Wild Things - Play Along

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

5

Overview

This activity is designed to be used after Wild Things - Movement Poem. It requires your students to understand and learn the lyrics but also to be able to play several accompaniments using un-pitched percussion instruments.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

Phase

During/Explore/Explain
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Music

AE17.MU.5.13

Rehearse to refine technical accuracy and expressive qualities in order to address challenges and show improvement over time.

UP:AE17.MU.5.13

Vocabulary

Rhythm
Melody
  • Pitch set: Do-centered diatonic
  • Treble clef reading (choral octavos)
  • Grand staff
  • Bass clef
  • Accidentals
  • Major scale
Harmony
  • Part singing/ playing
  • Chord progression (I, IV, V)
  • Arpeggio
  • Descant
  • Level bordun
Form
  • Rondo form
  • 12-Bar blues
Expression
  • Vibrato
  • Tremolo
  • Reggae
  • Blues
  • Timbre: soprano, alto, tenor, bass
Other
  • Age-appropriate audience and performer etiquette
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (Ab3-F5)

Essential Questions

EU: To express their musical ideas, musicians analyze, evaluate, and refine their performance over time through openness to new ideas, persistence, and the application of appropriate criteria.
EQ: How do musicians improve the quality of their performance?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Sing a varied repertoire with accurate rhythm and pitch, appropriate expressive qualities, proper posture and breath control.
  • Sing intervals on pitch within a major diatonic scale.
  • Perform melodies on recorder while reading standard and/or iconic music notation.
  • Perform, on instruments, a varied repertoire with accurate rhythm and pitch, appropriate expressive qualities, proper posture and breath control.
  • Sing partner songs to create harmony.
  • Sight-read and prepare a performance.
Creating
  • Demonstrate appropriate use of legato and staccato in a song.
  • Create a personal playlist and explain why each piece was selected.
  • Improvise, compose and arrange music.
  • Use technology and the media arts to create and perform music.
Reading/ Writing
  • Read, write, and perform rhythms in 2/4, 3/4.
  • 4/4. and 6/8 meter signatures using whole notes through sixteenth notes, including dotted notes.
  • Read, write and perform diatonic melodies and the major scale on the treble clef staff.
  • Identify tempo markings such as allegro, presto, largo, and andante.
  • Identify ledger-line notes A, B, and C above the treble clef staff.
  • Identify whole and half steps of the major diatonic scale in printed music.
  • Recognize the difference between major and minor tonalities.
  • Write program notes to accompany performances.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Discuss melodic and harmonic elements used in a piece of music.
  • Explain how a performer performs a piece of music differently when he/she knows the social, cultural, or historical background of the piece, (e.g., How does knowing the history of the American Civil Rights Movement affect the performance of "We Shall Overcome?"
  • Demonstrate appropriate audience etiquette at live performances.
  • Write performance reviews of performances.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Music

AE17.MU.5.14

Perform music, alone or with others, with expression, technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation.

UP:AE17.MU.5.14

Vocabulary

Rhythm
Melody
  • Pitch set: Do-centered diatonic
  • Treble clef reading (choral octavos)
  • Grand staff
  • Bass clef
  • Accidentals
  • Major scale
Harmony
  • Part singing/ playing
  • Chord progression (I, IV, V)
  • Arpeggio
  • Descant
  • Level bordun
Form
  • Rondo form
  • 12-Bar blues
Expression
  • Vibrato
  • Tremolo
  • Reggae
  • Blues
  • Timbre: soprano, alto, tenor, bass
Other
  • Age-appropriate audience and performer etiquette
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (Ab3-F5)

Essential Questions

EU: Musicians judge performance based on criteria that vary across time, place, and cultures. The context and how a work is presented influence the audience response.
EQ: When is a performance judged ready to present? How do context and the manner in which musical work is presented influence audience response?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Sing a varied repertoire with accurate rhythm and pitch, appropriate expressive qualities, proper posture and breath control.
  • Sing intervals on pitch within a major diatonic scale.
  • Perform melodies on recorder while reading standard and/or iconic music notation.
  • Perform, on instruments, a varied repertoire with accurate rhythm and pitch, appropriate expressive qualities, proper posture and breath control.
  • Sing partner songs to create harmony.
  • Sight-read and prepare a performance.
Creating
  • Demonstrate appropriate use of legato and staccato in a song.
  • Create a personal playlist and explain why each piece was selected.
  • Improvise, compose and arrange music.
  • Use technology and the media arts to create and perform music.
Reading/ Writing
  • Read, write, and perform rhythms in 2/4, 3/4.
  • 4/4. and 6/8 meter signatures using whole notes through sixteenth notes, including dotted notes.
  • Read, write and perform diatonic melodies and the major scale on the treble clef staff.
  • Identify tempo markings such as allegro, presto, largo, and andante.
  • Identify ledger-line notes A, B, and C above the treble clef staff.
  • Identify whole and half steps of the major diatonic scale in printed music.
  • Recognize the difference between major and minor tonalities.
  • Write program notes to accompany performances.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Discuss melodic and harmonic elements used in a piece of music.
  • Explain how a performer performs a piece of music differently when he/she knows the social, cultural, or historical background of the piece, (e.g., How does knowing the history of the American Civil Rights Movement affect the performance of "We Shall Overcome?"
  • Demonstrate appropriate audience etiquette at live performances.
  • Write performance reviews of performances.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 6: Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.

Learning Objectives

  1. Students will rehearse their assigned part to refine technical accuracy and expression and show improvement over time.
  2. Students will perform their music with others, using technical accuracy and expression.

Activity Details

  1. Listen to the song Wild Things.
  2. Discuss and review the ideas previously discussed regarding this song.
  3. Review the elements of the song (verses, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge).
  4. Teach the rhythmic part of each element of the song.
  5. Review rehearsal techniques. 
  6. Split the class into four groups and assign each group a part.
  7. Give one person the bass drum part.
  8. Each group should rehearse their part of the song for five to seven minutes.
  9. Split each group in half, instructing one half to play, while the other half becomes part of the audience. 
  10. Perform the song with each group playing at the appropriate part of the song.
  11. Audience members should be prepared to give constructive criticism, based on the performance rubric included in the PowerPoint
  12. Switch parts, allowing audience members to perform while performers become audience members.

Assessment Strategies

Determine whether students show improvement during rehearsal by observation.

Determine whether students are using proper technique and expression when playing un-pitched percussion instruments by observation.

Use the rubric included at the end of the PowerPoint to assess students' performance.

Variation Tips

  1. Part of the class could sing while another part plays instruments.
  2. Part of the class could do the previously created movement while another part plays instruments.

These instructions are based on half the class being a part of the audience and the other half being performers.

Background / Preparation

  1. Set up the song, Wild Things by accessing it here.
  2. Have instruments set up in groups.
  3. Download the PowerPoint and have it set up to project.
ALSDE LOGO