LESSON PLAN 1: Birds Introduction (sol - mi - LA)

Level: Grade 1

Content: reinforcing sol, mi, la ( + Connecting through Bird theme)

Context: Blue Bird

Standards:

Connecting: Anchor 11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and
historical context to deepen understanding.

Responding: Anchor 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.

Anchor 8: Interpret intent an meaning in artistic work.
Performing: Anchor 4: Analyze, interpret, and select artistic work for presentation.

Objectives:
SWBAT understand birds can have certain meaning to certain cultures (symbolism)
SWBAT listen to a piece of music and pat the beat correctly and in time.
SWBAT take a line or idea from each song and interpret a meaning behind it, or reason
for using it.
(Duck song: why use a duck instead of human?)
(Black bird: meaning behind “take they broken wings and learn to fly”)
(my owlet: what is an owlet, who is the mother singing to?)
SWBAT listen to melodic lines being sung in solfege and determine if they are similar or
not. (Melodic contour)
SWBAT sing Blue Bird with correct pitches, accurately and in time.

Known: Sol, Mi, La

New: Moveable solfege (similar melodic lines)

Materials:
1. Youtube videos:
Duck Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtN1YnoL46Q
BlackBird - Beetles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l5L34VqzlU
My Owlet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuUPUQcgLZg
2. MusicPlay: BlueBird (7.138)

Assessment: Informal: Individual answers and listening to singers.

Procedure:
1. Begin lesson with the Duck Song (get the students engaged - fun intro song)
1. Pat the beat
1. What was the beat? - Fast? Slow? - Medium - MODERATO
2. Why use a duck instead of a human?
1. To make more silly (other example = donald duck)
2. Not all birds are silly like a ducks can be. There are over 10,000 different type of
birds in the world.
 1. Smallest: only two inches (length of your fingers or thumb)
1. Imagine that’s bird it an eye ball - 2 inches big… that is the eye ball for the
largest bird
2. Largest: ostrich 5.5 feet to 9 feet tall! (wouldn’t even fit in the room!)
3. Next we are going to talk about a blackbird.
1. Listen to the beat.
2. How is it different from the first song.
3. After: slower beat - LARGO
4. What does “Take these broken wings and learn to fly”
1. Never give up even if its hard.
1. Sounds nicer with a bird than just saying it
4. My Owlet
1. We know what an owl is… so what is an owlet? (Baby Owl)
1. This is a song that was sung by Native American mothers. Who do you
think they would be singing it to? (Their babies) - They are calling their own
babies owls to show that they love them.
2. Listen to song
1. Listen for what instruments you hear being played.
2. Start patting rhythm part way through the song and watch to see students
follow correctly. (pat, pat, clap)
3. Answer listening questions: (reply the first 10ish seconds if they don’t
remember or are having trouble)
1. What instrument played when we patted our legs? - [Shakers of sorts]
2. What instrument played on the clap? - [Drums]
3. What instrument played the melody/words when their wasn’t someone
singing? - [Wooden flute]
5. Blue Bird Song (musicplay.com)
1. Play song (first page) do solfege without saying it.
1. What are these hand signs called that I was doing?
1. Solfege: Go over sign names. [Show sol and ask what sign is this. Also
do for Mi and La]
2. Identify solfege in song (first part).
1. Which is higher Sol or Mi? [sing pitches Sol - Mi - Mi- Sol until multiple
hands are raised.]
2. Looking at the first measure: is beat one or beat two higher? [Point to
beats while asking] - BEAT 1
1. Knowing this: is beat 1 sol or mi? - SOL
3. Go over the second measure - same as first
4. Third measure: stop on beat two: What is higher than sol? - LA
5. Go over last measure.
6. Now lets look at the second line: Of the first two beats, which one is
higher? [First beat] - lets call that sol. (go through the second line like
the first.
1. Remember when we talked about melodic line with the donkey in
Camile Sant Saens music? How the melody can go up and down?
Do these two lines of the blue bird song have the same melodic
line/contour?
1. Now listen to me sing both lines and follow along with the
solfege.
 1. Sing first line holding up one finger in one hand and doing
the solfege in the other.
2. Sing second line in the same way with two fingers up.
3. What do you think. Do they have the same solfege? (Sing
again while doing solfege if needed - or just sing the solfege
for both lines) - Yes.
1. Even though they have different pitches, they have the
same melodic contour.
7. Teach the first part of song.
1. Sing the first line: repeat after teacher. Blue bird, Blue bird, Through
my window
2. Sing second line: r.a.t. Blue bird, Blue bird, Through my window
3. Sing third line: r.a.t Blue bird, Blue bird, Through my window
4. Sing last line: r.a.t Oh, Johnny aren’t you tired.
8. Listen to the first line of the second half: Pick a little partner and hop
through the garden.
1. Are the words different? - Yes
2. Is the rhythm different? - Yes (clap both while singing if needed
while students keep beat on legs)
3. Is the melodic line different? - No (sing words like in first part with
solfege first. Ask question again and sing solfege while signing. Then
ask question a third time and get answers)
9. Teach the last part of the song.
1. Sing the first line: r.a.t.: Pick a little partner and hop through the
garden.
2. Sing second line: r.a.t. Pick a little partner and hop through the
garden.
3. Sing third line: r.a.t Pick a little partner and hop through the garden.
4. Sing last line: r.a.t Oh, Johnny aren’t you tired.
10. Did you notice anything else about the two parts? - Last line is the
same/ end the same way.
11. Teach/Play game
1. Instruct students to make a circle, and grab hands.
1. Lift their hands up - they are the windows.
2. Pick a student to help demonstrate, and bring to middle of circle.
1. The people in the middle of the circle are the blue birds.
2. Instruct student in middle to weave in and out of the circle of
windows.
3. Have students sing the first part while blue birds move.
1. Stop in the middle of the circle for last line and show students to
drop hands on that line. Stop students after that and explain.
4. Instruct blue bird student to pick a person who is singing for the
outer circle and ring them to the center of circle and hop around
the garden.
5. Have students sing the second verse. Again: show the ending
measure.
6. Have students play the game for as long as needed.
 1. When we don’t have a big enough circle for blue birds: start
again and pick people who weren’t blue bird yet to start as
blue birds.
2. Listen for student’ singing voices.

Below is the sheet music for Blue Bird: I have changed the words of the second verse to
fit the game better.