Curriculum

Kindergarten - We work with McGraw-Hill's Share The Music curriculum.  Students will be introduced to vocal tone color, dynamics, steady beat, long/short and high/low sounds, basic rhythms, and tempo through song, movement, and playing pitched and unpitched instruments.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Music Department Performance, and other school performance opportunities.

1st Grade - We work with McGraw-Hill's Share The Music curriculum.  Students will continue to build their foundation in steady beat, dynamics, tempo, long/short and high/low sounds, rhythms, and tone color.  Students will be introduced to form in music, solfege, and one, two, and no sounds through song, movement, and playing pitched and unpitched instruments.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Music Department Performance, and other school performance opportunities.

2nd Grade - We work with McGraw-Hill's Share The Music curriculum.  Students will continue to build their foundation in steady beat, dynamics, tempo, long/short sounds, form, solfege, rhythms, and tone color.  Students will be introduced to whole, dotted half, half, quarter, and eighth notes, rests, and meter through song, movement, and playing pitched and unpitched instruments.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Music Department Performance, and other school performance opportunities.

3rd Grade - We work with McGraw-Hill's Share The Music curriculum.  Students will continue to build their foundation in dynamics, tempo, form, solfege, rhythms, tone color, and meter.  Students will be introduced to melodic direction, written dynamics, notation, phrases, dotted whole, and sixteenth notes, upbeats and downbeats, staccato, marcato, legato, tonal center, and identifying if pieces are in major or minor keys through song, analytical listening, and playing pitched and unpitched instruments.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Music Department Performance, and other school performance opportunities. 

4th Grade - We work with Bar Philipak's Recorder Karate curriculum.  Students apply the musical concepts they have developed from Kindergarten - 3rd Grade, and continue to build their musical skills through learning how to play the recorder.  Students will also prepare for our annual winter performance and other school performance opportunities. 

5th Grade - We work with excerpts from Traditions of Excellence, Rubank Elementary Method, and The Embouchure Builder.  Students apply the musical concepts they have developed from Kindergarten - 4th Grade, and continue to build their musical skills through learning how to play the trumpet.  Through the generous funding from our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), we were able to purchase trumpets for every student.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Music Department Performance, and other school performance opportunities.

6th Grade - We work with excerpts from Alfred's Group Piano for Adults curriculum.  Students apply the musical concepts they have developed from Kindergarten - 5th Grade, and continue to build their musical skills through learning how to play the piano.  Through the generous funding from our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), we were able to purchase piano keyboards for every student.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Music Department Performance, and other school performance opportunities.

7th Grade - We work with Essential Elements for Guitars curriculum.  Students apply the musical concepts they have developed from Kindergarten - 6th Grade, and continue to build their musical skills through learning how to play the guitar.  Guitars for every student were provided by year-long fundraising efforts by our Music Department.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Music Department Performance, and other school performance opportunities.  

8th Grade - We work with excerpts from Alfred's Group Piano for Adults curriculum.  Students apply the musical concepts they have developed from Kindergarten - 7th Grade, and continue to build their piano playing skills.  Through the generous funding from our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), we were able to purchase piano keyboards for every student.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Music Department Performance, and other school performance opportunities.

High School Choir Elective - Students will learn vocal techniques to reach develop their voice to its fullest singing potential.  Our choir elective will provide students with the opportunity toanalyze what was happening in the world when songs were written, and what thesong writers were trying to convey in their lyrics.  This analytical foundation will set the stagefor students to then discuss what the lyrics and tone of the music mean tothem, and add it to their performance of the song through their voices, choreography,costumes, and props.  Students will also prepare for our annual Winter Performance, Black History Assembly, Music Department Performance, Graduation, and other school performance opportunities.