Erin Crawford

Music Lesson Plan

Enduring Idea (Big Idea): Artists teach us important lessons for life.

Lesson Title: Elapsed Time and Music

Grade/Class: 6th-8th grade, Special Education Setting (Learning Support)

Time Allotment: 60 minutes

Overview

1. Lesson Summary:
 Students will learn about a strategy to tell elapsed time. The strategy of focus is
mountains, hills and rocks. Before that, the teacher will introduce that songs can
help us remember important things. After reviewing the time strategy that would
have been taught the day prior, they will discuss music history. After the history
portion of the lesson, they will work as a class to put the time strategy steps to a
song to help them remember each step.
2. Artworks, Artists, and/or Artifacts:
 Mozart is a composer who has created many musical pieces. A popular piece he
composed has become a familiar children’s song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
This song has been used by other songwriters and is the musical tune for other
popular songs as well. A song with the same musical composer is the ABC song.
3. Key Concept(s):
 Music can help us understand the world around us.
 Music can change the way view problems.
 Music can teach us to look at everyday topics and look at them differently.
4. Essential Questions:
 How can music help us understand the world around us?
 How can music change the way view problems?
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 How can music teach us to look at everyday topics and look at them differently?
5. Standards:
 PA Standards for Arts & Humanities:
 9.2.8.E - Analyze how historical events and culture impact forms,
techniques and purposes of works in the arts.
o In the lesson- Students will learn about the history of
Mozart and how his composers have been used to develop
songs that we sing today.
 9.1.5.F – Know and apply appropriate vocabulary used between social
studies and the arts and humanities.
o In the lesson- Students will create lyrics corresponding to
their math strategy to an already composed musical piece.
 PA Standards for Subject Content:
 Standard - CC.2.4.3.A.2 - Tell and write time to the nearest minute and
solve problems by calculating time intervals.
o In the lesson- Students will be able to calculate time
intervals within elapsed time using the math strategy
mountains, hills and rocks.
 Standard - CC.2.4.4.A.1 - Solve problems involving measurement and
conversions from a larger unit to a smaller unit.
o In the lesson- Students will work with times given and
separate them into smaller units to find the elapsed time
between the two times given.
 PA Eligible Content or Alternate Eligible Content:
 2.3.D - Measurement and Estimation - Determine and compare
elapsed times
o In the lesson- Students will be working focusing on the
math topic of elapsed time and determining the amount of
elapsed time between two times provided.
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6. Interdisciplinary connections:
 Students will be able to understand how music can help us further understand the
topics in the world around us, specifically in song lyric creation and math,
through creation and practice.

Objectives

1. Knowledge: Students will effectively follow the procedures of the math strategy
mountains, hills and rocks, through using the created song, to complete four out of five
math problems.
2. Skills: Students will effectively read a script and perform for the class allowing them to
develop social skills for the workplace.
3. Dispositions: Students will use music to demonstrate their elapsed time skills.

Assessment

 Teacher will observe and monitor student participation in the song creation and practice.

Instructional Procedures

1. Motivation/Engagement:
 The teacher will begin the lesson by asking the students if they have heard of the
songs Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star or the ABCs song. After the students answer,
sing them as a class one as a time. Then ask the class if they noticed anything
similar between the two songs. After class discussion, tell the students that the
two songs have the same music/tune. (5 minutes)
 Tell the students that sometimes we use the same musical tune and put different
words to the tune to help us remember things. (1 minutes)
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o The day prior to this, the elapsed time strategy, mountains, hills and rocks
would be introduced.
2. Development:
 Tell the students, “Okay, now that we have looked at the two songs Twinkly,
Twinkle Little Star and the ABC song, and we have found they are the same, we
are going to look at the person who composed the song originally before any
words were put to the musical tune.” (1 minute)
 Review the Mozart PowerPoint with the students. Discuss when we was alive and
the importance he played in music history. Talk about how we have used his song
to help us all the way through to today’s day with the ABC song because that is
how most of us learn the ABC song. (8 minutes)
 Tell the students that music can help us learn and remember things and ask the
students which elapsed time strategy they learned yesterday. (Answer: Mountains,
hills and rocks) (1 minute)
 Review the strategy steps and write them on the white board. Then tell the
students that they will be putting those steps to a song that they already know to
help them remember the steps! (8 minutes)
o Steps: Two time are provided. Mountains equal one hour, hills represent
five minutes, and rocks represent one minute. On a line, the right the start
time on the left side of the line and the end time at the right side of the
line. Determine how many of each you need to make it from the beginning
to the end time. (Mountains are a large triangle, Rocks are a large half
circle and Rocks are small half circle on the line)
 After the review provide the students with the tune to the Farmer in the Dell and
tell that that is the tune we are going to be working with today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnd5WugP5tA&vl=en (2 minutes)
 Work as a class to put the steps to the song tune. (5 minutes)
 After the song is completed, practice the song as a class and watch for student
participation throughout the activity. (If you would like you can also add simple
motions to the song as well.) (5 minutes)
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 After the students are comfortable with the song, practice two elapsed time
problems with the students using the song to help with the steps. (10 minutes)
 After you feel the students are comfortable with the activity, have them practice
two problems on their own. (10 minutes)
o The next day review the song and have students complete practice
problems while using the help from the song.
3. Culmination/Close:
 After the students have completed their practice problems go over each problem
its steps, following along with the song. Then tell the students that we will
continue practicing our mountains, hills and rocks song tomorrow! (4 minutes)

Preparation

1. Teacher Research and Preparation:

 I will need to prepare the Mozart PowerPoint, the Farmer in the Dell song,
practice problem worksheet and the participation rubric. I will also need to make
sure that a white board or smart board and a writing utensil are available for
writing the steps of the math strategy on the board.
 Vocabulary-
o Elapsed Time- the amount of time that passes from the start of an event to
its finish
o Composer- a person who writes music, especially as a professional
occupation
o Composition- a work of music
o Music- vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as
to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion
 References:
o https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/meghan-
everette/teaching-elapsed-time-strategies-work/
o https://www.biography.com/people/wolfgang-mozart-9417115
o http://www.pdesas.org/
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnd5WugP5tA&vl=en
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2. Instructional Resources:
o Mozart PowerPoint
o Elapsed Time Worksheet
o Participation Rubric

3. Student Supplies:
o Elapsed Time Worksheet

4. Adaptions/Modifications: This lesson is designed for a Special Education setting so it

would need to be accommodated initially to fit all student’s needs. An example of an
accommodation would be for someone who is an English as a Second Language (ESL)
student, a translation for the song could be provided as well as a translator for when the
student is participating in song creations and practice. Also, for someone who has a
difficult time reading, the word problems could be shortened or read aloud for them.
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Mountains, Hills and Rocks Steps

1. Draw a timeline listing your start time at the left and the end time at the right.

2. Draw the mountains, hills and rocks to show the elapsed time. Start at the left side and begin
with the hours. At each mountain, write the time you have made it to. For example if the
beginning time in 12:00 and the end time is 1:31, there would be one mountain and under the
line, you would write 1:00.

3. After there are no more full hours between the times, move to the hills, which are five
minutes. For the example, you would draw six hills and at each one, you would write the new
time, so the first rock would take you to 1:05 and so on.

4. After there are no more full five-minute intervals, move to the rocks, which are one minute.
For example after you get to 1:30 in our sample problem, there is still one more minute needed to
reach the end time, here you would use a rock. This would get you from 1:30 to 1:31.
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Premade Song

Mountains, hills and rocks (2x)

Hi-ho, the derry-o

Mountains, hills and rocks

Mountains are one hour (2x)

Hi-ho, the derry-o

Write down your hour

Hills are five minutes (2x)

Hi-ho, the derry-o

Write your five minutes

Rocks are one minute (2x)

Hi-ho, the derry-o

Write down your minutes

Mountains, hills and rocks (2x)

Hi-ho, the derry-o

Mountains, hills and rocks

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Participation Rubric

Criterion 2 1 0

Participation in the Full participation in Partial participation No participation in

Song Creation the song creation, in the song creation song creation.
helping create the helps one time in the
words and tune for complete creation.
the song.

Participation in the Full participation in Practices the song No participation in

Song Practice singing along during 50% of the time. song practice.
the song practice.

Participation in Full participation and Lack of effort in No participation in

Worksheet effort in trying to trying to complete the worksheet
Completion complete the elapsed elapsed time completion.
time problems worksheet. Problem
worksheet. behaviors evident
during completion.