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.