Using Music to Express Yourself

Danielle H. Miller

Art/Music   Topic:  Using Music to Express Yourself   Ages: 4-5

Text/Materials Used:

-Two white king sized sheets

-Tempura Paint (eight different colors)  

-Soap

-Water

-Disney CD

-Paint Pans

-Dish Tubs filled with soapy water (eight)

Behavioral Objectives:

In this lesson, students ages four and five will express their feelings towards certain musical pieces by dancing, with paint on their feet, on a white sheet.  The students will have colored paint on their feet to record heavy footsteps in accord to loud music and tip toe in accord to soft music.  Because of having his/her own individual paint color, the creation will allow the students to distinguish their own feet as well as test their recognition of the pattern of footsteps matching up with certain songs.  Students may also achieve satisfactory aggression release by participating in this activity.

Procedures:

First of all I need to set up.  There will be eight paint tins filled with eight different colors of paint and a little bit of soap and water added (to make it easier to clean off of feet) - one for each child.  There will also be eight Dish Tubs filled with soapy water to allow the children to wash their feet off in after they are finished with the paints.  I will put a Disney CD in the CD player (music most children will recognize) and let it play while the children start to come in for the day so they will become familiar with the songs.  I will then talk about loud and soft music and ways to express it (show tip toeing and jumping as it pertains).  I will explain that we are going to paint with our feet so that they can really see the difference between tip toeing and jumping.  The children will then put their smocks on and wait for their paint.  The students will step in their paint and I will put the CD back on and play two songs - one soft, one loud.  The students will then be told to act out what I just told them about - when a quiet song comes on they can tip toe and when it becomes loud the can jump up and down.  Students will be allowed to put more paint on their feet if they "run low."  The art/music dancing will last around ten minutes or longer depending how interested they stay in the project.  We will then step into the Dish Tubs of water and wash our feet off.  From there we will let the sheets dry and come back to it after lunch.  When we are back we will look at the sheet and look at all of the individual footprints...we will discuss who was tip toeing and what song the steps went to and if it was loud or soft.  I will also ask if it was a fun project and if they would like to do it again sometime.

Evaluation:

The students are already able to distinguish between loud and soft and know how to control themselves with paint.  I believe that as long as everyone controls themselves and seem to stay focused for ten minutes of jumping then the lesson was good.  We are not focused on making students get the point in one day, we want to introduce ideas and come back every now and then to enhance what we introduced.  We also like to promote aggression release through activities rather than giving and opportunity to allow fighting.