Very cool lesson/mini unit- Literacy in Action

I love my job for a variety of reasons but mostly I think, because being an elementary music teacher gives me a lot of wiggle room to do what I want with my students. We dance, sing, play instruments, read, write, listen, create and imagine. 

I started a very cool mini unit with my students this week that has the kids and teachers really excited. I got the idea from the Central Florida Orff Chapter workshop I went to on Saturday. It was a chapter sharing workshop, so different teachers shared their best lessons with us. This particular lesson was presented by a friend of mine who also teaches in Brevard Co. and her name is Kelly. She told us about a lesson she does with her intermediate students where they write a spooky story and integrate sound effects and then the students explore the classroom instruments and different props she has and they get to act out the story. She creates play lists for each group and then the students perform their spooky stories.

I have adapted her lesson a little and included the district approved graphic organizer to help the students tell organize their stories so they have a clear beginning, middle and end. Then I gave the groups a list of possible sound effects that they may want to use, and the students are going to help organize their sound effects into play lists. We talked about music technology and timbre while listening to some sound effects because for example, there were 6 different witch laughs- so they used musical terms to explain why the laughs were different.

So I have broken this project into three weeks. This week in music class the students are writing their stories following all of their good writing practices. Next week the students will organize their playlists, find instruments to use to help tell their stories and get together props and costumes and practice how they are going to act out their stories. Then the week of halloween the students are going to act out their spooky stories. A few teachers have already told me students who hate to write and have scored poorly on writing are super excited about this project. I am also really excited to see how it's all going to turn out. I put up a curtain in my room to create a mini stage area, and got some props from walmart and target. It's a nice change of pace compared to my other halloween lessons that I have taught in the past. I like them but have taught them last two years in a row so it's cool to change it up some. I'll post some pictures so you all can see what we are working on!