During music this past month, 1st and 2nd grade students have been exploring music from other countries. They have gotten to “visit” Ghana (in Africa), France (in Europe), Japan (in Asia), and Mexico (in North America). To help them get in the mindset of going on a musical adventure around the world, we watched the musical story of The Adventures of Peer Gynt, a tale of a boy traveling the world meeting many interesting and different people. Students began each of their “visits” looking at where that particular country was at in the world, followed by learning a song (or two) from that country. Although they were doing songs in other languages, students were still focusing on our regular music concepts such as beat, rhythm, matching pitch, instrument playing technique, form, and following a director. They also got to learn a special song that incorporated all the different ways to say “hello” from the various countries we were visiting (you’ll have to see if your student remembers one of the ways to say “hello” that we learned).
Although students have certainly worked on some wonderful musical goals during this unit, a great non-musical outcome of it has been an increase in their cultural awareness, helping them to become more respectful and appreciative of other people’s differences. One of our biggest focuses during this time has been to look for connections between these songs from other places and our own country. For example, students were quick to notice that one of the songs from Ghana had movements similar to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” while the another one was sung during a game that was a lot like “Hot Potato.” One of their favorite pieces was probably “Se, Se, Se” from Japan, as it is sung while playing the game “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Several classes even got to have their own tournament playing this while we sang the song!
