#9- PLANE CRASH

State Standards and Objectives:

Standard 3 Objective 1d: Create together a new song. As a class, choose the subject and compose the verse. Consider solo/chorus for the structure. Decide what volume, timbres, and tempo to use.

Learning Objectives:

Students will come up with the libretto for the first part of their opera.

Students will act out parts of the opera.

Lesson:

            Today, Jane came again to observe. She started off the class by playing a game with Rudolf the Red-nose Reindeer. The game worked well with the objective because the song uses a story that is put to words. The children loved the game!

            Then, we went directly into working on their opera. The goal for today was to flesh out the first sentence: “College students plan a trip to Hawaii, but their plane crashes on an island of Dinosaurs.” I wanted them to come up with libretto and actions. I made the front of the room the stage, and asked four students to be the college students. They pretended to be in a plane, and I started singing a little song about crashing the plane to help them get warmed up.

            “We are going flying, flying, flying, we are going flying to an island.”

“Ahhh we are crashing, crashing, crashing. Oh no we’re crashing down down down.”

I wanted to help them incorporate living and non-living things into their opera, so when they got to the island I had two students be flowers or plants. The children remembered that living things breathe and move, so we made up a few little songs that college students sang.

“Look! That tree is moving, moving, moving. Look that tree is moving, all around.” Etc.

All the while as we sang, the children with parts were acting things out.

            We then reviewed the term recitative and began writing down some ideas they had for songs. Finally, I gathered them around the “stage” and we continued coming up with original tunes and lyrics. By the end, they had created 8 original tunes/lyrics.

1.     “Come and see my blueberries, take one if you want one.” (Megan)

2.     “I’m just a little bush, come smell my flowers. I’m just a little bush” (Lilly)

3.     “I’m growing up up up growing up.” (Natalie)

4.     “On no we’re crashing, crashing, crashing, oh no we’re crashing, down, down, down.” (Jaime)

5.     “We are crashing, we are crashing, how are gonna get back?” (Davis)

6.     Oh no we’re crashing, we’re crashing, down down down. How are going to get back? We’re going down for real. (Lilly)

7.     “I’m a real pretty flower. Come and smell my petals.” (Teagan)

8.     “I am just a little growing plant. I smell really good. Come smell me!” (Jackman)

Overall, the lesson went really well. The children were all engaged and they came up with a lot of good ideas. Today I tried to focus on giving more specific feedback instead of simply saying “good job.” Also, when I noticed that some of them were becoming disengaged, I gathered them together at the rug.

            While we made definite progress, I did not get any of the libretto written. Mr. Knight suggested that next time I first have them write the libretto with actions and recitative, and then come up with the tunes. I also learned from Jane that an effective management signal is simply holding up your hand. She rose her hand silently and waited for the children to quiet down. They quickly learned, and they responded quickly to the signal. After Jane left, I even had a few students raise their hand without me (I had forgotten to do the signal) to get the other children to be quiet.

Jane suggested that I make an outline for what I will do the last three class periods. Here is what I decided.

Lesson #10- Write/revise the Libretto for the beginning of the opera.

Lesson #11- Write Libretto for the snowstorm and tornado.

Lesson #12- Write Libretto for getting rid of the Zombies and the end.