Music History Unit

This year has been a funny one! It started out with the birth of our sweet baby Clementine—on the first day of school! (Public school, anyway.) We had been banking up school time during the previous year and summer so I could feel fine about taking a nice long break for the baby. When we did start school again, I decided to start with something I could put together easily and without a ton of preparation time, so I chose to do a Music History Unit.

I majored in Music in college, so I have a lot of resources—CDs and textbooks, and a pretty good grasp of the overall scope of Music History, so I hoped all I'd need to do was request some library books and find good recordings of the pieces I wanted to discuss.

It ended up being a MONSTER Unit, over twelve weeks long, because we first studied Sound—then Instruments—then Musical Eras and Composers—then Musical Genres—and even got to ballet and opera and movie music by the end. It was pretty comprehensive! And it was lots of fun. It took a bit longer than I'd planned, but it was, as I'd hoped, just the right thing for a unit right after having a baby: lots of opportunities for just sitting in my bed and listening and talking, and not too many heavily involved crafts or projects.

A few of the activities we did do are on my Pinterest page, here: https://www.pinterest.com/marilynnielson/music-unit/

I can't even possibly link to all the videos we watched—basically I chose representative music from each era and highlighted composers, and we listened to sometimes several versions of one piece. I pulled from my faithful old Norton Scores from college, but also other music in our collection, or Apple Music. We also watched lots of video recordings because it's so instructive to SEE the music being played. (It would have been great to go to more concerts during this unit, but there were still lots of Covid closures plus the aforementioned new baby, so we didn't really get to.)

Anyway, I went through my YouTube History and tried to pull out videos that we liked especially, but I'm sure I missed a bunch. But I'll link some of them here:

• What does a vibraphone sound like?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkBu7Om6Bd4 (there were a whole bunch of these instrument/timbre videos on the Utah Symphony page and they were quite good; you can find the rest here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/UtahSymphonyUtahOpera/videos?view=0&sort=p&shelf_id=0)

• Other videos about each instrument in the orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLALV7z7CDQ7yCWoOvUK4mOMAE4ub_h0TG

• How vinyl records are made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq5EDXNe-HQ&t=131s

• History of recorded sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mb6y_s1QQc&t=220s

• How do microphones work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_crXXbuEKE

• Can you hear me now?: How microphones work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MaH5V0UomE

• Sound and waves demonstrations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De1J2V0Cta4

• Electron microscope and the path of the needle in a vinyl LP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUDclkJpMfo

• Note by note: The Making of a Steinway Piano. This is a one-hour documentary we really liked—we've watched it before, during our Percussion Unit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rAhps4AkT8

• That Sound and Percussion Unit is summarized in these posts, and goodness! It seems like it happened recently, but look at these tiny children!

Benjamin Britten's "A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" (I love this and there are many good recordings of it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMGqdUqPnmo

• A very dramatic (and shortened) "Bolero," which the children liked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwLABSm0yYc

• Peter and the Wolf—I mostly chose this because it had some storybook-ish pictures, but there are probably better recordings. Peter and the Wolf is always good, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ueGfjBKbiE&t=1s

• Demonstration of different trumpet mutes—so interesting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9F5DaxIUcQ&t=19s

• This is fun. "Tuba Tiger Rag" by the Canadian Brass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7IraO35qu8

• Demonstration of a celeste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw7HAyq54rw&t=4s

• This one is super cool—"How do vocal cords work when you sing?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2pLJfWUjc8

• A little advanced. Wish I could've found a simpler explanation. "What is a fugue?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFETgpt9PA&t=157s

• Royal Fireworks Music, with fireworks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuG1t2smdCQ

• La Boutique Fantastique, a fun short ballet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_D3JHR8emE

• Dance of the Cygnets, from Swan Lake. The girls were dancing in Swan Lake with their ballet studio for this year, so it was fun to watch a bunch of clips from it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GsajWIF3ws

• Weird opera by Shostakovich, "The Nose." I don't know why we watched these strange tap-dancing noses, but we did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YotMwwixPsw

• The importance of instrumentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEpJZDUwOTI

• Understanding the leitmotif: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2EobBG9wQ

• A couple fun cartoons that use classical music: "Pink Panther in Pink, Plunk, Plink" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiA6qe5S2wU and "Tom and Jerry: The Cat Concerto" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKZgi06fVsk

• Star Wars Leitmotifs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rExbps1JofI

• A history of minimalism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3VUeNyGcrQ&t=464s

• Clapping Music—Steve Reich https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPU5XrmORCQ

• When film music is funny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Lpqk_3ero

We ended up covering Jazz, Opera, and Ballet during this unit, and each of those could have been a whole unit in themselves—so we just did brief overviews. It would be fun to return to any of them and go more in depth!

We had a couple of great guest speakers—my neighbor taught us about Jazz (she majored in Vocal Jazz in college) and my cousin Heidi gave us a workshop on the pipe organ. Both of those classes were really great. Here are some pictures from the Organ class:

These make me nostalgic because we had Abe with us on this field trip! He was the one taking the pictures. It seems so long ago!

Electricity and Magnetism Unit Study (II)

I decided it was time for another Electricity Unit mostly because Teddy had been asking me tons of questions about electricity, and has also been very fascinated with/scared of (those two things often go together) lightning lately. It was funny to realize that the girls haven't learned any of this either, since we last did this unit in 2014. Malachi claims to remember everything, but he was only 6, so I'm not sure I believe him. But he was like Teddy back then—very curious and inquisitive and serious about learning, and a FULL participant in everything we did, so maybe he does remember!

I also feel like I did a more complete job on this unit the previous time through. Abe and Seb both understood a lot about electricity already, and helped me figure out a lot of things! And they were very excited and eager to do all the activities, which is always helpful. I was surprised how much the girls liked working with the snap circuits, etc., too this time—but they weren't AS fanatical about it as the boys were back then. I think this subject was just of particular interest of both of those older boys!

Here is the pinterest board from 2014, with perhaps a few pins added this time: https://www.pinterest.com/marilynnielson/electricity-and-magnetism-homeschool-unit/

A good place to start when talking about electricity is with the structure of the atom, and by explaining how ions work. Here are the children playing the "pass the electron" game (we do something similar to this one: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/circuits-friends/print/)

Here are some explanatory videos we watched:

Ions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnudaqeTyto
Atoms: https://www.generationgenius.com/videolessons/atoms-and-molecules-video-for-kids/

More activities we did last time: https://nielsonschool.blogspot.com/2014/04/electric-current-conductors-and.html

Luckily, we still had most of our electricity and magnetism supplies from last time. They're great to have around for homeschool in general. Here's the list of supplies I made last time, and links to where to get things. Annoyingly, some links are broken, but a google search for that item usually yields lots of choices.

Here are some other videos we used:

Intro to circuits (beware annoying narrators): https://www.generationgenius.com/videolessons/electricity-and-circuits-video-for-kids/?gclid=CjwKCAjwhMmEBhBwEiwAXwFoEW1-Ub4d055l4boFmt-kvSXoab4mptqupBftaK02wHecFK9qWMYfRhoC76IQAvD_BwE 

Make sparks http://www.learnplayimagine.com/2013/04/how-to-make-lightning.html

Slow motion lightning strikes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO3H285CFRo

The electric eel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0M7_HPSi14

Make a telegraph machine https://www.energizer.com/science-center/how-to-make-a-simple-telegraph-set

Virtual coal power plant tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IKECt4Y3RI
Nuclear power plant tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AdA5d_8Hm0
Hydroelectric: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8kSB1ThJQ
Substation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q-aVBv7PWM

You can learn a lot just by playing around with making your own circuits. The children had a lot of fun doing that in an open-ended way with all the supplies we had. Snap circuits are, of course, fun too, but they don't have the immediacy of a real circuit with a bulb and battery you add in yourself. 

More ideas for circuit exploration: https://nielsonschool.blogspot.com/2014/04/simple-foil-circuits-series-and.html

And some further study of switches and resistors: https://nielsonschool.blogspot.com/2014/04/resistors-and-switches.html. That link includes an explanation of three-way switches, which I had forgotten and had to relearn this time. Here's Daisy giving another explanation of it:

And a few more resources:

• Make a three-way switch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_TpKdYeQaU

• Make paper circuits with pencil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwKQ9Idq9FM
• Make foil circuits https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=qJDgl9eVpy8

Making a homemade light bulb is always fun! It's so dramatic when it burns out.

Instructions here: https://nielsonschool.blogspot.com/2014/04/homemade-light-bulb.html

Or you can refer to these pictoral instructions: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Light-Bulb

We talked about batteries and made a voltaic pile. (You can also dissect a battery—see that same post)

See also:

• Voltaic pile https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Energy_p015/energy-power/make-a-battery-from-coins#procedure

• Hand battery https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/hand-battery

Success! The voltaic pile powered our LED.

I remembered that we all enjoyed making these slider cards last time, so we did that again. (Video tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=aurnw8C1aUc) The subject of the slider card was supposed to be something to do with electricity. Let us see if the children followed these instructions. Junie made a cool lightning storm.

Daisy showed a circuit working and explained how it worked.

Goldie drew…the Teddy Bears' Picnic?

And Teddy drew…a tree in summer and winter (plus a green bunny and an "I love you" for me. Sweet.)

Cleaning pennies is a cool demonstration. We also did a simple form of electroplating that was a little different than what we did last time. We had a buy a copper pipe at the hardware store to get our copper ions off of. A few weeks later, that pipe turned out to be the exact right size to replace a towel bar that had broken in one of our bathrooms. How lucky! :)

Some of our electroplated coins

Resources: 

• Clean pennies with vinegar https://sciencebob.com/clean-pennies-with-vinegar/
• or this https://www.thoughtco.com/chemistry-fun-with-pennies-602055

• Copper plating a nail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3qhqTVssoo
• Or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTjWkeSpRqk

• How Electromagnets work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxELqN7wjS0

• How a doorbell works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R5ED5qHWZc

We also tried our hand at making paper circuits with copper tape. 

(see instructions: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/stem-activities/paper-circuit#summary)

It was surprisingly tricky to make the circuit complete AND make it fit with the drawing you wanted to do! Daisy made a glowing penguin.

Teddy made a green-eyed bunny.

Malachi made…this

Junie made this terrifying monster

And Goldie made a really cool lightning storm!

Here are a few more links for studying magnetism:

• Making 3-D Magnetic Fields

• More magnet play

Revolutionary War Unit Activities

Even though we learned this last time, I'd forgotten how to make a five-pointed star with one cut! Betsy Ross would be ashamed of me. So, we learned again! (I even used it in my primary class the next week…it fit with the lesson somehow.) You can find lots of tutorials for how to do this. We used this one.

Junie got quite good at it! Big and tiny star.

Daisy decided to make a whole flag and was surprised at how much work it took to get all the stars arranged right, the stripes to be the right width, etc.

We got to visit my friend's house again and have us show us her spinning wheel, etc.

We wrote messages with invisible ink and then (somewhat clumsily) put them over a candle flame to reveal them.

We got a real sealing wax kit from Amazon and it was fun to use! You melt the little sticks of wax over a flame and then use the stamp to press them over the fold of your letter. They looked really pretty!

Ziggy was suitably impressed.

The minuteman game we played last time was so much fun that we did it again. This time the children had to get on all their clothes and run around the house with their musket. We timed everyone and then they tried to beat their times. There was LOTS of laughter. Especially because the boots and coats they were using were so big and hard to run in!

We loved learning about Ben Franklin's glass armonica, and making a similar one ourselves. Getting the glass armonica to work was surprisingly hard! Sebastian had gotten really good at it last time, but for awhile I was convinced we had the wrong kind of glasses because we could not get a single sound out of them! (I don't actually think you have to have any certain kind of glasses, but it sure was hard at first!) It took us a good twenty minutes of trying (unsuccessfully) before we produced some sound, and another ten minutes before being able to get anything to work reliably. Junie persevered for a long time and eventually became quite good, and then all the other children were impressed and became more patient themselves too. I think everyone was able to play pretty well by the end of the day!

Junie reinvented the wheel and made this music notation sheet so she could play a song more than once, and remember which levels to fill the glasses to.

Here are some videos that demonstrate the glass armonica being played:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEKlRUvk9zc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQemvyyJ--g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSK_qObahWY (this one is from Mr. Rogers--it's cute)