Curriculum Guide
Music

 

LOWER GRADES

K-3

 

In music classes, students learn:

  • Basic music theory, including notes, rests, rhythms, intervals, scales and music terminology through a variety of activities, games and manipulatives.
  • Music history, including compositional periods, composers and styles, through visual and auditory examples and musical stories and flow charts.
  • Vocal technique, including pitch-matching, standard children's repertoire and church music through classroom singing and outside performance.
  • Visual and auditory recognition of intervals and chords.
  • Relationships among the arts, in particular between music and painting; observing form (or "shape") in music as it relates to patterns and sequences around them.
  • Improvising and reading basic rhythm patterns using instruments and voices.
  • Terms in music-related languages such as Italian and Latin.
  • Basic Kodaly syllables and rhythm patterns.

 

UPPER
GRADES

4-8

In music classes, students learn:

  • Intermediate music theory, including review of basic notation, rhythms, intervals, and terminology, adding chords, time signature, key signatures and chromatic intervals.
  • Music history, including compositional periods, composers and styles, through visual and auditory examples and musical stories and flow charts.
  • Vocal technique, including part singing, standard children's repertoire and church music through classroom singing and outside performance as groups and individuals.
  • Visual and auditory recognition of intervals and chords.
  • Relationships among the arts, in particular between music and painting; observing form (or "shape") in music as it relates to patterns and sequences around them.
  • Improvising and reading basic rhythm patterns using instruments and voices.
  • Notating rhythm patterns through rhythmic dictation exercises.