Fifth grade dove right into the “why” behind transforming sound into pictures and pictures into sound, and they used their existing musical background knowledge (and CAPE experience from last year) to begin by adding musical terms to sounds they were brainstorming. We then moved into composing using graphic notation.

Brainstorming the dynamics of rainforest sounds and creating a simple musical map composition on the second visit.
Student #1
Students used post-its to create small sound graphics, and then used those sound graphics to create small compositions. The concept of using symbols to represent sound seemed to be a new concept for many students.
Student #2
We also used an organizer to help generate sounds and symbols to then later put into a composition.
Student #3
Finally, students tried to create an ABA composition to answer this inquiry question: "How can we transform a picture into a musical composition featuring loud and soft sounds and short and long sounds?" At the same time, students were working in the science classroom on representing their planets with music, using the same concepts.