The Notable Characters in the Classroom

Teachers, parents and school administrators, I have something that will teach your children to read music and be more empathetic. Why would you want this? The Notable Characters video slide show is an entertaining, multi-media vehicle that will immerse your learners into the understanding of musical notes, rests and other basic musical symbols. Teachers, you can present this in your classroom by projecting from this page at washentree.com.

Here is what the class could look like if you utilize this video. Your students would come into the class and see posted prominently, three learning targets. The first two are purely music theory targets:

"I can distinguish between a melody and a chord."

"I can match notes and rests symbols according to their time values."

Students read these targets and the teacher unpacks them before starting the 35 minute video. During the video there are two music performances, "We Had Our Nap We Had Our Meal and Now We Feel Okay," and later, toward the end of the video you will hear "Doing the Rest Stop." These segments provide for the students to get out of their seats to play classroom instruments and dance in place. Of course, teachers would have to set expectations for these kinetic activities. Classroom instruments would be distributed and set in a rest position until the songs begin. Aside from those two occasions, students would use a graphic organizer to draw five basic note symbols and five basic rest symbols aligned on the page according to their matching time values. Since the ten main characters wear the symbols on their shirts, your students would repeatedly see the look of the symbols which they could transfer to their sheet. They also may see that each character represents in a metaphorical way one of the notes or rests. For example, the characters Wholesome and Wholelotta each represent a symbol that has a time value of four beats, the whole note and the whole rest respectively. When the presentation is over, all ten symbols should be drawn on the graphic organizer and handed in for a participation grade.

The third learning target pertains to social cognition:

"I can recognize how someone may be bullied or mistreated."

Empathy is a running theme in the Notable Characters story. So take some time during your Share & Debrief, following the video slide show to teach students exactly what empathy is and reflect on how empathy is shown by the characters. You can split the presentation over two days if you feel it would be better for your students.

You can buy the book, The Notable Characters, from Amazon and download the audio book from the shop page here at washentree.com

My video slide show of the Notables is specifically designed to help educators teach music and empathy to our young learners. This free educator's tool has the narration, voice characterizations, sound effects, the songs and illustrations all contained.

To view and display the video slide show, fill out the form below and submit it to receive the password. In the message box of the form, please indicate the school you work with, your position there, the class and grade level you intend to share this presentation with and when you plan to show it. Let me know if you would like a copy of my lesson plan.

The musical Swirl is based in part on The Notable Characters. You can peruse the script from clicking the “Shop” tab.

Be sure to read my article “Stick-to-itiveness” as you prepare for new classes. There is an ice breaker I created that you may find useful as you seek to strengthen your student community.
- Lenny Rountree