Last year the teachers asked me to do music appreciation with the upper graders (or, as they said, we want to learn about the composers). Since we have mixed-grade classes, I teach the same thing to all upper graders, so this year I have to come up with a whole new curriculum. Last year I was topical (scary music at Halloween, jazz for Black History month, etc). This year I'm going with an historical timeline, beginning with Gregorian Chant.
Today I worked on a powerpoint presentation with video, but for the second lesson I plan on teaching the kids to play the dies irae on pitched instruments and sing it. Then the dies irae will pop up during the year as other composers have used it in their works.....
sounds like you've found a great way to make music history both real and interesting!
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