My family had the privilege of trying the Zeezok Publishing Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades Collection for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.
Zeezok Publishing is a Christian provider of enriching educational materials for homeschoolers. They strive to supply the best and most affordable homeschooling textbooks and supplementary materials that will compliment your educational needs. Zeezok Publishing is continuing to expand its curriculum, books, and supplementary materials to help the homeschooling family have the opportunity to give the finest possible education to their children.
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| Zeezok Publishing Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades Collection, minus Nutcracker Ballet book. |
Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades is more than just teaching music theory or music appreciation to your student. This collection is from the Great Musicians Series. The collection includes a student activity book and nine composer biographies. This is geared for grades 5th-8th and a variety of learners including: auditory, kinesthetic, visual, etc. It also meets all national standards for music appreciation.
What is included in detail:
- Student Book: This soft cover book by Elisabeth Tanner and Judy Wilcox starts off with a Table of Contents, Introduction, Scope & Sequence, and Music List. Then it has each of the seven composers listed, each with 4 weeks of hands-on activities that include: American and world history, grammar, geography, music studies, concert etiquette, timelines, character trait studies, and so much more. The activity book ends in Endnotes, a bibliography for each section. This is a great companion to the biographies and they suggest getting one of these for each student being taught. Comes with Music Appreciation for the Middle Grades App–QR codes and their app website that provides easy access to all the songs from the biographies, interactive quizzes, and a variety of additional website links to enhance the learning experience. MSRP $59.99
- 9 Composer Biographies: Nine different biography books for seven composers studied. Included is: Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, Stephen Foster, Brahms, Peter Tchaikovsky, and Edward MacDowell. These biographies describe the childhood and adult life of each of these composers. These are true and accurate with every important event mentioned. These also have written music and lovely pictures throughout.
Music Appreciation: Book 2 Collection includes one Student Book and the following nine composer biographies:
- Frederic Chopin, Early Years
- Frederic Chopin, Later Years
- Robert Schumann and Mascot Ziff
- Adventures of Richard Wagner
- Stephen Foster and His Little Dog Tray
- The Young Brahms
- The Story of Peter Tchaikovsky
- Peter Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet
- Edward MacDowell and His Cabin in the Pines
How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I used this set with my daughter, Teela, who is just starting 6th grade. We focused on Frederic Chopin and the book Frederic Chopin, Early Years and some of the Frederic Chopin, Later Years for the 4 week study and this review. First we looked through the Student Book and found that besides a nice table of contents, each composer had its own colored tab along the side to find the pages easily. The tab colors also go with the some of the reader colors. When we flipped to Frederic Chopin on page 17 we found the Weekly Lesson Outline layout for each of the four weeks. These Weekly Lesson Outlines are given for each composer too and is very well structured and spelled out for you so you know exactly what to do and when. At the end of the 5 weeks they also include an answer key to help the teacher with grading.
I noticed a few things when we received the set through the mail. We received all but one of the physical books in the series because of an error in shipping. We were instead given a digital download of the Peter Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet, the last one we were missing, but I would have rather had the physical book. There is also a lapbook and coloring book that we did not receive and that are sold separately to go along with the materials. Also, I noticed that one book, The Young Brahms, was a hardcover not softcover like the rest.
In the Student Book there are Music Appreciation for the Middle Grades App–QR codes and a link to an app website that provides easy access to all the songs from the biographies, interactive quizzes, and a variety of additional website links to enhance the learning experience. We couldn't use the QR codes because we don't have a device to read them, but had a lot of fun with the website link which had all the same information. There are also activities in the student book that are starred and this means that those certain activities are required in order to meet national music appreciation standards.
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| Chopin Weekly Lesson Outline and an illustration in the reader. |
The Student Book had 5 weeks about Chopin. Each week we had different things to work on; some included: chapters to read from the biographies, comprehension questions to answer, character qualities to read about with page numbers from the biography to correspond with, tidbits of interest to read about with page numbers from the biography to correspond with, listening to tracks, vocabulary to learn, musical parts to learn, recipes to try, etc.
We learned a great deal about Chopin's early years. Not only did we learn about his life, but we also learned about his birthplace, Poland; music, foods he ate with recipes of a similar facsimile, etc. Some of the things we learned was that he went by many names, he weighed only 100 pounds even as an adult, he liked doing smaller recitals than large concerts because he played softly and some people couldn't hear him, and that his sister died of tuberculosis.
All of the parts of this curriculum complement each other really well. We loved how easy it was to follow along each week in the Student Book. It was really fascinating to learn about Chopin's life in the Frederic Chopin, Early Years biography reader. The link, instead of the QR codes, worked better for us for the tracks of music to listen to for each composer, videos about his life and music, and there is a quiz at the end of comprehension questions about the reading. As you can see there are a lot of different activities besides reading.
Teela is excited to learn about the other composers in this collection as well. We are going to finish Frederic Chopin, Later Years soon and then start on the book, Robert Schumann and Mascot Ziff. We can't wait to learn more about Chopin's life and other musicians in the series.
We highly recommend the Zeezok Publishing Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades Collection! If you are looking into a great classical music appreciation curriculum or homeschool music program look no further. This would be a great summer music program too! Also, look for the Zeezok Publishing Music Appreciation Book 1: for the Elementary Grades Collection if you have children in that age group. Book 1 includes: Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini and Schubert. I have loved learning about these composers.
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