Elementary Music ProgramThe goal of the music program at this level is for students to experience and enjoy music through gaining some basic understanding of music on many levels. The music curriculum includes five strands:
Performing (singing and playing instruments)
Understanding Notation (reading and understanding)
Creating and Responding (improvisation / composition / call and response)
History and Literature of Music
Knowledge of Music in Society
How do Elementary students experience these 5 strands of music?
creating (composing, arranging, and improvisation)
responding (including call and response and improvisation),
listening (may include various composers and musical genres but first and foremost listening to each other while performing and singing)
moving (from learning to move to a steady beat in the earlier grades to more intricate movement including folk dance and body percussion in the later Elementary grades).
playing instruments (including a wonderful selection of xylophones and glockenspiels and metalaphones as well as hand held percussion instruments. In third grade students are given their own recorder which they are taught to play in class)
singing (a varied repertoire of folk songs, nursery rhymes, chants and poetry as well as patriotic songs and songs representing our American heritage and also other cultures).