Standards Being Addressed: MU:Pr6.1.

5a Perform music, alone or with others, with

expression, technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation.

Materials for Instruction:

Phrase One: Phrase Two:

Phrase Three: Phrase Four:

Phrase Five:

Activity One
Objective: Fourth grade students will recite the chant “For Want of a Nail” with accurate words,
rhythm, and a steady beat.
Lesson Sequence:
1. Introduce the song
a. Students will pat on their legs while I chant the song three times asking questions
each time. GO SLOW
 i. What are two things that were lost? What do you think the song is about?
GET A RESPONSE.
2. Talk about chant’s history
a. For want of a Nail is really really old. It goes back to 13th century Germany, that
was 800 years ago. There are lots of different versions of this chant. The one
we’re going to learn is from a book of poetry from 1912 but Ben Franklin also
had versions of this poem in his almanacs. This chant is about how small mistakes
or problems can cause big problems later. It’s kind of like the butterfly effect
where something small can cause a big impact later. Another metaphor that
expresses the same thought is “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of
cure”
3. Echo the poem. This will help students get familiar with the chant and the order of the
nouns and start to memorize it.
a. Students will echo each phrase of the poem while continuing to pat the beat
i. “Let’s learn this poem. I’ll go first and then I’ll point at you when it’s your
turn!” Point at yourself and then at the students on their turn. Repeat until
all students can echo it accurately
1. T: “For want of a nail the shoe was lost”
2. S: “For want of a nail the shoe was lost”
ii. Echo the second phrase. Repeat as necessary
1. T: “For want of a shoe the horse was was lost”
2. S: “For want of a shoe the horse was was lost”
iii. Echo the third phrase. Repeat as necessary
1. T: “For want of a horse the battle was lost”
2. S: “For want of a horse the battle was lost”
iv. Echo the fourth phrase. Repeat as necessary
1. T: “For failure of battle the kingdom was lost”
2. S: “For failure of battle the kingdom was lost”
v. Echo the fifth phrase. Repeat as necessary
1. All for the want of a horseshoe nail
4. Fill in the blank. This will help students get more familiar with the form of the chant and
when words repeat.
a. Students will fill in the word I leave out of the chant. Students will still be patting
and I will still be pointing to indicate turns. I will leave out the noun following for
“want of a” and emphasize this noun when I say it in the previous line. GO
SLOW. POINT.
i. “Now, when I leave a word out I want you to fill it in” POINT WHEN IT
IS THEIR TURN
 1. T: For want of a nail the shoe the was lost/ For want of a ____ the
horse was lost/ For want of a ____ the battle was lost/ For failure
of ____ the kingdom was lost/ All for the want of a ______
5. Extended fill in the blank
a. I will chant the first half of the phrase and the students will fill in the last half.
i. “Let’s do that again but this time you’re going to fill in a little bit more”
POINT when it is their turn. GO SLOW
1. T: “For want of a nail” S: “The shoe was lost”
2. T: “For want of a shoe” S: “The horse was lost”
3. T: “For want of a horse” S: “The battle was lost”
4. T: “For failure of battle” S: “The kingdom was lost”
5. T: “All for the want” S: “Of a horse-shoe nail”
6. I will say the chant out loud on my own while students continue to pat the beat
a. “I’m going to say the chant out loud one more time, listen for any parts that you
may have trouble with.
7. Audiation
a. Students will think the chant in their heads
i. “Now I want you to think through the chant in your head. Ready, set go (in
time)”
b. Ask if there were any phrases they forgot and echo those phrases as necessary
i. “Was there anything you forgot?” “Lets do that part together one more
time”
8. Assessment
a. Students will accurately recite the entire chant with leg pats. I will observe to
make sure everyone knows it. We will review any area where mistakes were made
i. “Ok let's do the whole thing! Read?”

Closure: “Great job learning this chant today! I’m so glad we got to extent it’s 800 year
tradition”

Assessment: Can students accurately recite the chant? Teacher observation

 Body Percussion

Standards Being Addressed: MU:Pr6.1.5a Perform music, alone or with others, with
expression, technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation.

Materials of Instruction:

Activity Two: Students will be able to perform the poem accurately with the addition of body
percussion.

● We will review the poem

○ “Do we all remember the poem “For Want of a Nail” we learned last time? I’ll say
it once while you pat along”
■ I will say the poem once while the class pats the beat so they can review
the poem
○ “Ok do you think you remember all of it” Review any sections if necessary “Lets
do it together”
■ We will all pat the beat and say the poem.
● We will add in the claps on all the up beats and recite the chant over it GO SLOW
 ■ Learning the body percussion with the chant over it is easier than without
because the stomps and snaps (the more difficult actions) line up on the
same word every time which makes it easier to remember
■ The pats have already been learned because that was what we used to keep
the beat
○ “Watch me and join when you’re ready” do the pats and the claps
○ When the class is comfortable I will add the chant over the body percussion and
then invite the class to join
■ “Do you think you guys can do the chant too? Let’s try it”
● We will add the in the snap on beat four (GO SLOW)
○ “I’m going to do something different, listen for what’s new and what word it
happens on”
○

● “What was new?” SNAPS “What word in the chant goes with the snaps?” LOST
“Yeah! Everytime we say lost we also snap, can we try to do that all together?”
● WE will do it all together

● We will add in the stomps on the and of four

○ “Ok I’m going to change one more thing, listen for what’s new and what word it
happens on”

● “What was new?” STOMPS“What word goes with the stomps?” FOR “Exactly!
Everytime we say “for” we’ll stomp. Let’s try it all together!”

● We will perform the whole chant all together

○ “Great job! Let’s try the whole thing all together!”

Assessment: I will observe the class recite the chant with the body percussion to ensure
everyone is doing it accurately

Closing: Great job learning the new body percussion parts! We will do more with it next time!
Objective: Fourth grade students will improvise rhythmically using “For Want of a Nail”,
within the parameters of one measure in 4/4 time.

Standards: MU:Pr4.2.5a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of

music (such as rhythm, pitch, form, and harmony) in music selected for performance.

MU:Pr6.1.5a Perform music, alone or with others, with expression, technical accuracy, and
appropriate interpretation.

Materials for Instruction:

Activity Three:

Review Chant
● “Do you remember the chant we learned last time” (probably not) “Let’s go through the
words again”
○ Go over the words, address any parts that need to be relearned
Review body percussion
● “Now that we went over the chant, do you remember the new body percussion we had?
Watch me and see what you remember.” Do chant with percussion “What word did we
stomp on? What word did we snap on? Let’s try it together”
Add in improv between phrases
● “Now I’m going to do something new” Do chant with body percussion improv between
phrases “what did I do? Can we all try that?”
● Have everyone do improv between phrases, pat during the improv and be strong on the
pick up so they come back in on time, repeat if necessary
Take turns improving
● “This time we’re going to take turns doing the improv, I’ll go first who wants to do the
second line ect. When someone is improving I want everyone else to do just the pats ok?
Let’s try it!” Repeat as necessary
Final run
● “Ok let's do the whole thing but this time I’m not going to improvise with you. Ready?”
(determine who will take the first slot)

Assessment: Students will improvise on measure in 4/4 time, teacher will observe.

Closer: Great job! I loved all the rhythms you came up with and thought they really added to the
chant!