Making Music With the Pout, Pout Fish
This lesson will be the culminating lesson at the end of a unit on instruments, tone color, and how music can help tell a story. The students would have already learned about the families of the orchestra, listened to great works like the Carnival of the Animals or Peter and the Wolf to see how the instruments can represent the essence of the character of an animal or a story, listened to the unique sounds each instrument can make, learned how to properly play the classroom percussion instruments, and explored different ways to produce sounds on the same instruments.
Lesson Created By: EliseHelms
Lesson Partners: ABC (Arts in Basic Curriculum)
Essential Question
How can we use instrument sounds to enhance our storytelling?
Grade(s):
- 2
Recommended Technology:
none needed
Other Instructional Materials or Notes:
- Pout Pout Fish book, by Deborah Diesen
- Copies of each page in the book
- A large and varied set of classroom percussion instruments.
- Exit Ticket
Lesson Progression
1. The teacher will present the book, The Pout, Pout Fish, to the class. I usually try to have pictures around the room of the real versions of the sea creatures found in the book. You may want to lead a discussion with the class to give some opinions of what each creature may be "feeling" or what their character may be like, just by looking at their pictures. Discuss how difficult it is to know anything about a person just by looking at them. Maybe reading the book will help us to know a bit more about them so we can help "tell their story". Instead of "reading" the book, the teacher will "sing" the book, using a familiar tune that fits the book's dialog. I use a tune loosely based on " Three Little Fishes" for this book, but this is certainly up to the discretion of the educator. There is a portion of the book that the students will sing, as it repeats throughout the book. The teacher will teach this part to the class first before starting the book.
2. After the book is completed, the teacher will lead a discussion on each character in the book and some possible sounds that may help to tell their portion of the story. It's important to bring out both actual sounds the animal may make, like the clicking of the clamshell, or some perceived sounds, like flowing sounds of water as the animal swims through the water. Review the classroom percussion instruments available. The students should already have a working knowledge of the sounds each instrument makes and how to correctly play it. Explain that they will be using the instruments to describe each character and create interest on each page as we re-tell the story of the Pout, Pout Fish.
3. The teacher will pass out the copied pages of each section of the book. Depending on the class size, this will either be small group work or individuals.
4. The teacher will explain that they should read their assigned page, find an instrument or instruments that will enhance their portion of the story. They should look for instruments that help tell something about each animal. For example, the castanets could make the clicking sound of the shell of a clam or a glockenspiel could maybe make the sound of a flowing jellyfish. Be careful about giving specific examples of the animals they will be using. I find that if I give them the possibility of castanets for clicking sounds, they can't come up with anything else on their own. It seems to lock them in and their creativity is cut short. You may want to give examples of animals not used in the book. Be sure to tell them that they must be able to justify why they chose their instrument. They can't just choose an instrument because they like it best. Encourage them to be creative with the use of their instruments. They don't have to play them in the traditional way, as long as their creative way doesn't damage the instrument! At the end of the presentation of their creature/character of their page, we should all know a bit more about that animal on that page because of the instrument they chose.
5. Give the students time to work on their assigned pages.
6. When all pages are ready to be presented, the teacher will get them in order according to the story.
7. The teacher will guide the class in re-telling the story now using the instruments that each student/small group chose.
8. Students will then be asked to complete an exit ticket that will ask them to explain why they chose the instruments in the presentation,
Standards
Assessments
I use an exit ticket for assessment. There are 3 questions:
1. Tell me the name of the instrument you chose.
2. Tell me the animal on your page.
3 Tell me why you chose that instrument.
I'm looking for good use of music vocabulary that we have discussed, good reasons why the sounds they produced with the instruments clearly describe their animal and its mood or character.