The Child Prodigy -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart is often one of the first composers chosen for a Charlotte Mason styled composer study. He is considered one of the best known and best loved composers of all time. And the fact that he began performing and writing music at such a young age is sure to be an inspiration to your children.
Let the music of Mozart fill your home as you introduce your children (and possibly yourself) to this master. You may also choose to supplement the music with some biographical information, some notebooking, and some stories on CD. Here are some resources to help you design your Mozart unit study.
Our Outline for Studying Mozart
It goes without saying that to appreciate Mozart, you must listen to his music! So although that is not included in the list below, it's an assumed, daily activity. During the term or weeks that you choose to focus on Mozart, have his music playing as often as possible.
Read Mozart, The Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler, one chapter outloud per day while Sprite colors in the illustrations printed from the companion disc.
Read the chapter on Mozart from Spiritual Lives of the Composers.
Listen to the Classics for Kids audio programs about Mozart.
Listen to The Story of Mozart audio CD as a wrap up, stopping to take notes on the notebooking pages as needed.
Go back over the notes and make a one page timeline for Mozart's short life. We like the printable page at Freeology.
Organize all the notebooking pages, colored illustrations, and the timeline into our notebook.
Mozart, The Wonder Boy
This is truly a delightful book! I bought my copy along with the companion CD from Rainbow Resource.
As a free, online (albeit not as detailed) substitute for this book, read the chapter on Mozart from The World's Great Men of Music by Harriette Brower. This book is in the public domain and can also be fouund at Google Books or in .txt format.
Mozart, The Wonder Boy (Great Musicians Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/20/2009)
Companion CD to Mozart, The Wonder Boy
You can read my review of both the books and the companion CDs at The Curriculum Choice.
Companion CD to Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia and Mozart, The Wonder Boy (Great Musicians Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/20/2009)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony 40 in G
There are several worthwhile Mozart videos at YouTube. Start with this one as an example.
Free Mozart Notebooking Pages
Below you can see the wonderful notebooking pages I downloaded from Notebooking Pages.
It's a PDF set with several options of layouts.
Living Books (and CDs) for Mozart Studies
Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? (Who Was...?)
Amazon Price: $4.99 (as of 11/20/2009)
Mozart Finds a Melody
Amazon Price: $16.20 (as of 11/20/2009)
Mozart: The Wonder Child: A Puppet Play in Three Acts
Amazon Price: $15.29 (as of 11/20/2009)
The Story of Mozart
An audio CD chronicling Mozart's entire life and career. Music selections are interspersed throughout the narrative.
Amazon Price: $2.98 (as of 11/20/2009)
Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers
Written from a Christian perspective, each composer is given one chapter of attention. You will find out how each composer's faith impacted his music and his life. This is written on a middle school or higher level, so you'll want to read it outloud to younger children.
Amazon Price: $9.39 (as of 11/20/2009)
Mozart Printables & Audio Resources
- Homeschool Share FREE Mozart Unit and Lapbook
- A very intensive unit study with two long PDF files full of printable minibook templates.
- Miscellaneous Lapbook Templates
- This is Homeschool Share's Miscellaneous Page of lapbooking printable templates. Scroll down to C for Composers to find a Mozart Shuttertied as well as a Mozart matchbook.
- Classics for Kids
- Four audio programs especially made for children. Look on the left for links to lesson plans and an activity sheet.
- Making Music Fun
- There are several nice printables here -- a short biography, a coloring page, a wordsearch, printable sheet music, and lesson plans!
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Coloring Page
- A bust of Mozart in a circle. Includes some biographical information at the bottom of the page.
- Mozart Notebooking Paper
- A rather plain design, but it may be handy for something.
- Another Mozart Notebooking Page
- A color image of Mozart with a text heading is at the top of this lined page.
- Magic Flute Study Guide (PDF)
- New Hampshire's Center for the Performing Arts has an amazing study guide for Mozart's opera The Magic Flute that is also a really great general opera resource. There are crossword puzzles, maps, themed math problems, and more. It's actually a complete unit study. I especially like the mapping activity on page 90.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Notebooking Page
- Another freebie hosted at Homeschool Launch.
The Very Best of Mozart
No Mozart music on hand? No worries. You can purchase this album of Mozart's Greatest Music online and download the MP3 files to play on your computer. Actually, this is what I had to do since I found myself without any Mozart music! How can we have composer study without listening to his music? Impossible.
Preview by clicking the play arrow.
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Tchaikovsky Composer Study
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Classical Music Lapbook
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Mozart Guestbook
Your comments are always welcome!
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- JoyfulPamela JoyfulPamela Jul 27, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
- Mozart is soooooo cooooool! Would you mind linking this page to my Mozart unit at homeschool share? If I could just listen to Mozart all day, I'd be happy! :D
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- GroovyFinds GroovyFinds Jul 14, 2009 @ 7:45 pm
- I love Mozart!
by Jimmie
Hello! I am a homeschooling, stay at home mom who loves to teach and learn. I enjoy cooking from scratch, blogging, photography, and traveling, but I...
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