Kindergarten: Introduction to the music room and music behavior. Large concepts: Participation, Safety, Respect, Steady Beat, Musical Opposites, Developing Vocal Timbres, Sorting instruments by physical and aural properties, building a musical foundation.

First Grade: Creating a musical foundation. Large concepts: Class cooperation, Participation, Safety, Respect, Reading, Writing, and Playing Basic Rhythms, Recognizing Simple Melodic patterns, Singing alone and with others, Introducing the science of music, Musical patterns.

Second Grade: Solidifying the musical foundation. Large concepts: Class and partner cooperation, Participation, Safety, Respect, Reading Writing, and Playing Basic Rhythms, Recognizing Simple-Moderate Melodic patterns, Singing with simple Harmony, comparing instruments, and recognizing basic musical forms.

Third Grade: Building on the musical foundation. Large concepts: Class, partner, and small group cooperation, Participation, Safety, Respect, Reading, Writing, and Playing Intermediate Rhythms, Recognizing the diatonic C-Scale, Singing alone and with partners in simple harmony, learning the families of instruments, describing music, and recognizing intermediate musical forms, getting recorder ready.

Fourth Grade: Using the musical foundation. Large concepts: Class, partner, small group, and solo work, participation, Safety, Respect, Reading, Writing, and Mastering previously learned Rhythms, Playing and singing the C-Scale, Playing simple harmonies, Describing the qualities/timbre of instruments, playing and recognizing musical forms, learning to play the soprano recorder.

Fifth Grade: Expanding on the musical foundation. Large concepts: Personal accountability in class, with partners, in small groups, and in solo work, Participation, Safety, Respect, Reading, Writing, and Playing complex rhythms, recognizing harmonic changes and “home” and “traveling” chords, describing music through written language, creating music, and recognizing complex musical forms, learning to play the baritone ukulele.

Sixth Grade: Continued use of the musical foundation. Large concepts: Personal accountability with respect to others in setting class, partner, and small group goals, Participation, Safety, Respect, Reading, Writing, and Mastering complex rhythms, creating harmonic changes using “home” and “traveling” chords, analyzing and describing music, honing knowledge of all previously learning musical forms and concepts.

Alina Gibitz

Music Specialist

A. G. Bell Elementary