Pre- Kindergarten students will learn the basics of music and reinforce skills learned in their homeroom class - colors, letters, shapes, community helpers, seasons, etc.
KINDERGARTEN students will learn about the basic building blocks of music. We will learn about the steady beat and note reading. We will sing a wide variety of songs and play many non-pitched percussion instruments. Singing will enhance students' recognition of colors, left and right, loud and soft. We will also learn about hand signs (solfeg) used to help sing songs at sight. We will also be introduced to the Boomwhackers!
FIRST GRADERS are very busy building on the basic knowledge of music learned in kindergarten. We play a variety of instruments, read rhythm charts, work with hand signs (solfeg) and we begin to learn about the staff. We build on our repertoire of kindergarten songs.
We begin the SECOND GRADE by reviewing the songs and information that we learned in Kindergarten and first grade. We quickly add new information to our musical knowledge. We will continue learning about the staff and note names. We will study the orchestra and the instrument families as well as form in music.
Recorders *Recorders*Recorders
In the THIRD GRADE, we utilize all of our basic musical knowledge to play a musical instrument - the recorder. Students look forward to learning to read music and to play a variety of songs with and without recorded accompaniment. The highlight of this year of recorder is our end of the year concert for second graders.
FOURTH GRADERS are introduced to a variety of American Folk Songs, while continuing to learn about musical symbols and elements of music. Students will also learn about the fine art of listening. There is a short unit on the Ballet and we will be learning about The Nutcracker. We will learn about Harmony in the winter and sound stories in the spring. The end of the year brings a unit on folk dancing.
FIFTH GRADERS begin their year singing patriotic songs, as well as, the National Anthem and the Pennsylvania and Maryland state songs. We learn about Sea Chanteys and work songs and then learn some Italian words for dynamics in music. We have a short unit on Opera, concluding with watching Amahl and the Night Visitors. Following that, we begin an intense study of instrument families of the orchestra. After learning about the families, we will build our own instrument and explain which family it belongs to and why.
Musical symbols, notes, rests and meter signatures begin the year for SIXTH GRADERS. Throughout the year we will study texture in music, the form of songs and the different types of scales used in music.
SEVENTH GRADERS begin the year learning to describe music by using the elements of music instead of just by opinions. After successfully learning how to talk about musical elements, students will study periods of classical music beginning with primitive music and moving into Medieval music. We will listen to music from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionist and Twentieth Century periods. We will learn about composers and life during these periods.
EIGHTH GRADERS study the birth of American popular music beginning with Stephen Foster in the 1850's. We will travel through the musical timeline to discover the Blues,Vaudeville, Ragtime, Dixieland, Jazz, Swing, Crooners, American Musical Theatre, Folk, County, Rock and Roll and maybe even Hip-Hop and Rap. Activities will include performing in a classroom Vaudeville show, writing blues songs, dancing, listening to music and researching musical artists.