It’s easy to feel left out of this fun activity day when you’re in the music room. These 3 music activities feature April Fools lessons which can be used in one class period or spread out. It’s pretty easy to fit them into one day. Plus your students will LOVE these lessons!
April Fools Lesson #1: Classic Rick-Rolling
This year, it worked out that April first was our first day back to school after Spring Break. Ask your students what they did over Spring Break. . . you could have some pretty wild stories! When it’s your turn, tell them that you heard an amazing piece of music! It was so incredible, you couldn’t wait to listen to it with them! Have them settled and ready to really enjoy this wonderful masterpiece! The stage will be set for you to play the chorus of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. My students thought it was hilarious!
April Fools Lesson #2: Sound Maps & Gallery Walk for Surprise Symphony Lessons (Haydn)
Another classic, is Haydn’s Symphony no. 94. I don’t give too much context coming up to this piece. We discuss several different elements of music to listen for such as dynamics, tempos, and ascending/descending melodies. We use markers or pencil crayons and draw along to the music. I warn them that the music starts off fairly quietly so they need to pay close attention. Drawing a single line for the entirety of the song, students can determine which lines represtent different musical elements.
After the first “Surprise!”, discuss with your students the reason Haydn used such tactics (tldr: he didn’t like it when his audience fell asleep). Continue with the remainder of the song.
Next, do a gallery walk. It is amazing to see the different ways our ears hear different things.
Bonus: Do some vocal exploration. Have students trade papers with a partner and have them “siren-sing” the lines to each other.
Find this resource in here! This resource has slides, worksheets and more including listening activities and biographical information about Haydn.
April Fools Lesson #3: Mozart Research Project
If you are in need of an idea for your upper-level elementary students, consider a Mozart Research Project. You can definetly include music he wrote into your lesson, but Mozart was known to be quite a prankster in his younger years. Do a deep dive into his childhood and see if you can uncover some of his favorite pranks!
I hope this gives you a few ideas for the next April Fools season. Keep an eye out for a Prankster-Mozart resource for your next lessons!