Suggested Grades

2-7

Objective

Students will learn to examine and appreciate the flow of music (speed, energy, and/or emotion).

Materials

• music that contains various speeds, tones, and emotion
• pencils or black markers
• large drawing paper

Method

• Play the song for the students. Ask students to listen to the various speeds and energy of the music and think about how these changes in the music affect their emotions.
• When the song is finished, pass out the paper and the drawing utensils. Explain to students that you would like them to present a visual representation of the music by drawing out a continuous line. They can draw squiggly lines, zig zag lines, whatever, just as long as it represents the music’s speed, energy, and/or emotion and the pencil or marker is never lifted off the paper. You can focus on one aspect at time if you’d like. Try to keep the representations open by not giving examples of what different lines could mean (eg: squiggly lines could mean happy). Each student can decide for themselves how to represent the different aspects.
• Play the music and allow students to freely “draw” out the music.
• When finished display the maps and have a class discussions about the different lines students used throughout the song.
• Variation: To focus on just the emotional aspects of a song, provide different coloured mediums for students to use. Ask students to concentrate on the different colours that can represent different feelings.