1st Grade

QUARTER 1:

Through movement, listening, reading, role-playing, and music-making activities, 1st Grade students will explore the elements of music such as Beat, Rhythm, Melody, Tempo, Mood, Timbre, and Theme.

Can You Hear It?

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC

Music and visual art are connected.
Classical instrumental music is filled with images, from gliding ice skaters to marching marching knights; flying bumblebees to tiptoeing fairies.
We can listen to how instruments are used in the music to create pictures in our imaginations.
We can use our imaginations and move our bodies to show the different elements of the music.

The playlist 1st grade has been responding to for Can Your Hear It? can be found here.

We listened to the busy music of "An American in Paris" and noticed the clip-clop of mounted police played by the wood block, and the "beep beep beep!" of the cars in traffic, played by the french horns. Then we pretended to drive along our carpet road and beeped at our friends as we passed.

Room 103

Room 104

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Quarter 2: Through movement, listening, reading, role-playing, and music-making activities, 1st Grade students will explore the elements of music such as Beat, Rhythm, Melody, Tempo, Mood, Timbre, and Theme.

Carnival of the Animals

Carnival of the Animals, by the French composer Camille Saint-Saens, is a fun way to explore how classical music can create images in our imagination. Through movement activities and role-playing, 1st grade students explore tempo, timbre (instrumentation), form, melody, and mood.

Waltzing Elephants!

How gracefully these elephants waltz with their trunks connected to each other! 1-2-3, 1-2-3, they stomp in time to the music in triple meter.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

A-weema-wah, A-weema-wah, A-weema-wah, A-weema-wah...

The 1st grade classes have been singing and playing instruments along with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." They picked out different rhythmic and melodic patterns in the song, and followed the cues of a conductor to know when it was their turn to play.

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Peter and the Wolf

"Peter and the Wolf" is a musical fairy tale in which each character is played by a different instrument of the orchestra. Written by Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev, and first performed about 100 years ago, it's still a favorite of primary students every year!

Students listened to the story and identified the characters by the instruments and melody that's played. They discussed the way the music helps tell the story, and identified the mood and tone quality (timbre) of each character's theme. Then, they had a chance to act out the story and add instrumental accompaniment of their own!

Quarter 4

Through movement, listening, reading, and music-making activities, 1st Grade students will explore how music is experienced in different cultures around the world.

Music of China

We read the story, "The Squiggle" about a young person who finds a ribbon on a walk and uses their imagination to create traditional Chinese shapes and images like the Great Wall and a dragon. Then we listened to the traditional Chinese New Year song, "Gong Xi" and danced with ribbon streamers, trying to create the same shapes. We also listened to traditional Chinese instruments, like the Ruan, Guqin, and Erhu.

Music of Nigeria

Playing the Dundun

Also called the "talking drum"

Coloring our listening glyphs

What do you hear?

1st Grade Arts Residency

In partnership with Urban Gateways, 1st Grade students learned about the practice of Capoeira, a Brazilian art form that combines music, dance, and martial arts. Lessons included traditional Capoeira movement, Brazilian/Portuguese songs, rhythms, and Capoeira instruments, like the berimbau.

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