Lesson plan Grade 2 Art & Music
A Rainstorm in Four Sounds: A Grade 2 Water Music Lesson
A 40-minute grade 2 music lesson where students build a four-part body-percussion rainstorm, draw a picture score for it, and write the storm as an ordered story.
Objectives
- Students will perform four rain sounds in order as a whole-class piece.
- Students will draw a four-box picture score that shows the order of the sounds.
- Students will write a short ordered story of the storm using words that signal time.
- Students will name one thing a heavy rain changes about their own day.
Vocabulary
- Storm drain
- A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.
Also: score, order, gutter, puddle
Teacher overview
A rainstorm has a shape in time, and this lesson gives second graders a way to hear that shape before they write about it. The class builds a four-part body-percussion piece that follows one storm from the first scattered drops through the downpour, the slow drip from the gutter after the rain stops, and the trickle of water along the curb into the storm drain. Students then draw the piece as a picture score and write the same four events as a story with words that signal order.
Two teaching notes matter more than the rest. First, rehearse the transitions rather than the sounds, because the class will get loud at the downpour and will not want to leave it; a raised hand that means "quieter" should be practiced twice before the first full run. Second, keep the fourth sound soft, since the water running to the drain is a thin sound and students who make it as loud as the downpour lose the shape of the whole piece.
Procedure
Listening and naming (6 min). Ask the class to close their eyes while you tap one fingertip on a desk, slowly, then faster, then stop. Read aloud: "What did that sound like to you?" Take four answers. Read aloud: "Today we will make a whole rainstorm with our hands. A storm has parts, and the parts come in order."
Building the four sounds (12 min). Teach each sound separately and post its name in one of the four boxes on the chart. Sound one is single fingertips tapping, which is the first drops. Sound two is flat palms patting the desk quickly, which is the downpour. Sound three is one slow fingertip tap every few seconds, which is the drip from the gutter after the rain stops. Sound four is palms sliding along the desk, which is the water running down the curb into the storm drain. Practice each sound alone until the class can start and stop it on your hand signal.
Performing the piece (8 min). Run the whole storm twice, holding each sound for about fifteen seconds and using the raised hand for volume. After the first run, ask one question and take a show of hands as the formative check: "Which sound should be the loudest?" You want the large majority pointing to sound two, and you want somebody able to say that sound four stays soft because only a little water is moving.
Drawing the score (8 min). Students fold a sheet into four boxes and draw one picture in each box, in order, to show the four sounds. Under each box they write the sound's name. Tell them the score has to work for someone who was not here, which pushes them toward clear pictures rather than decorated ones.
Writing the storm (6 min). Ask one question first and chart three answers: what does a heavy rain change about your day? Recess moving indoors, boots by the door, and the puddle at the bus door are the kinds of answers to listen for. Students then write four short sentences under the score, one per box, using the words first, next, then, and last to signal the order, and finish with one closing line naming one thing the rain changed for them.
Student Handout
Your score. Fold your paper into four boxes. Draw one picture in each box. Box one is the first drops. Box two is the downpour. Box three is the drip from the gutter. Box four is the water running to the storm drain.
Your labels. Write the name of the sound under each box.
Your story. Write four sentences under your score. Start them with the words first, next, then, and last. Add one more sentence at the end that tells one thing the rain changed about your day, such as how the schoolyard looked or what you had to wear.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Differentiation
Support
Assign these students one sound to lead for the whole class, which gives them a reason to track the order without holding all four in mind at once. Provide the four picture boxes already labeled so the writing time goes into the sentences. Offer a sentence bank with the four time words already printed at the start of four lines.
Extension
Ask these students to add a fifth box for what happens after the storm drain, such as the pipe carrying water to the creek, and to invent a sound for it that the class can learn. They can also mark their score with a simple loud-and-soft key, for example a large letter for loud and a small letter for soft, and conduct the class using it.
ELL supports
Teach each sound with the gesture before the word, and keep the four printed words on the chart where every student can see them during writing. Pair each time word with a numbered finger held up by the teacher, so first, next, then, and last are visible as well as spoken. Accept the story in the home language with the four time words written in English.
Extensions
Record the class performance on a tablet and play it back while students hold up their scores at the matching moment, which shows immediately whose picture order matches what the class actually played. If your building has a covered walkway, take the class outside during or right after a real rain, when there is no thunder or lightning, to listen for the same four sounds, then let students revise one box of their score based on what they heard rather than what they imagined.