Our class band

In this lesson students will play percussion instruments that have been divided into four groups: Drums, Woods, Metals and Shakers/Scrapers. They will perform a song sung to the tune of 'Old MacDonald had a Farm' and perform the instruments of these groups.

A lesson plan for grades K–1 Music Education

By Barbara Tilton

Learn more

• Music Education Online From the Children's Music Workshop, this site has resources for music teachers including videos, articles, and details about specific instruments.
• Young Composers Young Composers is a message board where composers of any age can share information

Related pages

• Exploring the families of instruments: Students will learn about the families of instruments and conclude the lesson by constructing a model instrument from one of the families studied.
• "Eggs-tra" special sounds: Students will identify, compare, and classify the sounds made by plastic eggs filled with rice, pebbles, and salt. They will graph the results of their discoveries. They will then compose and tape sound pieces illustrating dynamic levels they discovered. Finally they will construct their own "maraca" using plastic eggs.
• Shapely compositions: Students will compose four measures of music using shapes to denote the quarter and eighth notes. The individual compositions are combined to make a longer piece of music that students enjoy playing on rhythm instruments.

Related topics

• Learn more about arts, hands-on, instruments, music, and percussion.

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Learning outcomes

Students will play a percussion instrument from each of these four groups properly and at the appropriate time Woods, Metals, Drums, Shakers/Scrapers. Students will identify these instruments by sound and sight.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

30 minutes

Materials/resources

• Percussion instruments from four groups: Woods, Metals, Drums, Shakers/Scrapers OR homemade instruments divided into similar groups. Enough for each student to have a instrument.
• Chalkboard or posters with the names of the four group written on them.

Pre-activities

• Students should have previous knowledge of classroom percussion instruments and what group they are categorized in.
• Students should know proper playing procedures for each of the instruments. They should know how to hold the instrument when playing and have a rest position for each instrument.
• Students should have play these instruments as accompaniments and sound effects to songs and poems and have an understanding of what they sound like.
• Students will already know the song: ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm’

Activities

1. Have the students identify the four groups of percussion instruments and teacher writes them on the board: Drums, Metals, Woods, Shakers and Scapers.
2. Teacher will hold up and play two or three instruments from each group and students will identify what group the instruments belong in.
3. To the tune of ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm’ students will sing ‘Mr./Mrs. ‘______’ Class had a Band’. Students will substitute the groups of instruments for the animals and for the sounds make the following sound for each group of instruments:
   • Woods - tap
   • Metals - ching
   • Drums - pat
   • Shakers and Scrapers - either Shake or Scrape

   When students sing the words they will pantomime how they would play an instrument from that group in the proper rhythm.

4. Teacher will divide class into four groups. Each group will be given percussion instruments from one of the four group.
5. Teacher will ask each group to echo a pattern on their instrument. Then students will practice playing their verse on their instruments in rhythm while the class sing. (i.e. - Woods will play on the word tap with a tap, tap, here and a tap, tap there, here a tap, there a tap, everywhere a tap, tap) then each of the other groups will practice.
6. Students will sing song and play at the appropriate times.
7. Students will switch groups of instruments and sing the song again. Continue switching until students have had a chance to play each group of instruments.
8. Students will close their eyes and the teacher will play two to four instruments in succession. When the students open their eyes, they will identify in order what instrument was played and to what group it belonged.

Assessment

• Students will identify instruments by sight and sound and also tell to what group of percussion instruments they belong.
• Students will properly play percussion instruments when indicated in the song.
• Students will sing in a proper ’singing’ voice.

Supplemental information

Comments

I use this lesson as an assessment to go with the “1st Grade ‘Share the Music’ McGraw-Hill” lessons on these percussion instruments in Unit 4.