Bancroft, Sanborn, High Plain, South, and West Elementary Schools 

The Andover Public Schools Music Curriculum is a singing based curriculum which embraces the Orff-Schulwerk approach to music and movement education and utilizes the music literacy methods of Dr. John Feierabend and the Kodály Music Concept.  The Orff approachbuilds 21st century learning skills through imitation, exploration, improvisation, and composition.  Children use singing, expressive speech, instrument playing, and movement to become creative thinkers, collaborative problem solvers and life-long musicians.  Active music making is at the core of this philosophy, and the emphasis on creative movement appeals to kinesthetic learners. Just as we learn language aurally, our students experience and perform music without notation at first.  Students learn to read and write nontraditional and standard musical notation as they develop the desire to recreate and remember their own ideas, which reinforces the concepts they absorb through performance. The materials in the curriculum are selected from a rich repertoire of traditional folk songs and rhymes along with music from diverse styles and cultures.  Each of the following elements of music are explored throughout their elementary music education:  beat/rhythm, pitch/melody, timbre, tempo, dynamics, form, style, and texture.