Our Music Curriculum
In Fourth Grade general music, the students will be focusing on three main units:
- Instrument Exploration
- Vocal Exploration
- Theme & Variations.
Each unit lasts around three months. Below are the enduring understandings that the students have been working on for our first unit.
Instrument Exploration:
- Musical instruments can be grouped by the materials they are made of, the way they are played, or the sounds that they make
- Musical instruments can be played in various ways
- Musical instruments can express the mood of a story, represent a character, or be used for sound effects
Musical Activities in the Classroom:
So far, the focus of this unit has been the instruments in the Symphony Orchestra. The students have explored ways that they can group musical instruments. These discussions led to the four families of the orchestra. Identifying the tone color (special sound) of specific instruments within the family has challenged the students and strengthened their musical ear. For example, the students are working on hearing the unique sound the oboe makes from the woodwind family.
The students have also used their very own instrument, their voice, to create harmony when singing in two-parts with the Orchestra Song. The 4th graders have sung the four verses about the violin, the clarinet, the trumpet and the drum. Finally, the students created their own verses to the song.
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