Meet Johann Sebastian Bach

Grade level

Grades 3–5

Time

About 20 minutes

Topic

Composers

Answer key

Yes, page 2 of the PDF

Kids practice

Reading for information, Recalling facts from a passage, Placing composers in time, Connecting a composer to their music

What kids do

Printed on the sheet:

1. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach, Germany, into a big family of musicians. As a boy he learned the violin and the harpsichord, and he grew up to be one of the best organ players of his time. For many years he led the music at St.
2. Thomas Church in the city of Leipzig, where he often wrote new music for the choir every week. Bach had twenty children, and several of them became composers too. He wrote more than a thousand pieces of music, including the Brandenburg Concertos.
3. Bach died in 1750. His music is still played all over the world.
4. Bach was born in Germany.
5. Bach was best known for playing the trumpet.
6. Bach had twenty children.
7. Bach wrote fewer than one hundred pieces of music.
8. In which city did Bach lead the church music for many years?

Teacher tip

Play the opening of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor on the organ before reading. Kids will know the sound, and it shows why Bach was famous as an organ player.

How to use it

• Play a minute of the composer’s music before reading.
• Read the passage aloud once, then let kids reread it on their own.
• Make the sound first. Clap, sing or play the idea before kids see it on paper.

Watch for

Answering from memory. Send kids back to the passage for proof.

Talk about it

• What was hard in this composer’s life?
• Where have you seen or heard this in a song we know?

Take it further

Listen to one full piece and draw while it plays.

US Letter, prints well in black and white. Free for home and classroom use: print as many copies as you need.