Bonnie Raines Santa Rosa, CA

Stravinsky and the Firebird

Grade Level: 3-5 Integrated Subjects Language Arts Performing Arts-Music Performing Arts-Other Social Science Visual Arts Lesson Overview This lesson integrates language arts with visual and performing arts. Students immerse themselves in the world of the Russian folktale, The Firebird, and then explore other avenues of appreciating the tale through listening and dancing to Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, as well as engaging in theater and visual arts activities. Student Learning Overview Students will understand how a piece of music can bring a story to life. They will understand how to take the power of music and transform it into personal expression through poetry, dance and theater. Learning Sequence 1. Read the Russian folktale, The Firebird. 2. Have students listen to selected sections of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. 3. Have students act out parts of the story in small groups. 4. Let students move freely to the music. 5. Have students analyze the music using different musical elements as filters: dynamics, tempo, etc. Have students make connections between the music and the story, asking them what they picture happening as they listen. 6. Give students multiple opportunities to dance to the music, observe each other (half the class at a time), and verbalize how dancers are dancing to the music and how dance ideas express musical ideas. 7. Read about the life of Igor Stravinsky. 8. Tell the students about Stravinsky's quote: My music can only be understood by animals and children. 9. Have children write poems about the Firebird. 9. Have students make pictures of their imagined firebird to accompany the poem. 10. Make a book of the poetry and illustrations. 11. Have students make collages of the firebird using assorted materials (including feathers). 12. Students design and paint their own shirts for a dance performance of the Firebird.

2010 Bonnie Raines; created for the San Francisco Symphonys Keeping Score Education program

Bonnie Raines Santa Rosa, CA

Assessment All of my assessment/feedback for this unit was informal. I observed student dramatizations of the story and gave corrective feedback on misunderstandings in the story. Students critiqued each other in the improvisational dances. I gave students feedback on their initial drafts of poems, encouraging use of figurative language. We did a lot of class critique of dancing, to ask if our movements really fit the story and the music and I noted how students were able to verbalize and explain their dances. Our dance performance was a celebration of all of our learning. Classical Music Used In This Lesson Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky Materials & Equipment CD of Stravinskys music, materials for collage, paper and colored pencils for pictures and poems, shirts for decorating along with tempera paint Time Required 3 weeks National Music Standards Listening to, analyzing, and describing music Understanding relationships between music, other arts, and outside disciplines Understanding music in relation to history and culture State Standards CA: Music Grade 3 - 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 4.2, 4.3, 5.2; Writing Standards: Grade 2 - 2.2 Connections to Pathways to Integration GREEN: Music content merged with other content areas Inclusion/English Language Learner Having students dance the music adds an important layer to interpreting/understanding a story. Teacher to Teacher Having students sit out to observe other dancers effectively helps them articulate what they see in movement related to music, much more than if they are moving all of the time. It makes them better when they dance again.
2010 Bonnie Raines; created for the San Francisco Symphonys Keeping Score Education program

Bonnie Raines Santa Rosa, CA

Portfolio Images

2010 Bonnie Raines; created for the San Francisco Symphonys Keeping Score Education program

Bonnie Raines Santa Rosa, CA

2010 Bonnie Raines; created for the San Francisco Symphonys Keeping Score Education program