Curriculum Goals

OVERVIEW

Students at Great Oak learn music through an experience-based approach that emphasizes cooperative and creative musical activities in a variety of contexts.  Central to this approach is a sense of community established through ensemble performance, dance, and games, with every student contributing equally and uniquely to a greater whole in an inclusive, and non-competitive environment.  Musical concepts at all levels are learned “from the inside out” and are drawn from age-appropriate games, rhymes, songs, dances, and instrumental pieces.  We learn music by feeling it, hearing it, and performing it first.  Reading and writing are introduced later, when students are ready to record their own compositions.  We use many instruments in music class, but our imaginations are the best instruments of all, and students are encouraged to use theirs as much as possible!  Our ultimate goal is for students to develop their musical independence and aesthetic awareness to a point where they can create and perform their own music for specific expressive purposes - in other words, to think and act like real musicians.

KINDERGARTEN

Kindergarten musicians are exposed to the basic elements of music through games, nursery rhymes, songs, creative movement, and instrument exploration.  Many of our games provide opportunities for students to sing alone and as part of a group, and we use them to develop our singing voice and pitch-matching skills.  Our games also provide many opportunities for students to develop a sense of steady beat and to show it in different ways.  Most of our games also require us to cooperate and take turns, so they help us develop the social skills that will contribute to the success of our musical ensembles later on.  In addition, we use non-pitched percussion instruments to begin our exploration of different sound “families,” and we use creative movement activities to develop our sense of body awareness, which will help us internalize musical elements and concepts as we get older.   

1st GRADE

1st grade musicians use games, songs, instruments, and movement activities to explore the basic building blocks of music: pitch, rhythm, and steady beat.  We use the language of “DU” to say and read rhythm patterns and we use another language called “solfege” to sing melodic patterns.  Cooperative games and activities help us develop our sense of community and group awareness, which contributes to our success as members of a musical ensemble when we sing and play together.  We also learn to use our “inner hearing,” which helps prepare us for reading musical notation later on.  In addition, 1st graders are introduced to the melodic tone bar instruments and begin to improvise music of their own.


2nd GRADE

2nd grade musicians use the musical building blocks they explored in 1st grade to analyze and describe common musical forms and to improvise and compose their own rhythms and melodies.  We start by using games and dances to highlight the most common structural patterns in music.  Later in the year, a detailed look at these patterns helps us to identify the elements of musically satisfying melodies, which then serve as models for our own compositions.  Using the language of “solfege,” 2nd graders expand their knowledge of melodic patterns to include the pentatonic scale and the concept of tonal centers.  “Stick notation” with solfege pitches written underneath takes students a step closer towards reading music notation, and new game formations and movement patterns improve our physical coordination (essential for playing instruments) and improve our ability to work together cooperatively in ensemble settings.


3rd GRADE

3rd grade musicians continue to expand their knowledge of melodic structure by playing, improvising, and composing melodies with different tonal centers, or "home tones."  This experience marks our first in-depth exploration of music as a tool for describing a variety of moods and images.  Later, we perform music in dramatic contexts to reinforce our understanding of music as an expressive language.  In the spring, 3rd graders learn to play the recorder, which adds a beautiful new tone color to our ensemble and provides excellent motivation for taking the final steps necessary to read and write musical notation.  3rd graders also learn about the instruments of the orchestra.


4th GRADE

4th grade musicians develop their musical skills further by exploring complex rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic patterns through a variety of games, dances, and creative activities.  Our knowledge of scale patterns is expanded to include the diatonic modes, which also provide a context for our study of half and whole steps (the building blocks of musical scales).  The diatonic modes open up a new world of expressive possibilities for using music in dramatic and aesthetic contexts, and allow us to begin exploring more advanced harmonic devices such as parallel motion and triads.  4th graders create much of the music we perform in class, as they begin to demonstrate independent musicianship and use music as a means of self-expression.


5th GRADE

5th grade musicians refine their ability to use music as an expressive tool to communicate specific moods, emotions, and images by drawing upon their knowledge from previous years to create their own musical drama from scratch.  In this way, students experience the process of planning, composing, dramatizing, and performing a story of their own creation, and thus demonstrate true musical independence.  5th graders also explore exotic and unusual scale patterns and expand their understanding of harmony to include chords and chord inversions.  Along the way, musical interpretations of art and poetry provide the impetus for exploring more abstract uses of music as an expressive tool in a variety of aesthetic contexts.