Lesson Plan No.

3 of Grade 5
Theme: Different Layers of Sound in Music
by: Su Yuhe
I. OBJECTIVES: at the end of the class, the students will have:
 Identify texture, monophony, homophony and polyphony.
 Differentiate aurally the different kinds of texture.
 Recognize the importance of texture in music and in the things around
us
 Perform monophony, polyphony and homophony texture through
singing songs.
II. CONTENT
A. Theme: “Different Layers of Sound in Music”
B. Concept:
i) Monophony is a texture in music that refers to a melody played or sang
solo or in unison.
ii) Polyphony is a texture in music that refers to two or several melodies
played or sung together.
iii) Homophony is a texture in music that refers to a single melody sung or
played with accompaniment.
iv) Round is a polyphonic texture where the same melody is sung or played in
different layer where each layer is coming in at different times.
v) Partner song is a polyphonic texture where two different melodies are
sung or played at the same time.
C. Audio-Visual Aids: PPT, videos, pictures, speaker.
D. Instruments & Equipment: laptop, electric piano, snare drum.
E. References:
https://youtu.be/LGkSaIzZtsk?t=16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k98p4VT2MVI
https://youtu.be/zM_wbc66sKU?t=2
https://youtu.be/M1nBIZwe9ek?t=63
https://youtu.be/kZPqYuKwiag?t=3
https://youtu.be/xd7pgPDsNZs
https://hellomusictheory.com/learn/texture/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-musicapp-medieval-modern/
chapter/texture/
https://medium.com/@tuf91882/musical-texture-lesson-plan-
5a74c1aeaec

II. PRE-REQUISITES:
The students have some knowledge about:
 The definition of texture.
 Unison singing and round song

III. INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES:

TEACHER’S ACTIVITY STUDENTS’ RESPONSE
I. Introduction (reviewing)
(Teacher enters the class with smile):” Good Students:” Good morning,
morning, Grade 5 class!” teacher Suzy!”
“Nice to meet too again! Do you still remember Students:” Nice to meet you,
how to say, ‘Good morning’ in Chinese?” teacher! It’s ‘Zao Shang
Hao!”
“Yes, It’s ‘Zao Shang Hao! Do you want to learn one
more Chinese word? Let’s say ‘Ni Zhen Bang!’” Students:” Ni Zhen Bang!”

“It means you are so great! ‘Ni Zhen Bang!’ Students:” Yes, teacher!”

“Very good! Last meeting, we had fun together

with dynamics topic, you all did great at that time!
I’m sure you can do better, and listen carefully to Students:” okay, teacher!”
the teacher, right?”

“Great! Let’s watch an interesting story video to

review dynamics first, after the video playing, I will
ask you some simple questions, you can ask me
with ‘pianissimo, piano, forte, fortissimo’, okay?” Students:” okay, teacher!”
https://youtu.be/LGkSaIzZtsk?t=16

“Okay, can someone raise up the hand and tell me

what’s the dynamic when he falls down to the
ground? Students:” It’s forte!”

What’s the dynamic when the trolls are sleeping? Students:” It’s pianissimo!”

“What happened to the music when the trolls are all

awake?” Students:” It’s Fortissimo!”

“What happened to the music when the trolls run

faster and faster to catch him?” Student:” It’s louder! It’s
crescendo!”
“Great! Now let’s review some conducting gestures
of dynamics. Stand up now and follow me. The first
one is ‘pianissimo’ (do the conducting), and ‘piano’
(Conducting), then it’s----‘mezzo piano Students stand up and do
(conducting)!’ After mezzo piano, it’s mezzo forte the conducting movements.
(conducting), if it’s louder than mezzo forte, it’s
forte! (conducting), when it’s loudest, its-----
fortissimo!” (conducting)
Students:” It’s Crescendo!”
“When the music gets louder and louder, we use
------”(conducting) Students:” It’s
And when the music gets softer and softer, it decrescendo!”
should be-----” (conducting)

“Great! You all remember this! Now let’s watch a

video and do these conducting gestures with the
music and instructions.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k98p4VT2MVI Students watch the video
and conduct with the
“That’s great! You’re so attentively today!” teacher.

II. Motivation
“Now let’s see the pictures on the screen, what
what can you observe from these pictures? Can Students:” there are thin
someone guess what’s our topic today? Tips: it’s an and fat man!”
element of music as well.” Students:” there are
burgers!”
“Yes! Today we will learn the thinness and thickness
of sound, it’s like the foundation of house, the
layers of food, which is texture!”

“Before we start new topic, I will teach you a

Chinese song, it’s named “Little Tigers”. Now let’s
watch the video sample in Chinese version, there’s Students watch the video.
subscription under Chinese, you can know what’s
the meaning of it, you can try to sing with it!”
https://youtu.be/zM_wbc66sKU?t=2
Students sing with the video.
“Great! Now let’s sing it one more time!”
https://youtu.be/zM_wbc66sKU?t=2

“Wow, you’re so talented to speak Chinese! Let’s

try it the last time!” Students watch the video.
https://youtu.be/zM_wbc66sKU?t=2

“Fantastic! We will use this song as our sample

song today for new topic! Now, I have three
pictures on the screen, number one, two and
three.”

“What can you see from the first picture? What’s Students:” There is only one
the differences between them?” person singing in the first
picture!”
“Yes, the first one shows a girl sing alone, the
second picture shows that she sings with piano
accompaniment, right? How about the last one? It’s
a choir or a group of people singing with Students:” Yes!”
accompaniment.”

III. Lesson Proper

Preparation:
“So, we know there are many ways of making songs
more interesting to sing and listen to, right? We can
add different styles or more layers in music to make
it sounds great! This effect of the different layers of
sound in a piece of music, and the relationship
between them, we call it ‘texture’. It’s like the
structure of house, layers by layers, to create the
foundation of the music. Musical texture may be Students watch the screen.
thick or thin or heavy or light, depending on the
layers of sounds being combined.”

“Let’s listen to it carefully! If I play the song “Little

Tigers” like that------” (Play “Little Tigers” the Students listen to the
melody without accompaniment) sample playing by the
teacher.
“What can you observe from my playing?” “What
can you listen to or cannot?” Students:” there’s only
melody.”
“Absolutely! If there’s only one melody line without
any harmony or accompaniment or counterpoint,
it’s call ‘Monophony’. The word monophonic comes
from the Greek word ‘mono‘ which means “one”,
and phonic means “relating to sound”, so
monophonic texture literally means one sound Students listen to the
being played.” teacher.

“Now I will ask someone to play a monophony

sample for me. Can someone volunteer to try it on
the keyboard?” Student 1:” Me!”

“Great! You can play any single melody or

composition you want; we want to listen to another
sample of monophony music. “(the student plays a Students play the keyboard.
melody)

“Wow, you did well! Let’s clap for her/him! After

learning the first layer of texture, which is Students clap the hands.
monophony, let’s see if we add accompaniment, or
chords with the melody, what will happen? Will the
music be more thick or thin?” (The teacher plays Students:” The music sounds
“Little Tigers” with accompaniment) thicker!”

“Yes, now the music sounds more interesting,

because we build more layers to it. When the main
melody is accompanied by chords, we call it
“Homophony” or “Homophonic Texture”. Do you
know harmony?” Students:” Yes, teacher!”

“Yes, homophony is to add harmony, chords or

another melody that is related to the original
melody. Let’s watch a sample of homophonic
texture.”
https://youtu.be/M1nBIZwe9ek?t=63 Students watch the video.

“Now, are you clear about homophony? It’s the

turn to see the third picture, a group of people sing
together with the accompaniment.” Students:” Yes, teacher!”

“First of all, let’s watch a video sample. This video is

the French version of the “Little Tigers”. Let’s watch
it carefully and tell me what you learn from this
video.”
https://youtu.be/kZPqYuKwiag?t=3 Students watch the video.
“Okay, how many of them sing in the video? Did
they sing together at the same time? How many
melodies did you hear in the video?” Students:” There are 3!”

“Absolutely! When there are multiple independent

melody lines occurring at once, or it has two or
more parts doing their own thing, we call it
“Polyphonic”. It is considered as the thickest
texture among the three types of textures. Because
we use the most layers to build music house.”

“Polyphonic comes from the word poly which

means “many”. Polyphony can be found in
children’s rounds song. Does anyone know what
round means?”

“A round is what it showed in the video, but in Students: “I don’t know.”

round each voice, when it finishes, can start at the
beginning again so that the piece can go “round
and round”.

“There is a example of polyphonic texture video,

let’s watch it :
https://youtu.be/xd7pgPDsNZs
Students watch the video.
“Now let’s have an activity to review what we
learned today. I will divide you into three groups,
the first row is Monophony group, the second row
is Homophony group, and the third and fourth row
is Polyphony group.”
Students are divided into 3
“For first row monophony group, you need to sing groups.
“Little Tigers” with monophonic texture. Do you still
remember what monophony is?”

“Correct! Monophony is a single melody without

any accompaniment. For homophony group, you Students:” Yes. Teacher!”
will sing “Little Tigers” with homophonic texture, I
will play the piano accompaniment for you, you can
sing with piano. And lastly, for polyphony group, we
will ask the first row to sing first two measures
“Liang Zhi Lao Hu, Liang Zhi Lao Hu”, and then the
second row start to sing the song after two
measures, then the last group which is polyphony
group, you will start to sing two measures after the
second row. I will make a sample with teacher Tinay
and another volunteer. Who are willing to try?”

“Great! We have “Sam” to help us, you will sing it

first without stop, and then I will join you after two Student 2:” Teacher, I want
measures, then it’s teacher Tinay’s turn to join us to try!”
until she finished the song.”

“Let’s try it now!”

(Start the demonstration of Canon “Little Tigers”.)

“Wow, it’s so amazing! We did it! So let’s start the

activity! Where’s the monophony group? Raise up
your hands! Let’s sing, one, two, ready, go!”

“Liang zhi laohu, liang zhi laohu,

pao de kuai, pao de kuai,
yi zhi meiyou erduo,
yi zhi meiyou weiba, Group monophony
zhen qiguai! Zhen qiguai! performed.

“Great! Let’s clap for monophony group! Now it’s

your turn, homophony group! Are you ready?”

“Three, two, one, go!” (sing with the piano

accompaniment.)

“Liang zhi laohu, liang zhi laohu,

pao de kuai, pao de kuai, Group homophony
yi zhi meiyou erduo, performed.
yi zhi meiyou weiba,
zhen qiguai! Zhen qiguai!

“You all did so well! Let’s clap the hands for them!
Now it’s the hardest, polyphony group
performance, are you confident? Let’s try it first!”
“Three, two, one, go! The first row------
Liang zhi laohu, liang zhi laohu,
Second row start:
Liang zhi laohu, liang zhi laohu,
Then the last two rows: Students performed
Liang zhi laohu, liang zhi laohu, polyphony together.
pao de kuai, pao de kuai,
yi zhi meiyou erduo,
yi zhi meiyou weiba,
zhen qiguai! Zhen qiguai!

IV. Conclusion
IFL: “Wow! I’m so proud of you! You did great job
today!”
We see how amazing texture is, it’s the foundation
or the structure of the music, and because these
styles of texture always obey the instruction, we
can have different kinds of music today. Jesus is our
example by obeying His Heavenly Father and
keeping the commandments. He was loyal to His
Father as well as to His nation. As His children, we
need to obey His instruction to grow up in the Students listen to the
way!” teacher carefully.

V. Evaluation
Assignment
“Okay, for our assignment or seatwork, answer your
book on page 119, choose a song that you like best,
sing it without accompaniment, and then sing it
with accompaniment. Which sounds best? Write
your observation.”

“Okay, that’s all for our class today! You all did so
well! Next time, we will start our culminating
performance. See you next meeting, grade 5 class!”
 Students turn the page to
pp,119.

Students:” Thank you,

Teacher! Goodbye, teacher!
See you next meeting!”

IV. SELF-ASSESSMENT
 Did I reach my objectives in the end of class?
 Can the students understand what I taught in class?
 Are they able to differentiate the dynamics by listening to sample song?
 Are my pronunciations being understandable?
 Did I explain it clearly?
 Am I boring when it comes in teaching?
 Should I add more samples or videos of my topic for my students to learn
it better?