Repeat sign
  • Fermata
Expression
  • Phrase/ phrasing
  • Pianissimo (pp), fortissimo (ff)
Other
  • Age-appropriate audience and performer etiquette
  • Orchestral instruments: 4 families
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (Bb3 - Eb5)

Essential Questions

EU: The creative ideas, concepts, and feelings that influence musicians' work emerge from a variety of sources.
EQ: How do musicians generate creative ideas?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Play a variety of classroom instruments with proper technique.
  • Use the head voice to produce a light, clear sound employing breath support and maintaining appropriate posture.
Creating
  • Use pitch and rhythm to improvise vocal, instrumental, and/or movement ideas within a context (such as question and answer phrases or simple accompaniment/ostinato).
Reading/ Writing
  • Use iconic or standard notation and/or recording technology to sequence and document personal musical ideas.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Demonstrate a final version of personal musical ideas using created vocal, instrumental, or movement pieces through performance.
  • Develop criteria to critique and refine selected musical examples.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

San Francisco Symphony

License Type

Custom
http://www.keepingscore.org/sites/default/files/lessonplans/KSEd_Elephants_in_T…

Custom License Type (URL)

http://www.keepingscore.org/sites/default/files/Terms%20of%20Use%20for%20Lesson…

Comments or Notes

This chart is referenced in the lesson plan.  It explains how teachers have integrated music into the classroom.

Connection to Pathways to Integration chart

Approved Date

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