Mr.

Christopher Hovis
Unit Plan
Concept: Half and Whole Note
Third Grade General Music
Pre-Assessment

Pre-Assessment Objective:

Students will identify what note they hear the teacher clapping.

Materials:

- Whiteboard, Eraser, Marker

- Drum Set Beat (e.g. DrumBeats+)
- Speaker, or sound system

Prior Knowledge:

As part of the second grade curriculum, they have already learned what half notes and
whole notes are, but in sparing context. It is likely most students do not remember these
names or what they mean because they were not yet using them in the way they will
use them in this Unit. The pre-assessment is designed to reveal what percentage of the
class may or may not remember the terms, but more importantly, whether or not they
can name the differences between feelings in beat.

Sequence:

1. Teacher pre-sets the room with whiteboards, markers, and erasers for every
student.
2. Teacher prompts the class to get out their materials and to listen carefully.
3. T: “I’m going to clap some notes for you and if you remember the names for
these notes, write them on your whiteboard and hold them up!”
a. Start the drum beat
4. Clap
a. Quarter Notes (Students will most likely write “Ta” or “Quarter Note”)
b. Half Notes
c. Whole Notes
5. Teacher records the students' boards with their answers.

Given the average class size of 20, if 50% of the class records all correct answers, the
instruction may be modified. If less, keep instruction as normal.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
Prepare:

Lesson One

Bounce High, Bounce Low (CR)

Objectives:

1. Students will experience the feeling of a half note through musical context.

Standards:

- MU:Pr6.1.3a Perform music with expression and technical accuracy.

- MU:Pr5.1.3b Rehearse to refine technical accuracy, expressive qualities, and
identified performance challenges.

Materials:
- Bounce High, Bounce Low
- Playground Ball (Preferably large rubber ball)

Sequence:

0. Warmup: Utilize solfa hand signs and syllables to do a SoMiLa (SML) warmup. Echo
the teacher on SML patterns and gradually build in the melody of Bounce High.

1. Now that students have warmed up on SML patterns, they should be ready to
echo the teacher on the Bounce High, Bounce Low song.
a. If students need more time for understanding, break down the song
further.
2. Repeat the song over and over again with large beat motions (Taking up the
space of a half note in 2/4 time).
3. Repeat the song again, but teach the students to do a bouncing motion with the
beat like they are bouncing a ball.
4. Move students to a circle formation.
5. Locate the playground ball and teach the Bounce game to the students.
a. The teacher stands in the middle of the circle.
b. While the song is being sung, the teacher bounces the ball to a person in
the circle, making sure the bounce follows the half note beat.
*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
 c. The student passes it back to the teacher in the middle in the same
manner.
d. Repeat this process while the song is being sung over and over.
i. (This process works best if the teacher goes in a clockwise, or
counter-clockwise order for passing the ball.)
e. Pass until every person has gotten to bounce the ball a few times.

Assessment:

Ensure all students have passed, bounced, and caught the ball all while in the context
of a half note beat. It is worth replaying the game over again if more than one student is
unable to bounce the ball in musical context.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
Prepare:

Lesson Two
Moving to the Pulse (TS)

Objectives:

1. Students will experience the feeling of half notes and whole notes through
musical context.
2. Students will correlate specific instrumental sounds with movement tasks.

Standards:

- MU:Pr4.3.3a Demonstrate and describe how intent is conveyed through

expressive qualities (such as dynamics and tempo).
- MU:Pr4.2.3Demonstrate understanding of the structure in music selected for
performance.

Materials:

- Hand Drum
- Triangle + beater
- Recording: (Rock ‘n Stop from Music for Creative Dance, Vol III)
- Moving to the Pulse game

Sequence:

1. T: “We’re going to play a fun game today, so everyone find your own space!”
a. Students go to a spot in the room that is their own space.
2. Teacher locates the hand drum and the triangle.
3. T: “I want you to listen. Which one of these instruments sounds longer?”
a. Plays the hand drum
b. Plays the triangle (let ring)
4. T: “Which one was longer?”
a. S: “The Triangle!”
5. T: “That’s right! I want us to practice something. Only take a step when you hear
my instrument strike.”

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
 6. Teacher demonstrates how he/she only steps when the instrument is played.
7. T: “Let’s practice that!”
8. Teacher plays the triangle first, making sure students are only stepping when the
triangle plays.
9. Teacher plays the hand drum second, making sure students are only stepping
when the hand drum plays.
10. Teacher combines the two instruments and alternates between the two. Still
making sure students are stepping when the instrument plays.
a. IMPORTANT: The Triangle represents the whole note (Playing whole
notes in rhythmic context), and the hand drum represents the half note.
11. T: “Now I have some awesome music for us to use for the rest of our game!”
12. T: “We’re going to be doing the same exact thing, but now with some music!”
13. Teacher begins the audio recording and prepares the instruments. Now that the
music is playing, the teacher should be playing the instruments with their
respective whole note and half note tempos.

Assessment:

Ensure all students can anticipate the beat patterns from the instruments with their feet.
Like the previous “prepare” lesson, this game is worth playing again and again if more
than one student cannot figure out how to place their feet to the beat of the instruments.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
Present:
Lesson Three

Hula-Hoop Stool Discovery (CT)

Objectives:

1. Students will discover the terms “half note” and “whole note.”
2. Students will discover the symbols for half note and whole note

Standards:

- MU:Pr4.2.3b When analyzing selected music, read and perform rhythmic

patterns and melodic phrases using iconic and standard notation.

Materials:
- Who’s That Tapping at my Window
- 4 stools
- 2 hula hoops
- Piano or Orff Xylophone

Sequence:

Experiencing Two Tied Quarter Notes

Four Stools are placed in the front of the room.

1. T: “I need some volunteers to come sit on my stools.”

a. Teacher chooses four volunteers
2. T: “Think of our four stools like our heartbeat chart, and that there are four
heartbeats.”
3. T: “There’s one person in every heartbeat. What do we think that means?”
a. S: “It means Ta!”
4. T: “That’s right! Every person up here is a Ta! Let’s read!”
a. Students read the rhythm of four Ta’s.
5. T: “Now can I have one more person to come with _____ on their stool?”
a. Teacher chooses a new volunteer.
b. “You’re going to have to share a stool!”
6. T: “Now there’s two people on one stool, or one heartbeat! Do we know what two
things in one heartbeat means?”

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
 a. S: “It means Ta-ti!”
7. T: “That’s right! Let’s read our new rhythm!”
a. Students read new rhythm with corresponding students on stools
8. Repeat steps 5-8 until all stools are occupied with two students.
9. Dismiss the “extra” students on the stools.
10. T: “So class, sometimes in music, we can have long sounds. Even longer than
Ta-ti or Ta.”
11. Teacher puts a hula hoop around two students sitting on the stools. (I.e. two
stools are bound together with one hula hoop)
12. T: “I just connected these Ta’s together to make a longer sound!”
a. “How many sounds is ta?” (1)
b. “Now we have two sounds connected together!”
13. T: “Let’s read our new rhythm with a longer sound.”
a. Students read rhythm
14. T: “Now can we clap our rhythm and make our hands match our words?”
a. Clap and speak new rhythm
15. Repeat steps 12-14 putting the hula hoop in two more spots.
16. Teacher dismisses student volunteers on the stools.

17. T: “So class, we can connect two sounds together, and in music we call that a tie”
a. Teacher draws four Ta’s with a tie symbol connecting two.

Assessment:
18. Teacher asks students to read and clap the same rhythms as the stool ones
before, but now the teacher writes them on the board using the tie symbol.
19. Reinforce the students to call the symbol a tie

Transition: “We’re going to move to rows now to learn a new song!”

Who’s That Tapping At My Window: Long Sound Discovery

1. Teacher sets students into rows.
2. Teacher starts to sing Who’s That with a beat motion.
3. Teacher sings the song over and over using a different beat motion every
beginning.
a. Teacher prompts students to join in the beat motion actions
4. After 5-6 turns of the song, the teacher asks students to join in singing.
5. Teacher asks students to sing their name instead of the lyrics “Who’s That.”
a. (Ex. Who’s That lyrics on D and A get replaced with Chr-is on D and A.”

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
 6. Every student sings their name by themselves one at a time, and the rest of the
class fills in the rest of the lyrics after the student has sung.
a. If applicable, remind individual students to use their singing voice instead
of their speaking voice.
7. T: “Are there short sounds in this song? What are the words with the short
sounds?”
a. S: “Tapping at my window.”
8. T: “What about long sounds? Are there words that have long sounds in this
song?”
a. S: “Who’s That!”
9. T: “That’s correct! Now that we know the long and the short sounds, can we make
our hands match our words?”
10. Students clap and sing the song using large claps for long sounds and small
claps for short sounds.

PRESENT MOMENT:

11. Teacher writes the rhythms of the song on the board

12. Teacher takes out one of the tied quarter note pairs.
a. Replace with a half note
13. T: “Do you see this new symbol? It’s called a half note and it is the same thing as
our two tied quarter notes!”
14. Teacher replaces all tied quarter notes with half notes.

Assessment:

15. T: “We’re going to put on a fake performance today using our new song!”
16. T: “We’re going to sing, then use our magic lips while clapping, then sing again!”
a. Teacher writes the order of this on the board.
17. T: “Now let’s practice each section of this song.”
18. Teacher prompts students to sing, then magic lips, then sing again to practice
this form.
a. Make any corrections to singing/clapping as needed.
19. T: “Now we’re going to put on our performance!”
20. Teacher begins students by playing open fifths on the piano of the necessary key
signature to the beat.
21. Watch for students not clapping and not singing.
22. Reinforce the name of the half note to the students before they leave.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
Present:
Lesson Four

Remember Me (TS, RS)

Objectives:

3. Students will discover the terms “half note” and “whole note.”
4. Students will discover the symbols for half note and whole note

Standards:

- MU:Pr4.2.3b When analyzing selected music, read and perform rhythmic

patterns and melodic phrases using iconic and standard notation.

Materials:
- Visual for sheet music of “Remember Me”

Sequence:

Warmup: Echo warmups on SMLRD

1. Teacher prompts students to do a beat motion.

2. Teacher sings Remember Me (RM).
3. Teacher prompts students to do a different beat motion.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until the song has been sung by the teacher about 4-5 times.
5. T: “If you can sing along, please join me!”
6. Teacher and students sing the song with a few beat motions ensuring every
student is singing along.
7. T: “Now we have an ostinato pattern to learn!”
8. Teacher repeats steps 1-3, but now with the “Tennessee with me” ostinato
pattern. Keep a steady beat throughout.
9. Teacher prompts students to sing the melody while he/she sings the ostinato.
10. Switch parts with the students.
11. Teacher prompts groups of students to sing the ostinato while other groups of
students perform the melody.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
PRESENT MOMENT
12. Teacher reveals the visual for RM on the board.
13. Teacher asks students to look through the ostinato line.
14. Teacher points out the whole note shape and tells students.
a. “This is a whole note!”
15. Teacher prompts students to read the rhythm using the rhythm syllables.

Assessment

See that students are tracking their eyes along the new sheet music while they
sing/read. If they are not, draw their attention back to the visual so they can track the
newly discovered whole note.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
Practice:
Lesson Five

Write the Room (IC, RS)

Objectives:

1. Students will categorize half notes and whole notes by reading standard notation.
2. The student will replicate the symbols of half notes and whole notes using
standard notation.

Standards:
- MU:Cr2.1.3b Use standard and/or iconic notation and/or recording technology to
document personal rhythmic and melodic musical ideas.

Materials:

1. Laminated cards of musical symbols (see Appendix)

2. Tape
3. Write the Room Worksheets
4. Pencils
5. Writing surfaces (ex. Whiteboards, clipboards)

Sequence:

0. Teacher will need to pre-set the room by taping the laminated cards to various parts
of the music classroom. Put them in “hidden locations,” but do not hide them too well.

1. Teacher gives every student the Write the Room worksheet.

2. T: “You notice that on your sheet, you have some familiar looking music
symbols!”
3. T: “I’ve hidden these musical symbols around the room and I need you to find
them!”
4. T: “Once you’ve found a symbol that matches the one on your paper, write down
the name of that symbol.
5. T: “After you have found them all, and written them all down, return to your seat.”
6. Teacher prompts students to wander about the room trying to find all the music
symbols.
7. Teacher collects the sheets once the students are all completed with the task.
*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
 8. The teacher now has the opportunity to repeat the same activity another day, but
with a flipped worksheet.
a. (Meaning, instead of the symbols, the words are written and now students
have to draw the symbols instead)
b. Repeat the processes of 1-7 with the flipped worksheet.

Assessment:

The teacher will grade the worksheets making sure to pay close attention to the drawing
and the writing of the half notes and whole notes. Given the class average size of 20, if
50% of the students cannot complete this task to satisfaction, remediation must be
made by more practice of noticing and labeling half notes and whole notes.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
Practice:
Lesson Six

Bear Hunting Song (CR)

Objectives:

1. The student will understand the pulse of half notes and whole notes through
kinesthetic motion.
2. The student will define the length of half notes and whole notes by beat counts.

Standards:

- MU:Cr2.1.3a Demonstrate selected musical ideas for a simple improvisation or

composition to express intent, and describe connection to a specific purpose and
context.
- MU:Pr6.1.3a Perform music with expression and technical accuracy.

Materials:

- Hand Percussion (Determine amount by class size)

- Shaker Eggs
- Finger Cymbals
- Large Hand Drums (With mallets if applicable)

- Bear Hunting Song

Sequence:

1. Teacher prompts students to do a beat motion.

2. Teacher sings through the Bear Hunting Song (BHS) with the beat.
3. Teacher prompts a different beat motion.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until sung roughly 4-5 times.
5. Invite students to sing along with new beat motions.
6. T: “I’m going to show you a beat motion, and while you’re all singing, see if you
can guess what kind of note my beat matches!”
a. Sings through BHS with
i. Quarter note pulse
ii. Half note pulse

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
 iii. Whole note pulse
iv. Students try to guess which one is being performed by the teacher
and they copy.
7. T: “I have some instruments for us to play now!”
a. Teacher sets down instruments enough for 3 groups of instruments and 1
group left to sing.
8. T: “If you’re a shaker egg, you’re a quarter note!”
a. Finger cymbal = Half Note
b. Hand Drum = Whole Note
9. Teacher prompts students to play their respective instrument with their
designated pulse.
a. Start with shakers
b. Finger cymbals
c. Hand drums
d. Singers
10. Sing BHS multiple times through making sure students are playing the correct
pulses.
11. Teacher facilitates rotating groups so that everyone ends up playing all the
instruments and singing.
12. [Throughout the process] Teacher constantly reinforces:
a. Whole Note = 4
b. Half Note = 2
c. Quarter Note = 1

Assessment

All students can play the correct pulses on the designated instruments. If not, review the
amount of beats the notes are worth, what they look like, and how to play them on the
instrument.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
Summative Assessment:

Whiteboard Activity

Objective:

All students will draw the standard notation of half notes and whole notes. They will also
delineate how many beats both are worth.

Materials:

- Whiteboard, Eraser, Marker

Sequence:

Up at the front of the room, there will be four questions written large.

1. What is this called? [Whole Note Symbol]

2. How many beats is the symbol from #1?
3. What is this called? [Half Note Symbol]
4. How many beats is the symbol from #3?

The students will write the answers on their own on their boards. The teacher will come
around individually to each board and record the answer.

A score of +4 [4 correct] indicates that the student has learned the concept.
A score of +2 [2 correct] indicates that the student has not learned the concept.

Given the average class size of 20, if 40% of the class scores +2 (or less) on the
assessment, an extension of the unit must be employed with a review of the concepts.

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
Materials Appendix

*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan
*For all sheet music and activity materials, locate the Materials Appendix on the bottom of the
Unit Plan