Weather, Music, and Feelings

Grade: 4th

Learning outcomes:

Students will be able to identify types of weather phenomena and distinguish it from

normal weather conditions.

Students will be able to utilize musical instruments and create music to represent

the characteristics of various weather conditions.

They will use music to represent the weather conditions throughout the week.

Standards:

Science:

Standard 2:

Objective 1

Observe, measure, and record the basic elements of weather.

d. compare the components of severe weather phenomena to normal weather

conditions (e.g., thunderstorm with lightning and high winds compared to rainstorm with

rain showers and breezes).

Music:

Strand: Create:

Standard 4.M.CR.1:Improvise rhythmic and melodic patterns and musical ideas.

Standard 4.M.CR.2: Explain the connection of musical ideas to specific purpose and

context.
Standard 4.M.CR.3: Generate musical ideas using specific tonalities, meters and simple

chord changes.

Strand: Perform: Respond to visual representations of melodic contour and simple melody

patterns.

Standard 4.M.P.6: Perform two- and three-part pentatonic rounds, partner songs and

rhythmic or pentatonic ostinatos.

Standard 4.M.P.7: Perform and identify rhythm patterns in two-, three-, and four-beat

meters using body percussion, voice and simple instruments.

Standard 4.M.P.8: Respond with body percussion, voice, or simple instruments to visual

representation of rhythm patterns.

Materials:

• Instruments: (each student will choose one of the following. Or to keep things controlled

teacher can pass them out at random).

• Shakers (rain)

• Boom whackers (thunder)

• Tambourines (wind)
 • Xylophones (lighting, make students aware that although lightening is silent, what

might it sound like based off how it appears in the sky).

• Pencils

• Songs:

• Walking on Sunshine- Katrina and The Waves

• Singing in the Rain- Gene Kelly

• Winter Song- Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson

• Videos for thunderstorm and rainstorm

• Time lapse video of thunderstorm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI5-ibvhWcs

• Time lapse of rainstorm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEK24sUwF7I

1) Students will be introduced to components of severe weather and normal weather

conditions. Students will be shown a video of a thunderstorm with lightening and high

winds. They will then be shown a video of rainstorm with rain showers and small

breezes. In their science journals they will create two sections one for the

thunderstorm and one for the rainstorm. And they will take notes on the observations

they made. Before the storm started, what did they notice? During the storm what did

they notice? Then as a class we will discuss what was different and why. Making it
 clear what components take place before the thunderstorm and rainstorm. Preparing

them for their future predictions.

2) Instruments will then be handed out. Each student will get one instrument. The

shakers represent rain, the xylophone represents lightning, the tambourines represent

wind, the boom whackers represent thunder.

3) As a class we will create a thunderstorm from start to end. Keeping in mind how the

thunder storm begins, during, and how it ends.While also keeping in mind the

importance of rhythm and playing at your cue.

4) Students will then be shown a few songs based on weather conditions. They will write

down how the songs differ from each other using a compare and contrast diagram.

They will use descriptive words that describe how they feel, with each song, and what

in the song is making them feel this way.

1) Im walking on sunshine Katrina and the Waves

2) Singing in the rain

3) Winter song Sara bareilles, Ingrid michaelson

Singing in the rain is a happy version. Note to students that although rain might

make some of them feel sad, it can make others happy.

5) Afterwards students will be split into groups and assigned a weather condition (sunny,

rainstorm, snowing, and thunderstorm, and windstorm). As a group they will list all of

the characteristics of that whether condition and the activities they can do in that

weather condition, maybe even seasons or holidays that typically occur during that

weather condition. They will then use instruments, body percussion, and vocal sounds

to create a song that represents that weather condition. These will be presented and

performed in front of the class.