Trepak from the Nutcracker Suite

Trepak from the Nutcracker: Lesson Plan

Grade: K

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: Recording of Trepak

                  Map of Trepak*

Utah Music Standard:  K.M.R.1: Listen to and interact with a variety of contrasting music while recognizing steady beat, repeating patterns, and expressive elements.

Music Element: Form

Music Concept:  There are different sections in music.

Music Skill: Listening

Objectives:

Students will demonstrate through movement that they recognize the different sections of the Trepak from the Nutcracker Suite.

Students will be exposed to vocabulary associated with musical form.

Procedure:

·       Read/tell the story of the Nutcracker Ballet.

·       At the end of the story, bring the students attention to the pictures of the dancers from different countries. Explain: One of the dances Marie and the Prince watched was a Russian dance called the Trepak.  Can you say Tray-Pahk?

·       We're going to listen to this song and do our own dance with our hands.

o   This dance has three movements: jumping, tiptoeing, and swaying.

o   Will you make your hands follow mine while we listen close?

o   Play the song and "dance" with your hands.

·       Jump on the accented notes in the A section

·       Tiptoe during the rest of the A section

·       Sway during the B section.  Do big sways during the first half of the B section and smaller, faster sways during the second half.

·       Now we're going to use our whole bodies.

o   Jump and tiptoe with your feet, but the swaying is still with your hands and arms.

·       Put the map up on the board.

o   Explain: This is a map of the Trepak we were just listening to.  Can you see where we jump?  Can you see where we sway?

o   Allow a student to come and point to the jumps on the map and another to point to the sways on the map.

·       Watch very closely to what I do.  If you want, you may dance with your hands only, but only if you can dance a watch at the same time.

o   Play the Trepak and follow the map with your finger so that all the students can see.

·       Invite the students to follow with their finger in the air while you lead them on the board.

o   Listen to the Trepak again.

·       If appropriate, invite a student to lead the class in following the map and listen to the Trepak again.

·       Briefly introduce the form:

o   Let's call the beginning where we jump and tiptoe part A.

o   Where the music change?  Where is it different from the jumping and tiptoeing part.  (The Swaying.)

o   Let's call the swaying part B.

o   And, since the end also has some tiptoeing and jumping, let's call that A again.

·       Let's listen one more time and see if you can hear the different sections that make the ABA pattern.

*Map for this lesson was inspired by the Trepak map in Playing with the Classics Volume 1, by Peggy Bennett.