What can you expect your child to learn in music this year?
The curriculum is aligned with all of the Arts areas (music, dance, visual art, and drama) across the K-12 continuum....the K-12 Arts Learning Collaborative. For more information on that please go to the Visual and Performing Arts Department on the District website. All Arts curricula are centered around the following Enduring Undersatndings and 21st Century Skills:
Enduring Understandings:
These are statements which summarize important ideas and core processes that are central to a discipline and have lasting value beyond the classroom.
- The Arts reveal who we are.
- The Arrts are a means of communication.
- Arts learning fosters critical thinking and creativity central to life and career.
21st Century Skills to be cultivated through Arts learning in Seattle Public Schools:
- Growth Mindset and Perseverance
- Creative and Critical Thinking
- Communication Skills
- Collaboration Skills
Within the area of Music, there are eight key elements that children will be taught. The table below summarizes what that looks like at each grade level.
Beat
K: Heartbeat/Steady, Beat, Beat/No Beat, Beat vs. Rhythm
1st: Strong Beat/Weak Beat, Silent Beat
2nd: Duple/Triple, On the Beat/Off the Beat
3rd: Up Beat/Down Beat, Time, Signature, Meter, Barline
4th: 6/8 Time
5th:
Rhythm
K: Long/Short, Quarter Note, Paired Eighths, Echo Patterns
1st: Quarter Rest, Inner Hearing (maintaining beat)
2nd: Half Note, Grouped Sixteenths
3rd: Whole Note, Whole Rest, Half rest, Tie
4th: Triplet
5th: Syncopation, Dotted, Notes, Single Eighth
Pitch
K: High/Low
1st: Inner Hearing (maintaining pitch center)
2nd: Match Pitch, Steps/Skips/Leaps, Octaves and Repeats
3rd: Treble, Clef, Absolute, and Pitch
4th: General
5th: Interval relationships
Timbre/Tone Color
K: Voice (call, speak, whisper, sing),Body, Percussion, and Sound Sources
1st: Non-pitched, Rhythm, and Instruments
2nd: Pitched/Non-pitched, Instruments, and Vocal Register
3rd: Recorder
4th: Instrument Families:String, Brass,Woodwind, Percussion)
5th:
Melody
K: Upward/Downward Movement, Simple Songs (me-re-do)
1st: Pentatonic, Songs, Melody, aContour
2nd:
3rd:
4th: Diatonic, and Scale
5th: Major/Minor
Form
K: Same/Different, Echo
1st: Call & Response, AB, ABA, Cumulative, Songs, Repeat
2nd: Verse/Refrain, Rondo
3rd: Question & Answer, Intro, Coda, Interlude, 1st & 2nd, Endings
4th: Theme & Variation, Round/Canon, DC al Fine, DS al Fine
5th: Music class
Texture/Harmony
K:
1st: One Sound/More than One Sound (think & thin), Accompaniment/No Accompaniment
2nd: Borduns, Ostinato (melodic & rhythmic), Partner Songs
3rd: Unison/Harmony, Solo/Tutti, Rounds
4th: Chord Progressions
5th: 2-part Singing, Ployphonic Rhythms
Expression
K: Loud/Soft, Fast/Slow
1st: Dynamics (p, f, pp, ff), Louder/Softer (<, >)
2nd: mp, mf, Accent, Fermata, Tempo Changes, Staccato/Legato
3rd: Articulation (slurs, phrasing, staccato, legato, tenuto, accent), Tempo Markings, Ritardando, Accelerando
4th:
5th: