Georgia Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

Materials

• Gustav Holst - Mercury
• Gustav Holst - Venus
• Gustav Holst - Earth
• Gustav Holst - Mars
• Gustav Holst - Jupiter
• Gustav Holst - Saturn
• Gustav Holst - Uranus
• Gustav Holst - Neptune
• Planet information pages
• Music vocabulary cards

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• Play a portion of Gustav Holst’s composition “Earth, The Bringer of Life”
• Engage students in the Hear, Think, Wonder Artful Thinking Routine.
  • What do you hear?
  • What do you think about what you’ve heard?
  • What do you wonder about this piece?

Introduce the composer as Gustav Holst, born in 1874 in England. Tell students that he was most famous for his orchestral composition called “The Planets”.

Work Session

Teacher Note: Students will have already learned about planet attributes: Terrestrial/rocky, gaseous, size, rotation speed (slow or fast), and color.

• Teach or review musical vocabulary:
  • Tempo - The speed of the beat
    • Allegro - Fast
    • Adagio - Slow
  • Dynamics - Loud and soft sounds; volume
    • Crescendo - Get louder
    • Decrescendo - Get softer (synonymous with diminuendo)
    • Piano - Soft
    • Forte - Loud
  • Review listening skills as they relate to music.
  • Set a purpose for listening:
    • Say to students, “When you listen to the next piece of music I want you to listen for how loud or soft the music is. Is it fast or slow? Does it start slow and get faster or start fast and get slower? Or start softly and become LOUD?!”
    • Tell students that it is the song they listened to earlier. It is a composition that is written about one of the planets.
    • Ask students to think about what they know about planets and how the tempo (fast and slow) and dynamics (loud and soft) might tell the listener about the planet.
    • Play EARTH, The Bringer of Life.
      • Ask students:
        • What did you notice about the tempo? Dynamics?
        • Does it remind you of any specific planet?
        • Why does that tempo or dynamic remind you of that?
      • Lead students to attributes of planets such as cold, hot, big/small (in relation to Earth), rocky, gaseous, fast spinning or slow spinning.
        • Example: Slow spinning could be represented with slow music.
      • Divide students into small groups. Assign each group a planet (other than Earth).
      • Have each group listen to Gustav Holst’s composition on that planet.
        • As they listen, have students record observations about the tempo and dynamics. Students should explain how the tempo and dynamics connect to the attributes of the planet.
        • Students should then imagine that they are composers tasked with writing music to express the attributes of that planet.
          • Students should decide the following:
            • What tempo would it be?
            • What would the dynamics be?
            • What instruments would they use?

Closing Reflection

Play a small section of each musical composition. Allow students time to share their observations about the tempo and dynamics and how they see it connecting to the attributes of that planet.

Assessments

Formative

• Teachers will observe students’:
  • Responses during class discussion
  • Ability to identify attributes of planets
  • Ability to identify the tempo and dynamics in music

Summative

• Students can connect musical concepts like tempo and dynamics to attributes of planets.
• Students can explain the attributes of their assigned planets.
• Students can describe how they would represent their planet using tempo and attributes.

Differentiation

Acceleration:  Students can create their own musical composition using body percussion (stomping, clapping, snapping, etc.) and/or found sound (using objects around them such as pencils or crumpling paper) for their planet. Remediation: Create a class key for what a fast or slow tempo or loud or soft dynamics might represent to support students as they analyze music.

Credits

U.S. Department of Education- STEM + the Art of Integrated Learning

Ideas contributed by: SAIL Grant Teacher Leaders

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  June 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

 

Georgia Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

Materials

• Rhythm sticks (can substitute something else like a pencil)
• Optional: Various unpitched percussion instruments
• Chorus for Song for projecting
• 3-2-1 organizer
• 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System by David A. Aguilar
• NASA Solar System Exploration: Planets
• Learning target and chorus to song
• Georgia Science Teacher - 4th Grade Notes

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• Warm up by having students sit in a circle. Tell students that they should follow along with your movements.
• Begin by patting your legs with both hands to a steady beat. Have students follow along. Switch to a pat-clap-pat-clap pattern. Switch to a pat-clap-snap-pat-clap-snap pattern.
• While continuing the steady beat with body percussion, introduce yourself to the steady beat, “Hi, my name is _________”. Go around the circle of students having students introduce themselves to the steady beat.
• Then lead students in using body percussion to recite the following using a steady beat:
  • Mer-cury, Ve-nus, Earth and Mars / Planets in this sol-ar sys-tem of ours / Jup-i-ter, Sa-turn, Uranus, Nep-tune / Each is u-nique and round as a ba-lloon.
  • It can be displayed here.

Work Session

• Read aloud from 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System by David A. Aguilar to review the different attributes of each of the planets and our sun that have been previously taught (size, color, planet surface, composition, etc.).
• Explain that today, students will create a song that describes the attributes of different planets in our solar system.
• Return to “Mer-cury, Ve-nus, Earth and Mars / Planets in this sol-ar sys-tem of ours / Jup-i-ter, Sa-turn, Uranus, Nep-tune / Each is u-nique and round as a ba-lloon” chanting it with accompanying body percussion to a steady beat.
• This will become the chorus of the class’s song. Explain that a chorus is a part of a song that is repeated after each verse. Practice the chorus as a group several times. This form of music is called rondo.
• Divide students into nine groups and assign each a different celestial object from our solar system.
• If needed, students can use the NASA Solar System Exploration website and the book 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System by David A. Aguilar to research attributes of celestial objects in our solar system.
• In their groups, students will create a verse that describes attributes of their assigned planet. Their verse will follow a steady beat. Students can use unpitched percussion instruments if available or body percussion to create their beat for their verse.
• Students will share their compositions with the whole class performing the chorus between each verse.
• Record the song so it can be played back for students and shared with your community.

Closing Reflection

Students will complete a 3-2-1 graphic organizer to reflect on the lesson. This can also be completed in students’ STEAM journals.

Assessments

Formative

• Teachers will assess student learning throughout the lesson by observing students’:
  • Ability to use body percussion and speak/chant to a steady beat
  • Collaboration with group members to create a verse that describes the attributes of their chosen star or planet

Summative

• Students will complete a 3-2-1 organizer at the end of the lesson: 3 things they learned, 2 things they have questions about, 1 thing they want their teacher to know.
• Students’ songs should demonstrate that they understand steady beat and the attributes of their star or planet.

Differentiation

Acceleration:  Students can create a verse to describe other celestial objects such as asteroids, comets, meteors, galaxies, moons, etc. Create a class video of the whole song to share with your learning community. Remediation: Provide students with a word bank of possible attributes of planets.

Credits

U.S. Department of Education- STEM + the Art of Integrated Learning

Ideas contributed by: SAIL Grant Teacher Leaders

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  June 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

Materials

• Habitat cards (individual cards with one habitat on each)
• Cutouts of shapes (or shapes can be written on the board)
• Visual of A section text (to be displayed after chant is learned)
• Sound source (computer and speakers)
• Recording of musical composition in rondo form (this could be a song that is structured verse-chorus-verse-chorus)

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Classroom Tips: Arrange groups so that students can move away from each other during the creation process to enable careful listening and minimize distraction from other groups.

• Play a musical composition in rondo form (such as verse-chorus-verse-chorus, etc.), challenging students to listen for repeated sections. (NOTE: Music with text may facilitate students’ discernment of repetition and contrast.)
• Identify form heard in composition as rondo form.
• Demonstrate different body percussion techniques, such as snapping, clapping, patting, and stomping. Have students follow your movements.
• Challenge students to establish a simple two, four, or eight beat body percussion ostinato.

Work Session

• Explain that students will now become composers of their own speech piece to illustrate rondo form.
• While students perform the body percussion ostinato that they created, teach the following chant by rote (teacher speaks, students echo).

Habitats define life and growth within a place
Where animals and plants naturally live in their space.
Each is connected by the environment in which they live;

Contributing uniquely, they all have something to give.

 

• To facilitate student success in learning the chant aurally, begin by speaking the entire chant, then speak the first phrase (first eight beats) and have students echo.
• Continue speaking each phrase and having students echo. Then combine two phrases (16 beats) and have students echo.
• Once students are comfortable with 8- and 16-beat phrases, speak the entire chant.
• This becomes the A section of the class composition.
• Analyze the structure of the chant (32 beats long with the last word on beat 31).
• A visual such as follows may be helpful in guiding students’ analysis.

• To help students understand the chant’s length and structure, point to each number while speaking the chant.
• Analyze the rhyme scheme of the chant, marking on the visual of the chant to facilitate understanding.
• Divide students into small groups so that each of Georgia’s habitats will be represented by at least one group. Tell students that they will be writing their own chant about their assigned habitat.
  • Chants should include plants, trees, body of water, animals, etc.
  • Their chant must be the same length and use the same rhyme scheme as the A section.
• Once students are satisfied with their composition, have them write it down (text only) on large paper.
  • Encourage students to write their composition in four lines to facilitate understanding of the four phrases.
• Provide time for students to practice performing their chant.
• Next, have students add body percussion to their chants.

Closing Reflection

• Combine group compositions with the original chant to create a rondo form.
• The original chant is the A section while student creations become the alternating sections. For example:

Original chant: A section

Blue Ridge Mountains chant: B section

Original chant: A section

Piedmont: C section

Original chant: A section

Coastal Plains: D section

Original chant: A section

Valley and Ridge: E section

Original chant: A section

Appalachian Plateau: F section

Original chant: A section

• Allow time for students to comment on the compositional efforts of others, perhaps noticing distinctive rhythms and/or word choice.
• Discuss the characteristics of each of the habitats performed.

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, ability to repeat and learn the A section of the habitat chant, analysis of rhyme scheme, and collaboration with their groups to create their own habitat chant.

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can create and accurately perform an original speech composition using the prescribed form and content (assigned habitat).
• Students can create and accurately perform a body percussion ostinato to accompany the speech composition.
• Students aurally and visually identify rondo form in musical compositions.

Differentiation

Accelerated:  Have students record their creations using technology and evaluate their work. Challenge students to create simple melodies to accompany their text. Have students transfer their spoken text to body percussion (e.g., clap the rhythm of the words rather than speaking the words). Experiment with and discuss various textures. For example, have half the students maintain the ostinato while the other group performs their chant on body percussion; then have only the chant performed on body percussion. Discuss what happens to the texture of the sound as other parts are added or deleted. After students have transferred their spoken text to body percussion, have two (or more) groups superimpose (perform simultaneously) their chants. Discuss the texture changes this compositional device creates. To connect to dance, have students create movement compositions demonstrating plants and/or animals found in their habitats. Then have other students guess the habitat demonstrated through movement. To connect to theater, have students create dialogues between plants and/or animals found in various habitats. Dialogues should not include the name of the habitat so that after performing their dialogues, other students can guess the habitat being discussed. Remedial: Scaffold the lesson by working collaboratively as a class to create a chant about a habitat. Then release students to create their own. Reduce the number of lines students are required to create in their chant. Provide sentence starters to help students structure their chants.

 

Credits

U.S. Department of Education- STEM + the Art of Integrated Learning

Ideas contributed by: Maribeth Yoder-White

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  June 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

Materials

• The Lorax book
• Mixed media paper
• Black Sharpies
• Pencils
• Oil pastels
• Optional: Fixative (after drawing is complete, spray and let dry so pastel does not smudge)
• Lined paper for writing piece
• See, Think, Wonder Artful Thinking Routine
• The Lorax movie clip
• Parts of a landscape diagram

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Teacher pre-work: Review the list Suggested Collected Items with students, and ask students to find five or six items to bring into the classroom.

• Review the items that students brought in. With the class, use Padlet (padlet.com) to generate ideas on how the items can be reused.
• As a whole class, use the Carbon Footprint Calculator or http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ to determine students’ carbon footprint. Discuss students’ reactions and how their footprint can be improved.

Work Session

Part 1

• Listen to the song “Good Garbage” by Tom Chapin.
• Discuss in whole group vocabulary such as compost, biodegradable/non-biodegradable, recycle, reuse and reduce.
• As a whole group, discuss the author’s purpose of writing the song. Why is it catchy? Discuss the melody, rhythm, tempo, lyrics, chorus, verse, rhyme, etc.
• Tell students that they will write a verse about pollution to the tune of another song.
• As a whole group, discuss well-known songs that students may like to use to create/write a class pollution song.
  • Discuss the form of the song (rondo form would be chorus-verse 1-chorus-verse 2-chorus-verse 3-chorus-verse 4-chorus, etc.), rhythm, and tempo of the various songs to ensure that it matches the topic: Pollution and conservation.

Part 2

• After the song has been selected, write a chorus collaboratively as a class. The chorus should be generic.
• Divide the class into four groups. Have students create verses for the four categories: Air, land, water, and conservation. Facilitate the writing process.
  • Remind students to communicate their main idea (air, water, or land pollution or conservation) and use supporting details in their lyrics.
  • Students must use at least four relevant facts about their topic in their verse.
  • Students must define their topic (i.e. air pollution) in their verse.
  • Students’ lyrics must fit the form of the song the class selected (tempo, rhyme scheme, melody, rhythm, etc.).

Part 3

• Review “Good Garbage” song as a whole group.
• Have the students revise or edit their verses for their song.

Optional: Come up with music for the class song using Quaver or GarageBand.  

Closing Reflection

• Have students perform the class song. Review audience etiquette and expectations prior to performances.
  • The song will be performed in rondo form: Whole class will sing the chorus, group one will sing their verse, whole class will sing the chorus, group two will sing their verse, whole class will sing the chorus, groups three will sing their verse, whole class will sing the chorus, group four will sing their verse, whole class will sing the chorus.
  • Audience members should discuss the main idea and supporting details of the lyrics of each verse after the performance.

Assessments

Formative

• Teacher will check for appropriate usage of unit vocabulary during lyric writing.
• Teacher will observe students’ ability to identify the melody, rhythm, tempo, lyrics, chorus, verse, and rhyme in “Good Garbage”.

Summative

• Students’ verses meet the following criteria:
  • Use at least four relevant facts about their topic in their verse.
  • Define the topic (i.e. air pollution) in their verse.
  • Fit the form of the song the class selected (tempo, rhyme scheme, melody, rhythm, etc.)

DIFFERENTIATION 

Accelerated:  Students can also create their own instruments to create their music for their group’s songs or use body percussion (stomping, snapping, clapping, etc.) Have students come up with music for their verse using Quaver or GarageBand. Remedial: Provide students with the lyrics from the “Good Garbage” song to use as a model for writing their verses including sentence frames and a word bank. Have students choose three to five key vocabulary words from the vocabulary list generated in project one to include in their verse.

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• quavermusic.com
• http://robinfrederick.com/learn-how-to-write-a-song/

CREDITS

U.S. Department of Education- STEM + the Art of Integrated Learning

Ideas contributed by: Jill McNally, Alisa Moore, Julie Palmieri, Edited by Dr. Carla Cohen, Edited by Jessica Espinoza and Katy Betts

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  June 2025 @ ArtsNOW