Both Chopin and Mozart had their first musical pieces published when they were seven years old. By the time Handel was 11 years old, he had already composed six sonatas. Haydn began improvising at age four and Beethoven at age six. History has shown us that musical imagination has no age limit.
My students find the lives of classical composers absolutely fascinating.
We have been studying one composer every month since the beginning of this school year. My students practically explode through the music room doors with insatiable curiosity at the beginning of every new unit wondering which composer we will be studying next. They love exploring their creative ideas through music class. We improvise, compose, arrange, choreograph, and dramatize as much as we can. Our music room is a place where a simple idea takes on a life of its own to become a beautiful work of musical art. Mistakes are embraced as a pathway to a different melody or rhythm. Their musical imaginations are cultivated during our time together so that they will become the next generation of composers. Consequently, music history has become a passion of my students. They are always asking for more stories and pieces to listen to. Our library is very new, so we have very few resources for my students to share.
My Project
Our 4th graders recently researched explorers and shared their power point presentations with the other grades about the information they discovered. We are going to take their newfound research skills and apply them to our composer studies. We will research composers and create interesting presentations to share with the rest of our school and our parent community. In order to conduct our research, we need enough resources for a class of 30 students to use at one time. We also need a wide variety of materials appropriate for 3rd through 5th grade students. This project will be continued each year with new composers. Having books on many composers will allow the students to choose different topics each year. Not only will it address many of the national and state music standards, it will cover a plethora of writing, reading, and technology standards as well. Projects like this one are a great way to have students incorporate their academic skills across the different content areas.
I hope that you will consider donating to our Masters of Music research project.
Help my students to develop life-long research and public speaking skills through a medium they are passionate about- music. Help me to encourage the next generation of composers by showing them the wonder and beauty of our musical past!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Traxler and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
