COLOMBIA

Lesson 6

Teaching Artist: Juan Manuel Trujillo, Hery Paz
Two puppets presenting the flag of Colombia.

SUMMARY

This is the sixth lesson from the Alegría Musical Course. Students will visit Colombia with puppets Pepe and Tito to learn about the traditions of cumbia and vallenato music. Then students will perform a vallenato song.

OBJECTIVE

  • Summarize important information about the culture, history, and geography of Colombia.

  • Create a traditional cumbia beat.

  • Sing a short section of a traditional vallenato song.

MATERIALS

EXPLORE

  1.  Display the Google Slides: Colombia. Distribute the Alegría Musical: Latin American Stories Travel Diary. Allow students a moment to personalize the diary. Tell students they will use the diary as they travel through Latin America with puppets Pepe and Tito, drawing and recording important facts about another culture. 

    2. Show All About Colombia. Ask students to remember key geographical and cultural elements discussed in the video. Ask: Where is the country located on a map? What is Colombia’s national sport? Can you remember the names of instruments played in Colombia? Remind students about the tambor alegre, which translates to “happy drum” in English. Alegre shares a similar meaning with the name of this course: Alegría Musical, which means “musical joy” in English.

    3. Allow time for students to draw and write in their diary, recalling information they learned from the video.

LEARN

  1. Introduce students to Vallenato Music. Explain that vallenato music typically uses only three instruments: the caja, the guacharaca, and the accordion. Ask: Which of the three musical instruments imitates the sound of birds? (The guacharaca imitates the sound of the Guacharaca bird). Focusing on the guacharaca, ask students whether they remember any other Latin American musical instruments that are played using a scraping motion. They may recall the guiro (Puerto Rico), guira (Dominican Republic), and quijada (Mexico).

  2. Use the Lucero Espiritual Lyrics to learn the words to the vallenato song. Ask students to repeat each word back to you, then repeat again, while grouping words into sentences. Once students show success with full sentences, use the Lucero Espiritual Instructional Video to practice singing the song in call and response form. 

  3. Using the Cumbia Rhythm Instructional Video, practice using body percussion to create the cumbia rhythm.

PERFORM+SHARE

  1. Create a one minute video of students singing “Lucero Espiritual” or playing the cumbia rhythm as a class. Share the video on S’Cool Sounds Padlet.

  2. Tell students to get their diary ready for the next lesson, which is a visit to Peru.