Skills and concepts will be acquired through singing games and through playing African drums, Orff instruments, and recorder. Multicultural and cross-curricular concepts are integrated throughout.

 

The student will:

 

Early Childhood

á      participate in musical activities.

á      show beat in music.

á      explore attic and basement (high and low) sounds in people, animals, and instruments.

á      discover singing voice.

á      explore and experience a variety of instruments.

 

For each subsequent grade, the student will continue to practice and build on previous skills and concepts.

 

Kindergarten

á      show steady beat.

á      identify and echo long and short patterns.

á      distinguish between voices (singing, speaking, very quiet, and playground).

á      identify melodic direction.

á      identify question and answer songs.

á      show phrases with movement.

á      identify repeat sign.

á      sing with others.

á      chant in parts.

á      distinguish loud from soft , and fast from slow.

á      identify instrument families.

á      aurally identify Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King", Vivaldi's "Winter", Saint-Saens; "Cuckoo in the Woods", and SousaÕs ÒStars & Stripes Forever.

 

First Grade

á      discriminate between beat and rhythm.

á      experience, identify, and notate quarter note as tah, quarter rest as tah rest and two eighth notes as tee tee.

á      aurally identify rhythmic patterns in masterworks and folk music.

á      experience, identify, and notate so mi and la.

á      count phrases with movement.

á      build and use musical staves.

á      aurally identify like and unlike phrases.

á      work towards pitch matching.

á      perform a four-beat rhythm round.

á      aurally identify Saint-Saens; "Carnival of the Animals" and each animal's musical characteristics.

 

Second Grade

á      convert to standard musical notation (put heads on notes).

á      experience, identify, and notate ties, half notes as two, and half rests as two rest.

á      experience, identify, and notate mi re do patterns in music.

á      identify the do key and the concept of movable do.

á      assign letter names to phrases.

á      define and recognize coda.

á      sing in parts with teacher.

á      perform patterns on a wide variety of musical instruments.

á      study a major composer or musical culture.

 

Third Grade

á      aurally and visually (via meter signature) identify beats grouped in two's, three's or fours.

á      conduct two, three and four beat patterns.

á      perform three-beat rhythm rounds.

á      experience, identify, and notate whole note as toe and whole rest as toe rest.

á      identify do mi so patterns in music.

á      experience and identify high do, fa and ti in music, completing the major scale.

á      sing rounds or partner songs with classmates.

á      identify sections of music by letter names.

á      perform crossover pattern on Orff instruments.

á      study a major composer or musical culture.

á      study a master composer and some of his/her music.

 

Fourth Grade

á      experience, identify, and notate syncopated rhythms as synCOpa, dotted rhythms as tom-tee and tee-tom, and eighth rest as tee rest.

á      learn letter names of treble clef.

á      distinguish steps, skips, and leaps in melodies.

á      experience, identify, and notate low so and low la.

á      aurally identify tonal centers of do-based (major) and la-based (minor) music.

á      sing independently.

á      sing with others in three-part rounds and in partner songs.

á      recognize counter-melodies.

á      read and play five note songs on recorder using slurring and tonguing when appropriate.

á      identify visually and aurally instruments of orchestra and band.

á      study a master composer and some of his/her music.

á      Introduce sixteenth note patterns with rhythm words Òtika tikaÓ.

á      begin conversion of rhythm words (ta tee tee) to rhythm values (quarter note, eighth notes).

á      recognize accidentals and understand their effects on pitch.