Kindergarten Music Curriculum Overview
The elementary music program provides balanced, comprehensive, and sequential experiences for children to perform, create, and respond to music. Through singing, playing instruments, moving to music, and creating music, children acquire musical skills and knowledge by doing. In keeping with the N.Y. State Learning Standards for the Arts, the goals of this “hands-on” program are to have children create, perform, and participate in music-making, to know and use musical materials and resources, and to appreciate, respond to, and analyze music they hear. Furthermore, through experiential learning, students will understand their own historical and cultural heritage and those of others within their communities and beyond. The specific learning objectives taught in Kindergarten are listed below.
Grade Specific Music Objectives
Sing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of songs.
Perform on instruments, alone and with others, a variety of music.
Improvise and create melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
Listen to, analyze, and describe music.
Understand relationships between music, the other arts, and other disciplines.
Understand music in relation to history and culture.
Learning to sing in tune and on pitch.
Learning to discriminate between high and low; fast and slow; loud and soft.
Learning to respond to and maintain a steady beat.
Learning a varied repertoire of folk songs and singing games with movement.
Discriminate between like and different pitches, melodic phrases, and rhythmic passages.
Accurately echo rhythmic and melodic patterns.
Create rhythmic and melodic patterns and ostinati.
Listen and respond to music of various moods and styles.
Important Vocabulary
beat, fast, slow, tune, high, low, sound, loud, soft, echo, march, lullaby, movement, pat, clap, stomp, personal space. Instrument names to include: hand drum, wood block, rhythm sticks, maracas, tambourine, and triangle.
Home Activities to Support Learning
Talk to your child about what they did in music class each week.
Take your child to live music concerts.
Listen to music of various styles, from various cultures and historical eras.
Share with your child the music of your own cultural heritage.
Discuss how various songs or pieces of music make your child feel.
Sing various children’s songs to them and with them.
Watch educational television programs with your child that use music as a primary medium for learning and expression.
Visit the local library for CDs of music for listening.
