SQUILT - Beethoven's Symphony #5, First Movement

Symphony #5, First Movement, by Ludwig van Beethoven

(click to hear the music)

This week's music is by Ludwig van Beethoven, a composer of the late classical, early romantic period. You can find out lots of information about him here. Note the similarity between the Beethoven music and Haydn's music. You may want to go back to that SQUILT lesson and listen to the Surprise Symphony again to compare the two.

In this first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (most symphonies have four movements, or sections, each one being different in character) you will hear a very famous theme repeated dozens of times. Ask the children which instruments they hear. This is an orchestra playing. What instruments can you hear in an orchestra? What emotions do you think Beethoven was feeling when he wrote the piece? Give your older students the SQUILT form to fill out.

There are SO MANY interesting thing to learn about Beethoven. I highly recommend a video entitled "Beethoven Lives Upstairs" for the elementary and even middle school aged child. I have seen it at our local library, and Netflix also has it available for rental.

Other Beethoven resources:

• Beethoven coloring sheet

• Homeschool lesson plans about Beethoven through Making Music Fun
• More Beethoven internet resources via Surfnet
  

I could literally go on for days about Beethoven, so you can do as much or as little as you want. Have fun with this lesson, and let me know if you found it helpful!

Here's a little funny for your kids: Why did Beethoven kill all of his chickens? They kept saying "Bach, Bach, Bach". ha ha ha

Enjoy!
Blogger Templates

Sunday Link Up

I love No Time for Flash Cards! Today they are having a link up, so check it out! I hope everyone is having a rejuvenating Sunday.

Blogger Templates

A Bittersweet Day

This day, September 11, has been a bittersweet day for the past nine years. In addition to all of the emotions that go along with falling of the Twin Towers, it is also my husband's birthday. I remember September 11, 2001, like it was yesterday. My daughter (just a month and a half old) had spent the morning playing and was just getting ready for her morning nap when I was watching the television and saw the horrific events unfolding. I had just put together a swing for her, and she was enjoying the swing while I watched television. The music from that swing will be forever in my mind; in fact, when she outgrew the swing I just got rid of it, because the music actually made me feel sick.

My husband was working in downtown Atlanta on that day, and he came home at lunch time because no one was quite sure which cities would be targets, and lots of reports had Atlanta on the list. I just remember being so thankful when he got home, and then so immensely worried - worried for a few good friends I had living in NYC at the time, and so very worried for my brother, who was a military chaplain. He later wound up with President George W. Bush at Camp David, preaching to him on the Sundays he was at the Camp. Talk about a difficult assignment.

So, that September 11 we watched the news, held our baby daughter so tightly, and had a birthday dinner (steak and potatoes, I remember it so well) for my husband.

Today I pray for all of the families that have been affected by this tragedy, and also for all of the families whose loved ones continue to pay the price by defending our nation against so much evil. I am also angry today... angry that many have seemingly forgotten what happened that day, and angry that our current administration seems so nonchalant about national security and even more angry about our own President's stand on buidling a mosque at Ground Zero. I had promised myself, however, that this blog would never be about anything political, so I'll stop with that.

So for today, I fly my flag and remember all of those whose lives were lost or forever altered by the events of 9/11/2001. I try to teach my children, at their tender ages, about what happened that day. I celebrate my wonderful husband's 40th birthday. When it is all said and done I just think that life is so hard, but that God is always good. That is what I hang onto today.

Blogger Templates