One of the camps from last year that I will definitely be repeating this summer is Music History Blast From The Past. I plan to use the same format as last year, but I will be focusing on different composers.
In case you are considering the possibility of offering a summer music camp or two, I thought I would share more about how I planned my music history camp last year.
I recommend group sizes of 3-8 students (5 or 6 is probably ideal). Students will be most comfortable working at a table; however, the floor is acceptable too. The lesson plans below are written for a 4-day camp that meets 2 hours each day; however, if you wish to incorporate other activities you can certainly change them. I do recommend planning on 20-30 minutes to study the musical time period, and an hour-and-a-half to complete the composer lapbook. If you wish to do a 5-day camp, a fun thing to do on the 5th day would be to have students present about the composers/time periods to the parents.
You will need to choose four composer lapbook pdfs from the ColorInMyPiano shop, selecting one composer from each of the periods of Music History: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern.
- glue stick for each student
- scissors for each student
- colored file folder for each student
- printouts of the composer lapbook pdf for each student
- crayons or colored pencils
OUTLINE FOR EACH DAY
0:00 On Day 1, ask each student to introduce themselves. On Day 2-4, begin the day by briefly reviewing the previous day’s material.
0:10 Study the time period of music history. There are a variety of resources online you can use. One is the free Music History Lapbook available at ColorInMyPiano.com: http://colorinmypiano.com/2012/08/24/freebie-music-history-periods-lapbook-study/. I found information about the development of the piano throughout history at the Piano Technicians Guild website (scroll down under “Activities” and look for the “Piano History Fact Sheet”).
0:30 Begin the composer lapbook. Show them your example of the lapbook. Hand out the file folders and the sheets with the composer picture and large pocket first, and give out the rest of the sheets as needed. As students cut, color, and glue, read the composer’s biography aloud to them. You can stop occasionally to play musical excerpts of the composer’s music, or you can play all the music at once after you read the biography.
1:10 Continue and finish the composer lapbook. As students finish up, you can help them fill in any blanks inside the lapbook.
You can download a free pdf version of the information above on the Printables > Lesson Plans page.
Music History Camp Lesson Plans (49.4 KiB, 7,073 hits)
This simple camp format worked great. My private students have really benefitted from receiving an overview of the historical periods.
Offering summer camps is also a good way to augment your income during the summer months, too. Check out more photos from my Music History Camp last year here.