LESSON PLAN
Arts Instructional Guide: Music
Beginning Winds
Essential Standards Addressed:
PERFORMING—Anchor Standard 4: Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
4.2 Enduring Understanding: Analyzing creators’ context and how they manipulate elements of music provides insight
into their intent and informs performance.
Core Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to transcribe 2 measure rhythm patterns that use quarter note, half note,
dotted half note, and whole notes
Content Vocabulary:
Beat, syllables, pear, apple, banana,
watermelon
Minutes Lesson Component:
2 Review of reading rhythms
3 Clapping and reading rhythms
3 Clapping and reading rhythms
with a metronome
7 Name that rhythm game
Skills Developed: Students will develop the skill to aurally recognize quarter note, half
note, dotted half note, and whole note rhythms using fruit vocabulary.
Teacher will/student will: Info/Resources needed:
Teacher will use paper and marker to show Paper and marker
students a quarter note, half note, dotted half
note, and whole note.
Students will identify each using fruit
vocabulary. Quarter note is a pear. Half note
is a-pple. Dotted half note is ba-na-na. Whole
note is wa-ter-me-lon.
Teacher will show students 1 measure
rhythmic patterns that use a mixture of
quarter note, half note, dotted half note, and
whole notes.
Students will read these rhythms using the
respective fruit vocabulary.
Teacher will explain to students that in Paper and marker
addition to reading the rhythms, they are to
clap only on the first syllable of each fruit.
Teacher will demonstrate using 1 measure
rhythm patterns.
Students will demonstrate as a class
Teacher will choose individuals to
demonstrate for the class.
Teacher will turn on a metronome set to Paper and marker
tempo 95 and explain to students that the
Metronome
clicking sound that they are hearing is the
beat.
Teacher will further explain that they are to
read and clap the rhythms with the clicking
sound.
Teacher will demonstrate on a 1 measure
rhythm pattern.
Students will demonstrate as a class.
Teacher will choose individuals to
demonstrate for the class.
Teacher will explain to students that the goal Paper and marker
of the game is to correctly write out the
Metronome
rhythm pattern that the teacher claps (using
fruit vocabulary). There will be three rhythm
patterns in total and each will become
progressively more challenging. Each rhythm
pattern will be clapped four times by the
teacher after which the students will show
their answer on their screen. (*The rhythm
pattern will be clapped to a metronome to
make it easier to distinguish between the
different rhythms.)
Reflection:

This was the first time that students were asked to read and clap rhythms at the same time. This was also the first time
that they were asked to transcribe rhythms as well. Before today, students have used fruit vocabulary to read the rhythms
in their sheet music and also fingered their parts while doing so.

I was surprised and relieved to see that the students enjoyed this lesson. I was also surprised at how fast the students
improved at transcribing rhythms. I was only planning on having the students transcribe 1 measure rhythm patterns, but
it became clear that they would easily be able to handle 2 measure patterns. Actually, if it wasn’t for time constraint, I
think that most of the students would have enjoyed challenging themselves to transcribe 3 measure rhythm patterns.