#1- MINI OPERA

Today was the first day in Mr. Knight's class! We played a few games, talked about characteristics of living and non-living things, and wrote a mini-opera.

State Standards and Objectives Covered

Music Standard 3 Objective 2

“Express ideas, thoughts, and emotions aesthetically though singing, playing and/or creating.”

Science Standard 2 Objective 1

“Classify living and nonliving things in an environment.”

Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to describe that an opera is a story that is sung.
• They will identify characteristics of living and non-living things while thinking of possible topics for their opera.
•  The students will create original lyrics for the tune “A farmer in the dell” to tell the story of Rumplestiltskin. They will understand how words must fit the tune.

Lesson

            We started off by discussing the definition of an opera: an opera is a story that is sung. They quickly grasped the concept and understood the basic definition. I followed this with a fun beginning song called “Sing with me” to get the kids warmed up and involved. We repeated the song multiple times while exchanging the verb “sing” with things like march, tap, walk, dance, and jump, and the children acted out whatever very we used.

            We then transitioned into a discussion of living and non-living things. We talked about how one characteristic of living things is that they breathe. We discussed how plants breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, and we created a general list of living vs. non-living things.

            Then I began preparing them to write a mini-opera of Rumplestiltskin to the tune of Farmer in the Dell. I began by teaching them Farmer in the Dell, and then we came up with simple lyrics to tell more of the story of the farmer. When I asked, “Where did the farmer go?” one child responded, “the fair.” “What did they see at the fair?” “A pig!” We continued like this for a few minutes until they were comfortable coming up with basic lyrics.

            Then we discussed important characters and story elements of Rumplestiltskin. (Mr. Knight had read them Rumplestilstkin earlier that week, so they were familiar with the story.) Before long, the children had come up with 12 lines that gave the basic outline of the story. We finished the lesson by singing the whole song together. For a final formative assessment I had them write down one thing they learned and one thing they still wanted to learn about opera
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            I felt like the lesson went really well. Most of the children were engaged and seemed to enjoy the activities we did. If I were to teach the lesson again I would make sure to involve ALL of the students. I think it would have helped if I had brought them to the rug while coming up with ideas so that they felt more involved.

S