Oh! No! A Lesson for Elementary Music Class
A few summer's ago my son randomly selected the book Oh! No! by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann off the shelf at our local library. As we were reading the story together I was inspired by the repetition and animal sounds to create this music lesson. I use this lesson with my K-2 kids, but you can totally adapt it for older grade levels.
Whenever I read a story or do pretty much anything in my class I review the expectations. Our school is a PBIS school and we are laser focused on making sure our students know what is expected of them during every aspect of the day. You can grab a copy of my PBIS classroom rules here! Before I start reading the story, I review my expectations for listening during a story: Sit quietly, Actively listen (don't zone out), Pay attention, and Keep your hands and feet to yourself. Now we are ready to read.
Then I go ahead and read through the story checking for those expectations as I read. To make sure we are getting that active listening I ask questions during the story like - Why is it bad the animals are in the hole? or What do you think the tiger is up to?
Once we read through the story, it's time for the fun part - INSTRUMENTS! First we set up for success and explain what we are doing. The story has repetition - Ribbit-oops, Ribbit-oops, Ribbit-oops. I've used that repetition for "audience participation" as I like to call it - or Ribbit-oops (my turn), Ribbit-oops (your turn), Ribbit-oops (our turn.) I use these terms - my turn, your turn, our turn - all the time in my classroom - so I like to keep it consistent even when doing a story. The we practice singing the "Oh no!" together on pitches Sol-Do. We hold the Soooooooooooooooooool out a long time. You could throw the hand signs in here or hold arms up for Sol and bring them down for Do - up to you!
Next we go over how to play the non pitched percussion instruments - again following PBIS procedure I make sure I go over the expectations of how to play and when to play before we even get instruments in our hands. Then I review those things one more time (or many more times) once they are holding the instruments. We talk about how they are the "instrumentalists" and we practice saying the Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig word. I ask them if they can remember the animals in the story that were not the Tiger. I use the cards below as a visual reminder. It's also a great time to explain what a Slow Loris is. Once we've named the animals I assign each animal an instrument.
The Frog - "Ribbit-oops!" - is the Woodblock,
the Mouse - "Pippa-eek!" - is the Triangle,
the Slow Loris - "Soooooo-slooooooooooow!" - is the Tambourine,
the Sun Bear - "Grab on!" - is the Hand Drum,
the Monkey - "Wheeeee-haaaaaaaa!" - is the Egg Shakers,
and the Elephant "BA-BOOM!" - is my Timpani played with soft timpani mallets.
I also add a roll on my big drums for "Oh No!"
Everyone plays together very quiet - pianissimo - during the tiger part because their animals are scared.
Now that we have the instruments we review one more time the expectations, when to how, and how to play. I have my kids in different groups around the room with their animal card as another reminder of when to play. Time to re-read the story with all of our special parts. I try to walk around the room while I'm reading and stop at the group whose turn it is to play as yet another reminder.
Once we are cleaned up there's time for a little reflection. I love hearing what part was my student's favorite (usually the elephant) and I love to hear their idea of whether or not we did a great job with the expectations - of course we did!
I hope you like my lesson for Oh No! The cards are available in my TpT store and I would love to hear in the comments how this worked in your classroom!
Enjoy!
Don't forget to follow my link and grab yourself a copy of Oh No!
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