In each grade we use different songs, books, and activities to learn the concepts. Below you will find a small grouping of some of these materials we use during the year and the concepts I am using them to teach in the music classroom.
First Trimester
(Sometimes things don't get done in a certain trimester, but this is where things usually end up.)
Kindergarten
Welcome everyone - beat, singing on pitch
Chicken Dance - beat
Listen to the cows (changing animals each week) - rhythm, beat
Mrs. Fish - singing on pitch
Peter, Peter Calabaza - beat
What Will You Be On Halloween - singing on pitch
We Are Scary Skeletons - beat
Yankee Doodle - Beat, sing on pitch
First Grade
Children See and Children Do - steady beat
Hickory Dickory Dock - up/down, beat
Syncopated Clock - steady beat
Fang and Twang - Sol and mi
The Muffin Man - quarter note and quarter rest
America (My Country 'Tis of Thee) - Singing on pitch, beats in 3
Big Black Cats - Chord Bordun
What Will You Be? - Chord Bordun, Sol and mi
Second Grade
Go, Go, Go - Broken Bordun, Improvisation
Charlie Over the Ocean - Broken Bordun
Same Same, But Different (book) - half notes, phrases
2, 4, 6, 8 - alternating, simultaneous hands on xylophone
Must Be Halloweeen - single eighth notes/barred eighth notes
Trick or Treat - Half notes
Rhythm Cards - staccato vs legato
Third Grade
Ugros - whole notes, half notes, quarter notes
Remember Me - whole notes, ostinato
La Raspa - A B form
The Indigeneous People - Crossover Bordun
Tideo - Major pentatone
This Is My Country - whole notes, singing on pitch
Old Abram Brown - Minor, canon
Ghost of John - Minor, Canon
Fourth Grade
Canoe Round - syncopation
I Want to Rise - syncopation, sung ostinato
Shake the Papaya Down - syncopation
Hot Cross Buns - recorder technique (left hand)
Old Tom White - recorder technique
Hallelujah Chorus - recorder technique (high c)
Barcarolle - recorder technique, meter in 3
Fifth Grade
Star-Spangled Banner - history, words, significance
Bedtime in the Swamp (book) - songs in parts
Halloween Triplets - triplets
Second Trimester
Kindergarten
This Little Light of Mine - steady beat, matching pitch
ABC song - different voices
Tony Chestnut - audiation
Bingo - audiation
Melody Monkey - singing voice
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - instruments, rhythm, up and down
First Grade
Lucky White Horse - sol and mi, quarter and eighth notes
Martin Luther King - sol and mi (xylophones)
Apple Tree - sol and mi, quarter and eighth notes
Celebrate the Presidents - rhythm ostinato
Second Grade
Martin Luther King - do, ostinato
Speak Up! (book) - mi, re, do
Bow Wow Wow - mi, re, do
Button You Must Wander - mi, re, do
We Shall Overcome - mi, re, do
Alabama Gal - mi, re, do; ostinato
Third Grade
Three Little Monkeys - Dotted half notes
They, She, He, Me: Free to Be! (book) - Meter in 3
When the Saints Go Marching In - Major, sixteenth notes, Interlude
This Little Light of Mine - Major (Black History Month)
Ah, Poor Bird - minor, canon
Kookaburra - major, canon
Scotland's Burning - major, canon
The Frog Song - sixteenth notes
Fourth Grade
Get Up - eighth rests
Hot Cross Buns in F - recorder technique, right hand
Old MacDonald - recorder technique
Hi, High C - duet
Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - instruments of the orchestra
Barcarolle - first and second endings
Jolly Old St. Nicholas - first and second endings
Ode to Joy - duet
Fifth Grade
Change Sings (book) - songs in parts
Begin Spring Musical
Third Trimester
Kindergarten
Peter and the Wolf - instrument identification
Celito Lindo - beat (in 3)
Michael Finnegan - beat
Miss Lucy - beat
Plates and shakers - beat vs. rhythm
John Jacob Jinglheimer Schmidt - tempos and dynamics
First Grade
March Is Here Now - dynamics
Apple Tree - la
Lucy Locket - la, dynamics
Acka Backa Soda Cracker - la, ostinato
Tres Pajaritos - melodic contour
Quien es ese pajaritos? - melodic contour
Bickle Bockle Blue Bottle - la, ostinato
Second Grade
Bulgy Benji - melodic ostinato
Who's That - held note harmony
Riding the Rails - beat
I Hear the Train a-Comin' - held note harmony
Cut the Cake - step, leap, repeat patterns
Off to the Zoo - step, leap, repeat patterns, high do
Hole in the Bucket - meter in 3
Third Grade
To Stop the Train - canon
Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag (book) - fa