Third Grade Music

Course Description

In each unit in third grade, students have the opportunity to create, present, respond to, and connect with a variety of musical forms. They imitate, echo, read, 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, and music notation. Students will consider what musical forms and dances are appropriate for different occasions and celebrations and develop a program of music for a public event.

Grade Level(s): Third Grade

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

Essential Questions

• How can we vary our traditional movements to match different pieces of music?
• What is a good dance for this celebration?
• How do we practice so that we can improve our performance?
• What can we change about a piece of music that will change what it expresses?       
• How can we describe what we hear in a piece of music?
• How can we predict how music will sound by reading music notation?
• How do we decide when our performance sounds the way that it should?
• How do we judge the quality of musical performances?
• How does music help groups of people connect with each other?

Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas

• Dancers match their movements to each other and to the music.
• Musicians and dancers express emotions in the patterns and the variations in dances.
• Dances are used to connect people and create community during celebrations. 
• People dance together to celebrate their connection to each other.
• Musicians break longer pieces of music into sections, and practice the sections separately to improve their performance. 
• Musicians vary elements of their performance to express different ideas and feelings.
• Musicians write in standard notation so they can share their music.
• Written music helps musicians hear how multiple parts work together.       
• Musicians practice and listen to each other to agree on whether their performance sounds the way they want it to.
• Before we try to judge the quality of a performance, we have to agree on our preferences and criteria.
• Music helps groups of people set the tone for their celebrations. Different kinds of music are important at different celebrations.

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

Unit 1 - Folk Dance: Longways Set

• Students will demonstrate locomotor and non locomotor movements to music alone, with a partner, or as a group by performing folk dances in a longways set.
• Students will experience movement through a varying musical form (AB, ABA, Rondo form).
• Students will perform movement from a variety of cultures.

Unit 2 - 2-3 Part Instrumental Piece

• Students will perform a variety of instrumental music with melodies, chords and layered accompaniment (simple and crossover bordun, ostinato) on percussion instruments with proper technique.
• Students will demonstrate rhythms including 4 16ths notes, whole note, whole rest, and half-rest by reading standard music notation.
  
• Students will describe and respond to the expressive elements of music.
  

Unit 3 - Intro to Treble Clef

• Students will identify, read, create, and perform pitches on a treble clef staff with rhythmic notation in duple (quarter note, paired eighth notes, quarter rest, half note, half rest, whole note, whole rest, 4 16th notes), and triple meter (dotted quarter, dotted quarter rest, 3 eighth notes, quarter eighth, eighth quarter, eighth rest). 
• Students will experiment with changes in music and describe the effects.

Unit 4 - Simple Part Singing

• Students will imitate, echo, read, and create using the pentatonic scale (do, re, mi, sol, la).
• Students will sing songs in a wider range and experience major and minor tonalities while singing in 2 parts (ostinato, rounds, partner songs).
• Students will vary elements of performance and describe the effects.

Course Resources & Materials: TBD

Date Last Revised/Approved: 2022