Lesson 16: I'm a musician

I'm a musician,

I play the piano,

I play the violin

and the guitar too!

I'm a musician,

I play the trumpet,

I play the flute

and the drums too!

Music, music, I play music! (x2)

Stage 1 – Brief Revision

Revise the previous lesson briefly following the procedure of Lesson 3 Stage 1 (here revise Happy Birthday, (birthday) cake, to blow out candles, to open presents, to make a wish, party, to dance)

Stage 2 – Vocabulary focus i) MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: piano, violin, guitar, trumpet, flute, drum ii) PROFESSIONS: musician iii) VERBS: to play

Prepare flashcards and finger puppets at home that depict musical instruments piano, violin, guitar, trumpet, flute, drum. Present the flashcards to Ss, use L1 and ask them: “What can you see in the pictures?”, “Can you play any musical instruments?”, “What is your favourite musical instrument?”, “What musical instruments are there in our classroom?”. The last question will give you the chance to revise the percussion instruments Ss can play (maracas, tambourine, sticks, jingle stick, scraper, bells etc). Present and drill vocabulary items concerning musical instruments in English by using the flashcards and / or rhythmical clapping [ pia-no, gui-tar, trum-pet (clap two quarter notes, ta ta), flute, drum (clap one half note, ta-ah), vi-o-lin (clap three quarter notes, ta ta ta) ]. Make a recording of the sounds of these musical instruments or find one on the Web and play it in the classroom. Ask Ss to recognise the sounds of each musical instrument and label it in English e.g. Ss listen to a piano piece and shout “piano”. Ask Ss if they know how we call somebody that plays music professionally. Ss answer in L1 and then, you present them with the flashcard depicting a musician. Present and drill the word musician by using the flashcard and rhythmical clapping [ mu-si-cian (clap three quarter notes, ta ta ta)]. Next, tell Ss that they will learn a song about the musical instruments a musician can play. Play the song on the piano. Ask Ss to i) stand up and move to the rhythm of the music as if they played the musical instruments mentioned in the song ii) raise the correct flashcard or finger puppet of the musical instrument which is heard in the song iii) sing the song focusing on the words piano, violin, guitar, trumpet, flute, drums. In other words, you can pause before some words and wait for the Ss to say the word missing e.g. You play “I'm a musician, I play the______”, you pause and show Ss the piano flashcard. Ss shout “piano” and you continue with the following sentence of the song in the same way iv) clap their hands (4 quarter notes per measure, ta ta ta ta)

Stage 3 – Incorporating percussion instruments into our activities & practising rhythmical patterns

Divide the class into groups and give them the percussion instruments they are going to use in this song (Always give instructions by following the procedure of Lesson 1 Stage 3). Group A beats 2 half notes per measure using their bells (ta-ah ta-ah), Group B beats 4 quarter notes per measure using their jingle sticks (ta ta ta ta) and Group C beats “1 quarter note, 2 eighth notes, 1 half note” per measure using their sticks (ta ti-ti ta-ah). Practice separately and then altogether as a band. In the end, ask Ss to play and sing the song as much as they can.

Stage 4 – Follow-up activities

Ask Ss to make their own percussion musical instruments by using everyday household materials such as cans, boxes, paper, glue, beans, rice, lentils, coloured pencils etc (You can find useful information about making percussion instruments with household materials on the Web). During this activity, Ss could be listening to music (e.g. Ravel “Bolero”). In the end, ask Ss to sing goodbye to Mrs Mary (see Lesson 1 Follow-up).