If you’re looking for fun ways to bring classical music into your elementary music classroom, Vivaldi’s “Spring” from The Four Seasons is the perfect piece. It’s upbeat, colorful, and packed with chances to explore musical ideas while your students have lots of fun. Let’s take a look at some spring music activities you can try with this piece to get your students moving, listening, and creating.
Listening and Movement
One of the best ways to introduce Vivaldi’s “Spring” is through listening and movement. Play the first movement and ask students to imagine the sounds of spring. Help students brainstorm a list of spring items and sounds that are familiar to them.
Then, show students the musical form, simplified with images—i.e. A—flowers, B.—birds, C.—stream, D.—thunderstorm. Add in creative movements for each section. Encourage them to move like each item in the map—possibly using a scarf or ribbon.
Instrument Play-Along
Secondly, use a simple rhythm pattern from “Spring” for students to play on classroom percussion instruments. For example, have rhythm sticks play “ta ta ti-ti ta” during the A section, triangles play “ta rest ta rest” for B, etc. To simplify it for younger students, have them play only the steady beat during their section.
During repeated sections, encourage students to recognize the different dynamic levels. Encourage them to use their ear to play softer or louder. This is a great way to get them truly listening to the music.
Moving – Body Percussion and Dancing
Next, get your students up and moving to “Spring” from The Four Seasons. I love using this piece for our composer lesson, and after staying seated for a while just listening, kids need a break.
Here are two videos that give young students that little bit of movement they need in the middle of the lesson:
- Vivaldi’s Spring Movement Video by Mr. Reyna
- Spring Body Percussion Play-Along (on my YouTube channel)
Another way to get students moving is by adding in a circle dance or parachute activity. This is a great way to add some extra excitement to Vivaldi’s “Spring.”
For a simple dance, you can plan it ahead or let your students decide on a move for each section—walking in a circle, stepping into the center, turning with their partner, etc.
For the parachute activity, here’s what I do with my students:
Storytelling with Music
If you’re looking for some more extension activities for “Spring,” then you can incorporate a writing activity. Read the sonnet that Vivaldi used as his inspiration to compose “Spring” from The Four Seasons. Encourage your class to brainstorm spring words and phrases and maybe even write their own poem based on Vivaldi’s music. With younger students, it could be as simple as short rhythmic phrases that they play on percussion instruments. Often, I create my own words for an activity like this, but my students just love when the class uses their ideas. For example, here’s an example—“Birds chirping in the trees. Flowers blooming everywhere. Now I hear a thunderstorm.”
Connecting Music to Visual Art
You can incorporate another subject with Vivaldi’s “Spring”—Art. Choose whether you’d like to collaborate with the art teacher at your school or just add to a music class extension project. Encourage students to create a picture based on what they hear. Listening glyphs are a great way to incorporate art and music, as students must color each part based on what they hear. For example, it may designate that for the umbrella, color it red if voices are heard or yellow if no voices are heard.
Composing with Spring Themes
Here’s another way to use “Spring” from The Four Seasons. Use rhythmic building blocks to help students compose simple rhythmic patterns. This can be a wonderful review for quarter notes, 8th notes, and quarter rest. Choose to create building block patterns ahead of time or have students come up with their own spring-related words for each rhythm. Choose four rhythmic blocks to make a pattern. Then play the composition on classroom instruments or even body percussion. You could also have them transfer that to a glockenspiel.
You can print or write your own rhythms out on 3×5 cards. You can also purchase the set that I use with my students right here.
Teaching Musical Concepts
Vivaldi’s “Spring” is packed with opportunities to reinforce important music theory concepts:
- Dynamics: Listen and identify the loud and soft sections throughout.
- Tempo: Discuss if/how the tempo varies from the birds to the thunderstorm section.
- Form: Aurally recognize each section of the music. Create a simplified form map with shapes, icons, or letters representing each section.
- Pitch: Recognize high and low pitches and notes moving upward and downward.
- Meter: Recognize the meter of this piece is in 4/4. Perform body percussion motions bouncing ball activities, showing beat 1 is the strongest.
Vivaldi’s “Spring” from The Four Seasons offers so many opportunities for exciting music activities in the elementary music classroom. Whether you’re using movement, instruments, or rhythmic building blocks, these music activities will be a wonderful addition to your next spring music lesson.
What’s your favorite way to use Vivaldi’s “Spring” in your classroom? Let me know in the comments or send me an email at beth@bethsmusicclassroom.com.
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