1-Pager
3rd Grade  Project 4 weeks

Rhythm & Prints

Brent S
Updated
Effective Communication
Collaboration
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Content Expertise
Self Directed Learning
1-pager

Purpose

Students investigate, “How do musicians and visual artists use rhythm, pattern, and design to create something that feels connected?” beginning with Google Music Experiments, including Kandinsky. They create an original GarageBand song and a complementary foam-print album cover while applying drawing, printmaking, music creation, elements of art, and principles of design. Musicians, artists, and peers provide feedback through critiques of both products, followed by two rounds of revision and self-reflection using a rubric that connects audio and visual choices. Students collaboratively curate their finished work in school hallways and present it to lower elementary classes, explaining their creative decisions and learning.

Learning goals

Students will explore Google Music Experiments, including Kandinsky, and learn from musicians and artists to investigate how rhythm, pattern, and design connect sound and image. They will create an original GarageBand song and a complementary foam-print album cover by applying music creation, drawing, printmaking, elements of art, and principles of design. Students will collaborate, listen with empathy, solve creative problems, and use a shared audio-visual rubric during critique to complete two rounds of revision on both products. They will reflect on their growth and clearly present their connected song and artwork in a curated hallway exhibition for lower elementary classes.

Competencies
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

Products

Students will create short rhythm-and-pattern studies during Google Music Experiments, including the Kandinsky experiment, and sketch connections between sound, line, shape, color, and repetition. They will produce an original song in GarageBand and a complementary album cover using drawing and foam-sheet printmaking. After feedback from peers, musicians, and artists, students will complete two rounds of revision on both products and use a shared rubric to evaluate how effectively the audio and visual elements connect. Final songs and album-cover prints will be curated as a hallway exhibition and listening experience for lower elementary classes.

Launch

Students explore Google Music Experiments, including Kandinsky, to discover how drawn shapes, colors, and patterns can produce sound. Local musicians and artists lead a “see it, hear it” challenge in which students match short musical clips to printed artworks and explain connections using rhythm, pattern, and design. Pairs create and share a quick digital sound drawing, listen empathetically, and revise it once using peer feedback. Conclude by introducing the essential question, the GarageBand song and foam-print album cover challenge, the audio-visual rubric, two critique-and-revision rounds, and the hallway exhibition for lower elementary classes.

Exhibition

Students curate a hallway “Sound and Print Gallery,” displaying foam-print album covers with QR codes and listening stations for their original GarageBand songs. Lower elementary classes rotate through the gallery while third graders explain how rhythm, pattern, elements of art, and design connect each visual and audio product. Local musicians and artists join the audience, offer feedback, and celebrate students’ creative choices. After presenting, students use the shared audio-visual rubric to reflect on collaboration, revision, and how effectively their song and cover complement one another.