Typical Lessons

Below are a few samples of what a day in music class might look like for each grade level.

Kindergarten

1. Warm- up: Students echo glissandos and pitches heard from a slide whistle.

2. Echo Song: "The Littlest Worm", Echo as a class, then volunteers perform solos one phrase at a time.

3. Finger and Hand Movements: Ms. Polly Had A Dolly

4. Singing as a group with accompaniment: Patriotic Songs for an assembly, "Star Spangled Banner" and "America The Beautiful"

5. Chants and Playing on the Beat: Students say the chant, "Alligator Pie" and take turns playing on the beat with woodblocks.

6. Expressive Movement: Kindergarteners mirror movements to Saint-Saens' "The Aquarium"

7. Individual Movements: Scarves are distributed and each student comes up with movements that fit "The Aquarium".

8. Music Story Book: We read the book My Aunt Came Back. We sang this song earlier in the year as well.

9. Circle Game: Kindergarten students stand in a circle and each student takes a turn leading the class in "Circle Round The Zero".

10. Explore a new instrument: As we line up to go back to class everyone gives a few strums on the dulcimer.

First Grade

1. Warm- Up: Students say "Yee- Haw" after each stanza of the poem "Cowboy Joe".

2. Echo Song: We sing the song, "Oh In The Woods".

3. Singing as a group with accompaniment: First graders sing the Beatles song, "Octopuses Garden" and a spiritual "Peace Like A River".

4. Movement Activity: Students perform a movement piece to Rachmaninoff's "Italian Polka". The movement uses a two foot long piece of string.

5. Instruments: We play the chant, "Charlie In The Tub" on the Tubano Drums. Words are played on the tone (Edge) and bass (Middle )of the drum. We also play the chant with no words at all.

6. Partner Movement Activity: First grade students make a double circle and perform the mixer song " John Kanaka". Students have to perform a handclap and a Do Si Do with several partners.

7. Explore a new instrument: We look at an autoharp and talk about tuning, different kinds of chords (Major, Minor and Seven Chords) and how the instrument works. Everyone plays a chord and strums the autoharp while leaving class.

Second Grade

1. Rhythm Cards: Second graders echo rhythm patterns from flashcards with quarter notes and eighth notes.

2. Reading Rhythms: Students look at a chart of eighth notes and quarter notes that notate the orchestra's rhythm for "The Can Can". Students follow along while a recording is playing. Later we chant the rhythm syllables while the recording plays.

3. Singing to an accompaniment: We sing a few songs together as a class, "Don Gato" and "Give My Regards To Broadway".

4. Movement Activity: We use two paper plates per student to perform movements to "Solider's Joy".

5. Instruments: Second graders play a three part Orff Xylophone ensemble to the song "Tideo".

6. Partner Clapping: Everyone works with a partner on the clapping song "A Sailor Went To Sea".

7. Composers: We read a short story about Beethoven.

8. Handbells: Students take turns playing a part of "Ode To Joy" on the handbells using the notes E,D, F, C and G.

Third Grade

1. Reading Music: Third grade students echo patterns in the key of G using Do, Re and Mi.

2. Partner Song: We continue to work on the partner song, "Fifty Stars". The class splits in half and each sing a different song at the same time.

3. Reading Music: Third graders try to figure out how Mi, Re and Do are used in the song "Hop Old Squirrel".

4. Instruments: Students play a three part Orff percussion and xylophone ensemble to the song "Hop Old Squirrel".

5. Movement: Everyone finds a partner and we make a longway set for the folk dance "Jubilee Rag".

6. Instruments: We talk about playing techniques and parts of the dulcimer. We also talk about how to read dulcimer music, as we are going to play in our next music class.

Fourth Grade

Guitar Unit

1. We practice C and G7 chords as a class and individually.

2. Students practice a chord progression switching between C and G7. Then we play the songs "Feelin' Alright" and "Yellow Submarine" using C and G7 chords.

3. 4th graders learn a new chord, Em. We practice it as a class and I go around the room to help everyone.

4. We play the one chord song, "Get Up Stand Up". It just has our new chord Em.

5. 4th Graders work on the chord progression Em- C. We put four quarter note rests between each chord taking one rest out at a time.

6. After our Em- C progression is sounding good we play the song "Eleanor Rigby".

7. For the last few minutes we review a few songs we have played in the past such as "Electric Avenue" and "Paperback Writer".

Fifth Grade

1. Reading Notes: Words are written on the board using music notes. 5th graders take turns solving what they are.

2. Keyboard Talk: We circle around the piano and talk about how to use our left hand in our keyboard unit. Some students are ready to move on to this.

3. Keyboard Stations: Students move to various keyboards around the room. They are all working on different materials and I am checking them off when they are ready to move on.

4. Environmental Camp Songs: We have a campfire at Environmental Camp where we sing a bunch of camp songs. We take a few minutes at the end of class to practice these songs.