K-2 Classes

Listening Activities

Here you will find listening selections performed by many different orchestras and professional players. Be sure to check back for more each week! Listen with your families and talk about the instruments you hear, about what it might remind you of, or just relax and enjoy the music!

Click here to use a listening log to talk about the music with a family member. The links are fillable and there are six pages. When you click on it, enable features. Use listening kit 1 for Kindergarten and 1st grade students, listening kit 2 for 2nd grade students, listening kit 3 for 3rd grade students,listening kit 4 for 4th grade students and listening kit 5 for 5th grade students. Have fun listening to and talking about music! Kids ask your parents what their favorite pieces are!

Specifically for younger students (Kindergarten & First Grade)

New York Philharmonic Very Young People's Concert Symphonic Playdate

The New York Philharmonic has put online a concert about Make-Believe that would be great for K & 1. There is a narrator and it would give kids a chance to use their imagination. The second half of the video goes through the Carnival of the Animal by Camille Saint Saens and the students could move like each of the animals. There is quite a bit of talking for the first two minutes and thirty seconds...you might fast forward. :)

If you'd like to learn about different instruments, click here to listen to the US Army Field Band demonstrate many different instruments.

United States Marine Band:

John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever - Click to learn more about the composer: Composer information for John Philip Sousa

United States Army Field Band:

The Trombone Meets the Bumblebee

Cincinnati Pops American Soundscapes:

For Star Wars Fans: Jyn Erso and Hope from Rogue One and Finale from Star Wars - The Force Awakens (this one has an introduction at the beginning about the music)

Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland. Also listen to the Marine Band perform this piece: Another Fanfare for the Common Man

American Soundscapes (Sketches on Shenandoah) by American Composer Peter Boyer

Yo-Yo Ma & Itzhak Perlman Play Dvorak - Cello & Violin

Yo-Yo Ma - A Moving tribute to Going Home Deceptive Cadence

This was just released by the Musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra - they created it from videos they played while having to be at home. Appalachian Spring - short version - see how many instruments you can name.

Appalachian Spring written by Aaron Copland and conducted by Aaron Copland - The entire piece (27 minutes) performed by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Click to Learn about Aaron Copland and hear more of his music

John Williams: John Williams Olympic Fanfare from 1984 & Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter Written by John Williams

Jazz Ambassadors: Sing, Sing, Sing by Louis Prima