First Grade Music

Course Description

In each unit in first grade, students have the opportunity to create, present, respond to, and connect with a variety of musical forms. They imitate, echo, and create music and learn to use musical vocabulary to describe and respond to music. Students will explore with dance, rhythm, vocal music, instrumental music, iconic notation. Students will consider what musical forms and dances are appropriate for different occasions and celebrations and develop a personal program of music for a special event.

Grade Level(s): First Grade

Related Priority Standards (State &/or National):  Missouri Fine Arts Music Standards

Essential Questions

• How does performing different rhythms feel different?
• How can we match what we hear?
• How can we answer a musical question?
• How can we hear the music we see written down?                           
• How do we practice so that our performance improves?
• What are some of the things we can vary when we repeat and respond to music?
• What patterns can we hear and create in music?
• How do we want our audience to feel?

Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas

• People respond to music by moving along with it.                       
• Music expresses moods and influences people's emotions.
• Musicians practice a lot to make a performance sound the way they want to.
• Music can be used to suggest a location, introduce characters, and tell a story.    
• Musicians can listen to a piece of music and then contribute to its performance by matching and contrasting the sounds that they hear.                                
• Musicians add to music by trying new ideas, choosing one they like, and then practicing to make it sound just right.
• Musicians use symbols to write and plan music that other people can read and play.
• Musicians use strategies to learn and perform written music.
• Musicians practice and improve their performances.
• Musicians prepare for performances by selecting and practicing music they think their audience will appreciate. 
• Some pieces of music go together and some contrast with each other. 
• Musicians select music that goes together and contrasts in interesting ways. 
• People make lists of songs that fit a particular mood or occasion. The elements of music change how people respond to it.

Course-Level Scope & Sequence (Units &/or Skills)

Unit 1 - Move to the Beat, Alone and with Others

• Students will demonstrate locomotor and non-locomotor movements to fast and slow music alone and with a partner by performing body percussion, hand claps, and simple folk dances.
• Invent and investigate variations of simple folk dances, hand claps, and body percussion.

Unit 2 - Accompaniment on Instruments

• Students will perform the steady beat and simple accompaniment patterns (bordun, ostinato) on percussion instruments with proper technique.
• Students will demonstrate high/low, up/ down/ same by accompanying songs, imitating the teacher, or by selecting instruments to tell a story/ create a soundscape.

Unit 3 - Beat and Rhythm

• Students will identify and perform: beat, silent beat, long and short rhythms using iconic notation.
  
• Students will practice and improve their performance of a rhythmic piece.   

Unit 4 - Matching Pitch

• Students will imitate, echo, read and create using a 3 tone set (sol, mi, la).
• Students will sing songs in a limited range and experience major and minor tonalities.
• Students will invent a response to a musical prompt.

Course Resources & Materials: TBD

Date Last Revised/Approved: 2022