Lesson 8: Autumn

It's autumn, it's autumn,

rain and umbrellas.

It's autumn, it's autumn,

wind, wind, wind.

It's autumn, it's autumn,

all the trees are bare.

It's autumn, it's autumn,

fallen leaves.

Stage 1 – Brief Revision

Revise the previous lesson briefly following the procedure of Lesson 3 Stage 1 (here revise: sky, sun, cloud, day, night, tree, flower, rainbow, moon, star, blue, yellow, red, white, grey, black, brown, green, purple, pink, to paint )

Stage 2 – Vocabulary focus i) SEASONS: autumn ii) WEATHER: rain, wind iii) AUTUMN LANDSCAPE: bare trees, fallen leaves iv) CLOTHES AND ACCESSORIES: umbrella

Prepare flashcards and finger puppets at home that depict the season of autumn and whatever characterises it, such as rain, wind, bare trees, fallen leaves, umbrellas etc. Present the flashcards to Ss, use L1 and ask them: “ Do you know the four seasons? ”, “What can you see in the pictures?”,

“ Look at the pictures and guess which season we are going to talk about.”, “Do you like autumn?” “What is the weather like in autumn?”, “What are the colours of autumn?”. Present and drill the following vocabulary items autumn, rain, wind, bare tree, fallen leaves, umbrella by using the flashcards and rhythmical clapping [wind, tree, leaves (clap one half note, ta-ah), au-tumn, ra-in, ba-re, fa-llen (clap two quarter notes, ta ta), um-bre-lla (clap three quarter notes, ta ta ta), ba-re tree, fa-llen leaves (clap two quarter notes and one half note, ta ta ta-ah)].

Alternatively, if the lesson takes place in autumn, you can ask Ss to look outside their windows and describe the weather, the landscape and the colours that characterise autumn (brown, yellow, grey) as well as collect some fallen leaves and small branches of trees and present them to their classmates. You can also make a recording of the sound of rain and wind (or find one on the Web), play it in the classroom and ask Ss to recognise what they hear.

Tell Ss that they will sing a song in which they describe the season of autumn. Play the song on the piano. Ask Ss to i) stand up and move to the rhythm of the music ii) raise the correct flashcard or finger puppet of the word that is heard in the song or, open their umbrellas, reproduce the sound of rain and wind, raise their fallen branches of trees and leaves when these are mentioned in the song iii) to describe what kind of feelings the music evokes by sketching a happy or sad face in their drawing pads 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 scrapers (ta-ah ta-ah), Group B beats 4 quarter notes per measure using their jingle sticks (ta ta ta ta), Group C beats 8 eighth notes per measure using their sticks (ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti) and Group D beats “1 quarter note, 2 eighth notes, 1 quarter note, 2 eighth notes” per measure using their bells (ta ti-ti ta ti-ti). Practice separately and then altogether as a band. Last, ask Ss to play and sing the song as much as they can.

Stage 4 – Follow-up activities

Ask Ss to draw something depicting autumn or make a collage picture by cutting pictures from magazines or printing them from the web. In the end, Ss vote for the best drawing / collage picture and the winner describes his/her drawing / collage picture in class. While drawing, Ss could be listening to music (e.g. Vivaldi “The Four Seasons - Autumn”). Ask Ss to sing goodbye to Mrs Mary (see Lesson 1 Follow-up).