FIRST GRADE CURRICULUM
First grade students continue to develop their music listening skills and audiation skills (thinking music in their heads). We have developed an extensive "listening, thinking, and speaking" vocabulary, and now ready to begin learning how to label our vocabulary.
SOLFEGE
The first graders begin to make sense of their musical vocabulary by learning to use solfege. We learn tonal solfege (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, etc.) to help understand pitches and tonality, and rhythm solfege (Du de, etc,) to help understand concepts of beat and meter.
Students spend time in each lesson practicing solfege to become better at making and understanding music.
We continue to develop our understanding of a melody. The students learn that every melody has a tonality (a specific set of pitches) and a resting tone (a "Home note"). When the students audiate the home note, they are able to decide whether a song is in major or minor tonality. Students are also exposed to concepts of harmony, and begin working with tonic and dominant (the two basic chords of major and minor tonality). They are challenged to begin singing melody and harmony as a whole class, and in smaller groups.
The first graders continue to develop their awareness of meter and beat. We work to understand beat and microbeat (subdivision of beat) as we sing, chant, and move in every class. The students begin to label beats and microbeats with solfege to discriminate whether the music is in triple meter (3/4 time, etc.) or duple meter (4/4 time, etc.). First graders also begin to "read" visual representations of these concepts with pictures or with music notes.
SINGING
We continue to develop our singing voice throughout the year. The students are reminded to use their "head voice" and to use proper breath support and proper breathing technique while singing. Some children learn how to sing quite easily, while other children may take some time to learn how to consistently sing with a head voice. For this reason, we continue to work on proper singing techniques throughout the students' time here at Perry.
It sounds like a lot of work, right? Don't worry, we also have A LOT OF FUN in while we are in music class! The students actively make music in a classroom environment that is filled with play, movement, and exploration!
SINGING
We continue to develop our singing voice throughout the year. The students are reminded to use their "head voice" and to use proper breath support and proper breathing technique while singing. Some children learn how to sing quite easily, while other children may take some time to learn how to consistently sing with a head voice. For this reason, we continue to work on proper singing techniques throughout the students' time here at Perry.
It sounds like a lot of work, right? Don't worry, we also have A LOT OF FUN in while we are in music class! The students actively make music in a classroom environment that is filled with play, movement, and exploration!