Homeschool Music Lesson Plan 4th Grade

Homeschooling can be so much fun!  As a parent though you have your "fun" subjects and your not so fun subjects to teach.  Music has never been my cup of tea. So finding something for music class that is affordable is my primary goal.  I know a lot of people put their kids in lessons and if you can afford that, great!

Here is what I have done for this year for my fourth grader.  I made a list of ten composers and organized them by the years of birth.  I added where they are from and what period they are in for my reference.  You could use any composers you want to cover throughout the year,

4^th Grade Monthly Composer Study

Listen to each composer daily as doing school work.

Fill out a Composer page monthly. Look up period, works , location and educational information on each composer. Write an opinion paragraph at the end of each month.

August: William Byrd 1539-1623 English Composer - Renaissance period.

September: Antonio Vivaldi 1678-1741 Italian Composer - Baroque period

October: Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750 German Composer – Baroque period

November: George Frideric Handel 1685-1759 German Composer – Baroque Period

December: Joseph Haydn 1732-1809 Austrian Composer – Classical Period

January: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791 Austrian Composer-Classical Period

February: Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827 German Composer - Classical Period

March: Johannes Brahms 1833-1897 German Composer – Romantic Period

April: Claude Debussy 1862-1918 French Composer – Impressionist Period

May: Igor Stravinsky 1882-1971 Russian Composer – Modern Period

While listening to the music it gives kids a chance to here the music without completely thinking about it.  Especially when it is not something they like.  It gives them a chance to not make a quick judgement.  Once they learn that it is special because it is connected with the Renaissance Festival or George Washington or something they have learned about it makes it fun. 

Then to try to make it fun I made a colorful page for an outline page.  This will be for one week.  I live in Maryland and we show paper proof for each subject.  That is why having papers is a must for me.  This plan will give me at least 30 pages for music. 

Your child can look up information on the internet to find everything and really do as much or little as they like.  

Once they have listened and done page 1 they can work on page 2 for the next week.  Writing a paper on the life of the composer.

Composer

Picture Here   

                                                                                       ________________________

             Composer Name

Composer of the Month

                                                               By  ____________________

                                                               Date ___________________

After continuing to listen to the composers music they can then write an opinion paper.  In my case I ask my son for a paragraph, five full sentences, including capitals letters and punctuation! I always have to remind them!  So with the opinion paper, the diagram paper and the written essay on the monthly composer, I'll have 30 pages collected with this alone.  

At the end of the year, we can also discuss which period they enjoyed the most, favorite composer, favorite musical instrument, favorite song and more.  Looks like I need to make another page.

How To Recognize Poison Sumac

Learning how to recognize poison sumac is something I had to do recently.  I've lived in Missouri most of my life and suffered terribly with allergies to poison ivy and poison oak.  Now that I live in Maryland, how awful, we have all three poisons!  I have sensitive skin, so I blister terribly and I've already had it 3 times this year!  Identifying it was half the battle.  I had a hard time finding many pictures of Poison Sumac.
The first thing we did after moving in was cut down a sumac tree, due to the roots going into the foundation of our house.  Then I have all these plants popping up. I was worried about these and come to find out, they aren't even poisonous.  

This is NOT Poison Sumac.  It is a Staghorn Sumac. It has a hairy like stem and jagged leaves.
A very invasive plant.

 Identify Poison Sumac by leaves numbering 7 to 13 but who wants to stand that close and count anyway. The best way to tell is the smooth, bright red stem, then the smooth edge of the leaves and then the hanging white berries.

This is Poison Sumac.  It is growing about 10 feet away from the Staghorn Sumac.  The stems are smooth and so are the leaves. you can see red in the stems. 

Most websites I've been on, I read that poison sumac cannot grow in your yard because it usually grows in swampy, wetland areas.  The nearest water is a tiny creek at least 50 yards behind our house.  Notice the sandy ground, this plant gets shade so it is making it, this very hot summer in Maryland.  

Poison Sumac: Notice Red stem, hanging white berry/flowers and smooth leaves.

A smaller poison sumac tree. 

Another bright red stem!

This plant has the spot of sun on it and is starting to wilt because of our hot weather and lack of rain. 

Poison Sumac mostly grows in the northeast, the southeast, including parts of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Lousiana, and a small bit of Texas, the Carolina's and the Great Lakes Region of the United States.
  What luck, to live where all three poisonous plants grow!

Getting Hacked

Have you had your e-mail Hacked?

I received an e-mail today from someone at my church.  I normally get a message from them once a month.  This time however, I noticed there was nothing in the subject line.  There was only a link to click on at the bottom of the e-mail.  I noticed some other recipients of this e-mail were familiar to me but some I didn't recognize at all.

Okay, first red flag: NO Subject!

Second red flag: only a link, no personal message.

Lastly: I only recognized some of the recipients.

I don't know why anyone would get any joy out of hacking into someone's personal e-mail account just to send viruses or try to steal other info from you.  They may be working for a company who is desperate to get their name out there.

I had my e-mail hacked once, they sent a bunch of my contacts a link. My ex-husband called me up early one morning and said, "I think your e-mail's been hacked into. I got an e-mail from you and I clicked on the link and it was a penis enhancement ad."
Oh my Goodness!  Could you just imagine if that had been sent to my father or my pastor!  How embarrassing that would have been!

If you get one of these e-mails, do not click on the link.  You may get a virus or they may be able to get your personal info.  Let the person know that their e-mail has been hacked.

If you are the one who was hacked, go to your e-mail account A.S.A.P. and set up a new password.  Setting up a new password is easy.  Go to your account settings and you will probably have to type in your current password and then your new one twice.  If that doesn't work, there is usually a 'help' or 'menu' on most e-mail pages, so click on one of those and find a way to change that password before the hackers do!
If someone has hacked your account they can see not only your contacts, but also any personal info you have including all of your sent messages!

Password Strength:
Do Not use the word "Password" as your password.  That is the most common password used and apparently hackers try that first.  Next if you have any information online, everyone can figure out your birthday, also common.  If you were born July1, 1970 and you use July1970 as your password that is too easy.
Make sure your password contains at least 1 capital letter, 1 lower case, 1 number and 1 symbol or punctuation mark.  For example: LolaLoves2E@t  That would be a strong password.

The best way to prevent having your e-mail getting hacked is changing your password often! And by often, I mean every 2 or 3 months.  I know, it's hard to remember. Sometimes, I change mine and then forget it, those days it gets changed even more often!