Learning About Nature Through
Music and the Arts
Be Curious Be Inspired Create and Share Through Music |
Be Curious Be Inspired Create and Share Through Music |
This is one of our first outdoor projects this year. By bringing the classes outside, we are following the Manitoba Music Curriculum: Oh wow... just found this one anew: And the new Louis Riel School Division Multi-Year Strategic Plan: Students went outside, using a sound map paper, to listen to sounds around the school field, and create lines and shapes that connected to what they were hearing. Inside, we watched the first few seconds of the NFB documentary, Listen, about composer R. Murray Schafer, who spent much of his career thinking about soundscapes of our environment. We also watched a bit of his composition, Miniwanka, about water, to see how he creates his compositions and the notation for them. Then we tried to recreate our soundscape inside, standing in the spaces that would match the maps. We created a second page for notation, putting our 'instruments' (the sounds we heard outside) at the left side of the screen, so that we could create a timeline of the sound story, or composition we want to create of the outdoor environment. We watched various videos of composers - past and current - who use natural sounds that they studied and incorporated into their music. Peter and the Wolf was helpful for showing how to play a melody that represents a person, or animal. We watched performers discuss how to play music to represent a story. Then, before playing, I shared a paraphrased line from the 'Listen' NFB documentary above: 'The whole world is a composition that has no beginning and, presumably, no ending... and we are the composers.... ' And then I would start the groups to play... Various interesting things happened throughout the playing of each groups' pieces: - Sometimes classes would overlap, and one group would play for another, and they would see that quote in real life in that even though they were all in the same school yard for the listening portion, they heard different things at different times of day, or animals in different locations. - We talked about how, if we did this for years, we might start to notice changes in animals etc which is a helpful part of 'soundscape ecology'. - One group didn`t have anyone playing the wind, so I played the beginning of the Arctic Symphony by Vince Ho to show that there can be a mix of instruments and recorded sounds for compositions that is very effective and beautiful. - I offered the chance for some students to conduct the sounscape composition themselves. Very interesting to watch how carefully they need to watch their classmate. - We had to learn to listen very carefully, which is a huge, new section of the Manitoba Music Curriculum: - Some groups are going with their teacher and myself to a local forest, and it will be exciting to discuss the differences in sounds we heard from our school yard, compared to the forest. I'm so excited to be doing these forest walks with students this year, after several days learning about plants and trees from various experts in locations inside and outside of our city. I'm so excited about what I have been learning through a program with the Manitoba Métis Federation called 'Stewards of the Homeland' .. this program has helped me learn so many plants and trees that are an important part of Métis culture, which is a part of my heritage that I am re-discovering. It's also amazing to learn about the connection to the land for the upcoming Li Keur opera, which is an opera about Louis Riel in Michif and Anishinaabemowin languages and more. I've been helping by preparing the children's chorus. So many plants are included in this opera as connection to the land is huge. Cannot wait to see it. As well, I have learned so much from various workshops, such as Project Wild and Below Zero from the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and am happy to continue collaborating with the facilitator, Ashley Adams, who came to work with the Environment Club, planting in the butterfly garden. So many sections of the Manitoba Music Curriculum are addressed here, while also nurturing student needs to 'connect purposefully with nature and their environment', which is a section that is part of almost every employment advertisement in my school division, even for music positions. For music itself: - listening skills - playing in an ensemble - watching cues of the director - playing a variety of instruments using proper technique - behaviour as a performer and audience member - listening to music from their own community and from other times and places - examples of music careers - reading notation (I actually have decided I don't like the terms 'traditional' and 'non-traditional' notation. Who decides which is traditional? Why?) - Using movement to explore concepts - balance and blend in an ensemble - play or sing by ear, reproducing melodies - understanding of melodic design (various bird songs, plane sounds - Doppler Effect) One of my favourite new additions to the Manitoba Music Curriculum is the following: This above phrase is so important. With everything in the world, we need to open our minds to new ideas, new challenges, which helps us develop our creativity and imagination, and therefore helps us learn and grow. A student asked me to play a musical work in class to see 'if it was worth it'. This started a discussion about what the purpose of art is. It is our ability to express ourselves. It's not about liking or not liking it. In our commodity-based culture, there is so much around us about what is good or worth it... but we need to learn to suspend this judgement to experience new things. This attitude about if something is 'worth it' or not also has a detrimental effect on students' growth mindset; why would a student even start to think they can use music and the arts express themselves when the first thing that happens is others deciding if it is good or not? The remorse on children's faces and even adults who visit my room when they say they aren't 'good' at music or 'good' at art. It's a form of expression. I gave a made up example of a child explaining to someone why they are sad/happy etc
At the end of these experiences, I heard students saying this was fun, and had a student make a point of coming up to me to thank me for doing this, and that it was interesting and fun.... Hopefully it established a stronger connection to nature for that student and others....
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Click HERE to go back to the first postBio - Jennifer EngbrechtI am a music specialist in the Louis Riel School Division in Manitoba, Canada. I have a strong interest in the interrelationship of all subject areas, especially infusing the arts into all learning, and as their own stand-alone subjects. NEW:
So excited to be interviewed for Green Teacher Magazine's "Talking With Green Teachers" Podcast My article in the MSSTA Journal for Fall 2021... Click on the image below:
My article in the Summer 2021 Green Teacher Magazine. Click on the image below:
Disconnect: The Outdoor Education Podcast - listen to this episode about Teaching Music Outside by clicking on the picture below:
Looking for the WSO Manitoba Mosaic lesson for Hey Terre by Kelly Bado?
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