Just a quick post today, to announce the randomly chosen winner of the giveaway for the Sight Read Plus app for iPad….
Congrats goes to Lori! Lori, I will be sending you an email with your promo code very soon.
By the way, two new lapbooks have been added to the ColorInMyPiano shop — Handel & Mussorgsky!
Studying Handel provides the opportunity to discuss popular Baroque forms such as the concerto grosso and the oratorio, and to learn the stories behind a couple of his famous works: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. I used this lapbook at my Music History Camp this week. Listening to those two pieces and learning the stories behind them was a hit with my students!
Studying Mussorgsky provided the opportunity to learn about the group of Russian composers known as “The Mighty Five” and their Nationalist tendencies. We also studied Mussorgsky’s well known work Pictures at an Exhibition, composed in honor of Mussorgsky’s artist/architect friend who died rather suddenly. Included in the Mussorgsky lapbook is an optional worksheet activity to use while listening to Pictures at an Exhibition.
In case you are curious, the next composer added will be Prokofiev. After that, who knows…maybe Clementi or Tchaikovsky? 🙂
Your lapbooks intrigued me so I just had to research this a little more. I was surprised that my students had never heard of this, even some of the parents who were teachers. I think lapbooking is one of the best ideas to learn musical concepts and history. You really outdid yourself. As I started one myself on chords I found out how much work goes into this. Organizing ideas and grouping them into categories really helped me. I had to ask myself questions as if I were the student. What is a chord? What does a chord look like? What does a chord sound like? etc. When I finished, I was quite pleased with the outcome. And as you found out the kids love to put them together. They are such keepsakes for future reference too. I will be ordering some of your history ones in the Fall. Thanks for all the work you put into this project.
Thank you, Jan! I agree — lapbooking is an awesome way to study concepts/topics — especially history, I think, which can become dry in a lecture-style class. Congratulations upon the success with your students and your chord lapbook!