KINDER KONZERTS EDUCATOR GUIDE 17-18 MAX FOUND TWO STICKS
INTRODUCTION We are so happy you are attending Kinder Konzerts. An educational program of the FRIENDS of the Minnesota Orchestra, Kinder Konzerts are designed to introduce preschool aged children to the wonderful world of music and the symphony orchestra. Kinder Konzerts is a two-part experience: 1. First, students, teachers, and families will participate in the Sound Factory, where volunteers guide children through a hands-on music lesson. In the Sound Factory, all children will play a violin, a cello, and a snare drum. 2. Then, children are the audience for a concert on the stage of Orchestra Hall featuring an ensemble of eight Minnesota Orchestra musicians and their instruments, a narrator, and a composition based on a book, created especially for Kinder Konzerts. 2
Kinder Konzerts Learning Goals: 1. Enjoy the magic and beauty of music. 2. Learn about, identify, and experience making sounds on orchestral instruments. 3. Learn about and demonstrate age-appropriate audience behavior. 4. Understand that music can tell a story. 5. Develop active listening skills and positive audience behaviors. 6. Strengthen emerging literacy through musical experiences. 7. Explore found sounds and create music using them. These learning goals are the musical concepts embedded in this year s program. The onstage concert and Sound Factory experiences are designed to support them. Work that you do in the classroom before and after your visit to Orchestra Hall is a key factor in assisting children to successfully reach these goals. The purpose of the Educator Guide is to provide ideas and resources to prepare for, experience, deepen, and reinforce the event. Thank you for bringing the joy of music to a new generation! Katie Condon Education Consultant, Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra
USING THIS GUIDE This Guide consists of three parts in three PowerPoint presentations: Preparing for The Big Day & Resources Teaching the Story Exploring Music & Interdisciplinary Lessons All PowerPoints are available in a variety of formats at the Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra website. Hard copies of Teaching the Story and Exploring Music & Interdisciplinary Lessons will be available at the Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra Educator Workshops. We are excited to provide this content in a new, dynamic way. If you have any questions, please contact Andy Christensen at achristensen@mnorch.org or Katie Condon at condon.katie@macphail.org. 4
PREPARING FOR THE BIG DAY! The day of the concert is exciting for everyone, with lots to see and hear. Help children prepare for the event by letting them know what to expect. Here are learning activities to use in your classrooms.
WE ARE THE AUDIENCE Introduce the word audience. Ask students if they know what the word means. Explain that an audience has a job; to watch, listen and notice. Make it an active task. Sing an audience song! See the next slide for notation, and the slide after that for a video. Hold classroom concerts to get in some audience practice. Invite students to perform for one another. Invite parents, grandparents, siblings, or special guests into the classroom to perform. Have a listening party where you play a favorite piece and practice letting all the sounds come in. 6
WE ARE THE AUDIENCE K. Condon, used with permission 8
TALK ABOUT THE BIG DAY Anticipate the sequence of events and plant some seeds. Emphasize new vocabulary. Here are some helpful talking points: In a few weeks, we will take a special trip to a building made just for music. It s called Orchestra Hall because an orchestra plays there the Minnesota Orchestra. We ll ride a bus to downtown Minneapolis. We ll see some big buildings. What else do you think we might see? Orchestra Hall has many large glass on the outside. We ll walk through glass doors into a lobby. We will meet a friendly guide who will teach us about music, help us find our way around, and lead us through the day. After we gather in the lobby, we will go to two places: the Sound Factory, where we will create sounds and make music, and the Orchestra Hall stage where we will hear the concert. In the Sound Factory, we will sing songs, learn about finding sound in everyday stuff, and play instruments, including a violin, a cello, and a snare drum. We ll walk through doors to a big room, and notice big blocks or cubes on the wall and ceiling. The cubes help sound bounce around the room so everyone can hear the music. We ll go up some steps and sit on the stage. When we are onstage, musicians will play their instruments and tell us about how their instrument makes sound. A storyteller will tell the musical story of Max Found Two Sticks. 9
REINFORCE WITH VISUALS The next several slides contain a series of images with sample narrative. Feel free to use these suggestions or create your own. FRIENDS of the Minnesota Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra s Facebook pages have many great pictures of the space, the musicians, and the events that happen at Orchestra Hall. Visit these sites for images that will help you introduce your students to the experience. Create classroom bulletin boards with images of musicians and instruments. Instrumentation for Max Found Two Sticks is listed below. See the end of this power point presentation for slides with pictures of each instrument. Clarinet Bassoon Trumpet Bass Trombone Violin Cello Traditional percussion Found object percussion 10
A TRIP TO ORCHESTRA HALL In a few weeks, we are going to take a trip to a special building made just for music. It s called Orchestra Hall. This is how Orchestra Hall looks from the outside. The outside of Orchestra Hall has many glass walls. We ll walk through glass doors into a lobby.
THE LOBBY Here s part of the lobby inside Orchestra Hall at a busy Family Concert Learning in the Lobby event. Children and their grownups are making pictures from a musical story.
The Minnesota Orchestra plays at Orchestra Hall. An orchestra is a group of musicians who play music together on many different instruments. Here s a picture of the Minnesota Orchestra.
ON STAGE Here is how the Minnesota Orchestra looks when they play their instruments on stage.
ALL ARE WELCOME Orchestra Hall is a place for everyone. Here we see some families at a Family Concert.
IN THE SOUND FACTORY We will meet a friendly Guides who will teach us about music, help us find our way around, and lead us through the day. In the Sound Factory, Guides will help us play a violin, cello, and snare drum.
MAGIC CUBES! To get to the stage, we will walk through the ring corridor with our Guide. We will notice the carpet on the walls. It helps to keep musical sounds in the hall, and noisy sounds from outside out of the hall. We ll walk through some doors to a big room with many chairs. There are big blocks or cubes on the wall and on the ceilings. Those cubes help sound bounce around the room so everyone can hear the music. Here s a good picture of the cubes.
MUSICIANS, A CONCERT, AND A MUSICAL STORY After we walk up some steps and sit on the stage floor, we ll meet the musicians. They will play their instruments and tell us how they work. A storyteller will read a musical story called Max Found Two Sticks. We will listen, and when it s over, we will clap and say bravo because we are a great audience!
RESOURCES
LISTENING LISTS WITH LINKS LISTEN AND WATCH MUSIC FOR ACTIVE MOVEMENT Feel fantastic rhythms in Malambo, by Alberto Ginastera, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y36xmzypujc Move like robots to Music for Pieces of Wood, by Steve Reich, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy2kyrrxm2g Dance gracefully to Waltz #2, by Dmitri Shostakovich, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmcnqduso4i March like you are in a royal parade to the Minuet from Handel s Music for the Royal Fireworks, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bda3j2kjqxm Boogie to Take the A Train, by Duke Ellington, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6mfgy4g_n8 20
LISTENING LISTS WITH LINKS- LISTEN AND WATCH MUSIC FOR CALM AND REST Take a rest to Arcadiana- 6: O Albion, by Thomas Adés, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np5 SSf3dk Imagine beautiful colors while listening to Of Paradise and Light, by Augusta Read, Thomas, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np5 SSf3dk Feel a sense of calm and peace while listening to the Humming Chorus from Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1k14gqmne Use imaginary finger paints or streamers, ribbon wands, or scarves to trace the highs and lows of the beautiful flute melody in Syrinx, by Claude Debussy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw53vrbi4l0 21
LISTENING LISTS WITH LINKS- LISTEN AND WATCH FOUND SOUND MUSIC For music that incorporates found sound, check out the performance group Stomp. They make music with all sorts of everyday objects. For example: With basketballs and pots pans-www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg-g6shsp5m Or newspapers! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik8jicj8juc Or playing cards! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nhfmaragu0 This Household Percussion Jam, by Brigham, shows many sounds from the same object. Wait for the saw! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8cqyi5wxsu The band Matmos created this entire song by recording sounds from a washing machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js1ii77n8ia 22
BOOKS & WEBSITES WITH LINKS Meet the Orchestra, by Ann Hayes Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin! By Lloyd Moss Story of the Orchestra, by Robert Levine The San Francisco Symphony s website for children: sfskids.org And the New York Philharmonic s website for children: nyphilkids.org/ 23
GLOSSARY AUDIENCE- The group of people who watch and listen to a performance BEAT- A steady pulse in music BOW- What performers do at the end of a performance, when the audience claps for them BRAVO- An Italian word the audiences shout after hearing music they really like MUSICIANS- People who make music NARRATOR- A person who tells a story ORCHESTRA- A group of musicians who play together using instruments 24
INSTRUMENT PICTURES
CLARINET 26
BASSOON (FRONT AND BACK) 27
TRUMPET 28
BASS TROMBONE 29
VIOLIN 30
CELLO 31
TRADITIONAL AND FOUND OBJECT PERCUSSION Snare Drum Bucket Drum 32
FREE CLIP ART Specific clip art credits for story-related items (buckets) can be found at the end of the Teaching the Story Power Point presentation. Here s a website that has many free images of instruments: https://www.wpclipart.com/music/instruments/violin/index.html 33