K-12 Lesson Plans
- Parent Category: Lesson Plans
- In: 2nd to 3rd Grade Lesson Plans
Submitted By: James Berry, North Conway, NH
Objective: Students will tie the value of notes to mathematics and perform simple math problems using musical notes.
National Standards Covered: Reading and notating music (5), Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts (8).
Materials:
- Chalkboard or Whiteboard
- Musical Math worksheet for students (Download here)
- Pencils and Clipboards for the students
Procedure:
1. Begin lesson by reminding students about the value of whole notes, half notes and quarter notes. (Save dotted quarter notes for a later lesson)
2. If helpful, use the fun way of describing rhythms whole note (whole-note-hold-it), half note (half-note), quarter note (pie). It also helps with this method that the number of words also equals the number of beats.
3. Once students are reminded of what each note equals, draw a problem on the board one quarter note plus another quarter note. See if they can figure out that it equals either 2 beats or a half note.
4. Once they grasp this concept, hand out the worksheet and assign partners to work on this together. When I did this lesson, I tried to pair students together who normally didnt work together, since they would likely be at different mathematical levels.
5. At the bottom of the worksheet, it asks students to make up their own musical math problem. If you choose, have students that finish early, write their own problems on the board for the class to solve later.
6. Once everyone is finished, go over the assignment together and see how the students do on other students challenges on the board.
Assessment: Use the results of the worksheet to see how students did with this concept, and perhaps have similar problems on an individual test later on. It would be a good idea as well to get together with the math teacher and compare results.
Download this lesson in Microsoft Word format
