Music Appreciation for Middle Grades

A few years ago, we used a course from Zeezok Publishing to learn about music, composers, and instruments. Our entire family enjoyed it immensely, so when we had the opportunity to review the next level, Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades, I knew the kids would be thrilled.

Zeezok Publishing LLC was started by homeschoolers in 1993 who wanted to offer top quality materials that complement educational needs. They have a variety of curricula and supplemental materials like their Z-Guides to the Movies, Civil War series, Presidential Penmanship, A Noble Experiment, literature books, and more. They continue to expand their resources and are dedicated to offering publications that will enrich, educate, and edify.

The Music Appreciation Book 2 collection meets and exceeds all of the national standards required for music appreciation for 5th-8th grades as it includes listening to music, understanding rhythm and pacing, reading music, and reading about the lives of composers. The set incorporates the following components:

• The Great Musicians Series -- 9 individual biography readers covering 7 classical composers to make up the core of the curriculum
• Student Activity Book -- the workbook for the course; the activities appeal to all learning types and include geography, history, recipes, instrument studies, music vocabulary, musical facts, timelines, character trait studies, and more
• Journal Notebook -- optional addition that enhances the study through written assignments; encourages various literary skills, creative writing, and essays
• Music Appreciation App -- QR codes provide easy access to all songs along with additional website links with instructions and demonstrations, and interactive quizzes
• Lapbook -- a hands-on enrichment that is sold separately; comes with easy-to-assemble, pre-printed pages 

Because the course works well with many age groups, there is even an option to purchase a coloring book for the younger crowd or even those older artistic kids. The pack comes with 80 professionally drawn illustrations that are directly related to scenes from the books.

The curriculum covers 4 weeks of study for each composer with an additional week for the first one:

• Frederic Chopin
• Robert Schumann
• Richard Wagner
• Stephen Foster
• Johannes Brahms
• Peter Tchaikovsky
• Edward MacDowell

Literature is the foundation of our schooling, so it is no surprise that these Great Musician Series biographies are my favorite aspect of the course. These living books, written by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher, vividly describe each composer's life. Each important aspect is mentioned and every detail is true. While these books are similar to the Music Appreciation Book 1 collection as far as containing an easy-to-read font and an abundance of simple sketch drawings, the writing itself is richer with more complex sentence structures and deeper vocabulary. The books vary in length, but average around 150 pages. Each one also has multiple samples of their sheet music woven throughout.

My only dissatisfaction in not in the writing, but in the physical aspect of the collection. Seven of the books are paperback and one is hardcover. (The final one I received as an ebook because of a mistake, so I cannot comment on the physical copy.) Aside from the two types, there are different sizes, as well, even within the multiple paperback versions. I am not sure if the format of the books changed and I received different lots, but if I were to buy this collection and received this specific set, I would be unhappy. It is a trivial matter perhaps, but I like uniformity. 

The Student Activity Book contains the learning exercises for all 7 composers. The entire book is perforated and hole-punched, so you could transfer it to a 3-ringed binder for easier use. A sample lesson plan is given at the beginning of each composure section. 

Every lesson includes these elements:

• Reading a portion of the biography book
• Answering Comprehension Questions
• Highlighting Character Qualities of the composer
• Expounding on Tidbits of Interests that are briefly mentioned in the biography book
• Learning musical information from note values to symbols to evaluating performances and more

Those foundational exercises are accompanied by many ore types of activities. For instance, in our study of Chopin, we studied details of a Polish Christmas (did you know they have a 12-course meal?!), discussed nicknames, were inspired by the sights and sounds of the outdoors like the composer, and learned many interesting facts about Poland. Our favorite activity in the study was eating a poppy seed cake made by my daughter.

Later lessons throughout the activity book include mapping skills, making lists of contrasting things, word search, deciphering coded riddles, learning about folk instruments, and more. The end of each composer section contains a quiz and full answer key for the lessons.

The QR (quick release) codes are a new feature for this course. The physical CDs from the first book have been replaced with an app site and online music. I had never used QR codes myself, but I had seen my husband do it. I downloaded one of the recommended apps in the book, opened the app, pointed it at a code, and music started playing. It is incredibly easy to use! Easier than finding a track on a disc.

There are pages in the front of the activity book filled with codes that correspond to the composers' music that is found in the biography books. The codes list the page number from the book and the title. There are also QR code throughout the activity book that direct to additional video links. There are videos teaching how to read music, highlighting artists playing instruments, expounding on history, demonstration musical styles, and much more.

While an app is convenient, it is not necessary in order to use this portion of the material. There is also a direct link to the website where you can access all of the music and other videos. 

The Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades is a fabulous resource for teaching kids about music and composers. Our family loved the biographies, the activities, and the additional resources. Though we chose to forgo creating the optional journal notebook, we did verbally discuss the activities as a family. I used the course primarily with my 11-year-old and 9-year-old, but my other kids (ages 13, 7, 4) joined in on portions of the curriculum, as well.

You can sample all of the Chopin lessons by clicking the link at the bottom of the description of the product. If you're interested in cultivating an appreciation for music in your student, Zeezok Publishing has what you need.

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Make sure to head to the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to read more reviews of this music curriculum and see which composers other homeschool families have studies this summer.

Music Appreciation

We are a music-loving family that understands the importance of good, quality music in our lives. That's why I was excited to review a product about music appreciation. Leighton went to college for a music major. We were both very involved in the music program while there (in fact, it was while playing in the handbell choir that we got to know each other and fell in love!) and continued to participate in various aspects of the music program in our church. You can often hear music playing or random singing while in our house. Yes, we love music. However, I've never incorporated music study into our days. Oh, I meant to; I just never knew where to start or how to proceed.

And then came the Music Appreciation: Book 1: for the Elementary Grades. We started our study with Bach and quickly learned that this wonderful homeschool music program from Zeezok Publishing LLC was exactly what I needed.

Zeezok Publishing LLC was started by homeschoolers in 1993 who wanted to offer top quality materials that complement educational needs. They have a variety of curricula and supplemental materials like their Z-Guides to the Movies, Civil War series, Presidential Penmanship, A Noble Experiment, literature books, and more. They continue to expand their resources and are dedicated to offering publications that will enrich, educate, and edify. 

The Music Appreciation Book 1 Collection meets and exceeds all of the national standards required for music appreciation for kindergarten-6th grade. The set includes a student activity book, music discs, lapbooks, and individual biography books for 7 classical composers (dating from 1685-1828).  

The curriculum covers 4 weeks of study for each of the composers:

• Bach
• Handel
• Haydn
• Mozart
• Beethoven
• Paganini
• Schubert

The biographies are absolutely perfect for this age level. From the size of the book to the font to the writing style to the pictures, it's everything a child's book should be. My older 3 kids (ages 10, 8, 6) loved the book and begged me to read "just one more chapter" each day. The accurate story was written so the elementary ages can comprehend, but also has richer vocabulary woven throughout. It includes words like trudged, haste, nestling, oaken, and scarcely. Nearly every page or page spread has a black and white picture that seems perfect for the era. There are even portions of sheet music written by Bach sprinkled throughout the the book.

The student activity book contains the learning exercises for all 7 composers. The entire book is perforated and hole-punched, so you could transfer it to a 3-ringed binder for easier use. A sample lesson plan is given at the beginning of each composure section. 

Week One of the Bach study looks like this:

• Read Chapter 1
• Answer Comprehension Quesions
• Character Qualities
• Tidbits of Interest
• Assemble Lapbook Folder
• Bach Family Facts
• Places that Bach Visited Map Activity
• Learning About Stringed Instruments Activity

This curriculum is very easy to use with multiple ages. I read the book aloud to the kids and then we completed the activities together. They always race to see who can answer the comprehension questions first, and I enjoy seeing how much they retained. There's so much more than just answering questions though. There are exercises about learning character qualities, mapping, random facts (did you know Bach's hands could span 12 notes? or that he had 20 children?), history of 18th century Germany, copywork, and plenty of  sections dedicated to music (i.e. terms, instruments, styles). 

While we've enjoyed all aspects of this study, our favorites have been the hands-on activities. We made a loaf of rye bread and enjoyed it warm, fresh from the oven like Bach. We preformed an oxidation experiment with pennies to understand why the top of St. Michael's church in Hamburg turned green. We even were able to pluck out some of Bach's compositions on our keyboard using the music in the book.

  

Along with the written music, the curriculum comes with discs so you can listen to the music, as well. The book gives a brief description of each song and lists the matching track number, making it incredibly easy to use over the course of the study. The kids and I all enjoyed listening to the beautiful music of one of the masters. We do listen to classical music at times throughout our days, so it was fun to watch the kids faces light up as they recognized songs. "Hey, this sounds familiar!" or "I've heard this before!" we commonly heard as the songs played.

The final component to the curriculum is the lapbook. My kids adore lapbooks. They're time-consuming and require much work, but they are such a fun way of learning. I like that my kids will look through their lapbooks long after our study is complete and recall what we've learned. Booklets, pockets, pieces, moving parts--they're all part of the lapbook charm. This one even includes an entire game board on the back that's focused around Bach's life. 

As far as lapbook go, this one is easy to print and easy to assemble. There are no directions to print any of the pages on cardstock (though it would provide stability), so it's just a click of a button to get the whole thing to print at one. The pages print in color, which saves time during the assembly, as well. There are detailed directions in both the student activity book and the lapbook CD for the activities and assembly.

I am blown away at the quality of this curriculum. Seriously. It is packed full of information on not just the composer, music, and instruments, but incorporates much more, too. And not only that, it's fun! Between the reading book, the exercises, the hand-on activities, the music, the lapbook, there's something for every learning style--visual, kinesthetic, auditory. We've started our study Handel, and I can tell this one's going to be a hit, too. 

If you are wanting to teach music appreciation in your homeschool, I highly recommend this collection.

You can connect with Zeezok Publishing LLC on the following social media sites:
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If you'd like to read more reviews of this curriculum, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.