Bach Archives - Growing In Grace

Lapbooking the Orchestra

July 16, 2012Tracy7 Comments

We’ve been sprinkling in a little music and art appreciation this summer. I will admit that it’s been tough to get to everything this summer with Littlest joining the fun. I’m really glad I opted for relaxed lesson planning (it was more like rough weekly goals than actual lesson plans); this way, I avoid the overwhelming feeling of being behind. It’s summer, after all, right? Who gets behind on summer school!

We’ve been listening to Classic For Kids stories about Bach and adding elements to our music lapbook. Oldest has his periods of music down: baroque, classical, romantic, modern.

We’ve also been learning the seating chart for an orchestra, learning the different instrument families, and trying to identify certain instruments by sound.

orchestra seating lapbook

And did I mention that Littlest is joining the fun, now? He’s making music of his own these days.

homeschooling with baby — How's this sound?

Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bach?

June 7, 2012Tracy

I’ve been all over the place deciding what composer to study this summer. It’s been really bad. But I did finally decide, and everything fell together really nicely after all.

I had originally thought we would be studying Mendelssohn because I had a free set of plans for Monet and Mendelssohn. Then one day it dawned on me that I didn’t have to study Mendelssohn just because we were studying Monet. It dawned on me because I’d just picked up another free set of plans to study Brahms, and Brahms sounded so much more appealing than Mendelssohn. So, Brahms it was.

Until I listened to one of my kids LeapPad books and realized that our artists up to this point (Handel and Vivaldi) have been in the Baroque period. I hadn’t given much teaching time to the music periods; we simply listened to the music and read biographies. But suddenly it seemed that I ought to teach the music period, and I ought to teach Bach since he was in our Baroque period of music.

So, after much indecision, Bach it is.

I have plenty of materials, which is one reason the decision has been so hard to make. But I have stumbled upon some really excellent music fun that I thought I’d pass along.

First, I found over 60 pages of music lapbooking bliss for FREE at Living Life Intentionally blog. Next, I ran across The Story of the Orchestra at our library (complete with CD) and wondered, “Where have you been all this time?” This book is absolutely fabulous. Very kid-friendly, very “non-music person” friendly. The first half of the book introduces composers by period and includes a note about which track to play on the CD; the second half of the book introduces the orchestra and specific instruments of the orchestra, with accompanying tracks on the CD. I’ve learned so much from this book! Lastly, I picked up Erica’s World’s Greatest Composers study for $5.50. I love her lapbooking materials; I love her notebooking pages; I love the layout of her study.