5 ‘Ridiculously Simple’ Ideas To Introduce Primary Schoolers To Music Appreciation Through The Study Of The Planets

If you are one of those homeschool moms who has high ambitions but finds it hard to allocate enough time for all the subjects you want to introduce to your kids in the homeschool, then you are going to love this post. 

If you are a homeschool mom that wants to introduce music appreciation to their tweens in the homeschool, but don’t know where and how to start, then you are in luck. 

If you are a homeschool mom, who wishes you can teach your kids music appreciation, without boring them to death, then you are in luck. 

In today’s post I’m going to discuss how you can solve all the problems related to the above, like the lack of time, the lack of know how and also the lack of interest in one go. 

How?

You blend. 

Yes, you read that right. 

You blend two subjects into one. 

Doing so will save you time, it will give you directlon, and you will have a path, so the know-how won’t be a problem and it will help keep your tweens engaged. 

Let me use the example of the study of planets or science for that matter, and show you how you can blend science and music together in the homeschool. 

Keep in mind that these ideas can be used with any other subject like history or geography or even math. 

Don’t forget to download the age appropriate worksheets that I have made available with this post. 

Research

Tell your tweens that there are many different composers who were inspired by the planets, our solar system and heavenly bodies in our solar system, who wrote music. 

Gustav Holst created an entire orchestration with eight movements one for each planet. 

Beethoven composed the Moonlight Sonata and Vivaldi composed the Four Seasons. 

Ask your tweens to research and find songs that were inspired thy the planets and create a playlist.

Predict

Before listening to the playlist, however, ask them to predict what they think they will hear in each piece based on the planetary body it was inspired by. 

For instance, you can ask them to predict what they think the movement for Jupiter by Gustav Holst will sound like, based on the profile of the planet. 

They can predict what they think they will hear in terms of the instruments used, the mood of the piece, the pitch and pace of the piece etc. 

Listen

Once the above activity is completed ask your tweens to listen to the playlist they created. 

Once they’ve completely listened to the movement, they can assess their prediction and see how they faired. 

Critically Analyse

Now they can critically analyse what they heard in terms of instruments used, pace, pitch, volume and other aspects and draw conclusions on their preferences and why they prefer or not prefer the movement. 

Compare And Contrast

They can take their learning further and compare and contrast two movements from Gustav Holst’ orchestration or simply compare and contrast Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, against Gustav Holst’s Earth and draw conclusions on which one they think better depicts the Earth. 

Take An Online Course

When lack of time, know how and interest is a problem, sometimes, it is easier to look for a ‘made for you’ online course. It solves at  least two problems. 

Take a look at my online unit study The Solar System Symphony, which covers music that has been inspired by our planets, the sun, the moon and asteroids and much more. The activities are age appropriately categorized for kids ranging from 4 to 17. 

What other activities can you think of to keep your kids engaged and appreciating music?