Third Grade Music Expectations

In the Third Grade, students will continue to develop their music literacy and vocal skills through solfege study and sight singing. We will continue studying families of the orchestra with the focus on ranges within each family. We will strengthen our musical vocabulary and analysis skills throughout the Composer of the Month series using a Music Listening Journal. We will learn basic recorder technique on soprano recorder with our Carnegie Hall Link Up materials. Advanced instruction is offered through Chorus and Orff Ensemble.

(Compiled from the 1994 MENC Content Standards, NYC Arts Blueprint, and the Skills Scope Sequences of Making Music and Share the Music Series)

  1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
    -will experience singing solo, in a small group, and with full class
    -will experience singing with piano, guitar, and Orff accompaniments as well as well as acapella
    -will sing with accuracy in pitch and rhythm with a steady beat
    -will sing with clear diction
    -will sing with light head voice, with appropriate expression, style, phrasing, dynamics, and maintain good singing posture
    -will experience call and response and echo-singing
    -will develop a varied repertoire of song literature representing genres and styles from diverse countries
    -will sing ostinatos, partner songs, and rounds
    -will develop aural perception of melodic intervals as well as ascending,descending, and repeated melodic patterns
    -will develop audiation skills with familiar patterns and songs
    -will follow basic musical cues while singing including dynamic changes, fermatas, releases, and preparatory breaths
  1. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
    -will explore percussion instruments and body percussion for sound effects in stories, poems, mini-dramas, rhymes, and songs
    -will identify names of percussion instruments used in class both by sight and sound
    -will develop awareness of timbre and specialization: woods, shakers/scrapers, metals, sound effects, drums/skins, and melody instruments
    -will identify differences between Soprano, Alto, and Bass Orff instruments
    -will demonstrate correct playing techniques of percussion instruments with special attention to mallet technique on Orff instruments
    -will arrange Orff instruments accurately for pentatonic scales
    -will accurately perform intermediate ostinato patterns on instruments and body percussion, with and without speech
    -will sing a melody accurately while playing an ostinato pattern
    -will develop basic recorder technique with attention to posture, breathing, sound quality, fingering, and self-control (B, A, G, E)
    -will develop basic ensemble skills: awareness of multiple layers, maintaining a steady beat across the ensemble with little help from teacher, breathing together (recorder), responding to cues
    -will show proper care of instruments during classroom routines
    -will show manners and patience during instrument routines (taking turns)
  1. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments
    -will experience improvising percussion accompaniments to songs, chants, and recorded music
    -will improvise short vocal answers in game songs with appropriate speaking or singing voice
    -will improvise simple phrases in call and response form or for a given number of beats/phrases on recorder and Orff instruments
    -will improvise on Orff instruments in pentatonic scales using a predetermined rhythmic phrase
    -will improvise a simple melodic phrase on Orff instruments over a harmonic accompaniment
  1. Composing and arranging music within specific guidelines.
    -will create and arrange music to accompany readings, dramatizations, and visual artwork
    -will compose movement and instrumental introductions to familiar folk songs and speech pieces
    -will compose short melodies on recorder and Orff instruments
    -will create contrasting sections within various forms (AB, ABA, ABC, ABACA) through change in dynamics, timbre, tempo, or texture
  1. Reading and notating music.
    -will use solfege and Curwen hand signs when echo-singing while relating to the solfege ladder and music staff
    -identify musical alphabet and pitch names of treble clef notes
    -will identify the music staff, numbered lines and spaces, line notes, space notes, and treble clef, barlines, measures, repeat signs, double bar, time signature, etc.
    -will identify symbols and traditional terms referring to dynamics, tempo, form, and articulation and interpret them correctly when performing
    -will identify the basic line-space pattern of diatonic musical scale in relation to the solfege scale ladder and music staff
    -will identify step and skips on the music staff, as well as numeric intervals without M/m quality
    -will be able to sight-sing simple four to eight beat melodic patterns in major keys using movable Do
    -will use standard rhythmic notation to notate simple four-beat rhythmic dictation phrases including quarter note and rest, paired and single eighth notes, half and whole notes, dotted half note, half and whole rests, set of 4 sixteenth notes, and selected ternary beat divisions (three eighths, dotted quarter,quarter-eighth)
    -will perform simple four measure phrases on percussion instruments, body percussion, and recorder by reading standard rhythmic notation, alone and with class
    -will identify meter in both rhythmic and melodic examples
    -will be able to accurately follow a simple music score of up to four parts
  1. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. (Movement-see below)
    -will demonstrate appropriate listening behaviors for classroom activities and audience
    -will identify the composer and title of the piece, identify a brief history of the composer’s life, and understand the broad format of multi-movement works
    -will identify instruments by name and instrument family
    -will demonstrate ability to follow one instrument/melody line in a piece with multiple parts
    -will identify the tempo of the piece by accurately finding the steady beat
    -will experience music that has no steady beat
    -will identify if there are singers, instruments, or both
    -will identify the texture of the piece as one, few, or many
    -will identify male, female, and child voices and their roles
    -will follow age-appropriate listening maps
    -will create listening maps for simple musical excerpts
    -will describe musical experiences using appropriate music vocabulary
    -will experience many genres of music and compare/contrast them using appropriate music vocabulary
    -will identify the purpose/function of music in other cultures
    -will identify and illustrate emotional and expressive qualities of music and text
    -will compare and contrast music from every continent and learn about regional instruments associated with selected countries
    -will identify if parts of the music are the same or different and label parts accordingly, using simple two part patterns: AB, ABA, AABB, etc.
    -will identify ascending, descending, and repeated patterns in music
    -will experience and label “home” and away for tonal centers
  1. Evaluating music and music performers.
    -will be given the opportunity to express their opinion/thoughts/preferences for music heard in the classroom through discussion
    -will share “self-critiques” about their own performances
    -will share critiques and suggestions for collaborative group performance efforts in the classroom (small group recorder/percussion performance, group dance, composition projects, etc.)
    -will grade performances and musical collaborations during class using a predetermined rubric score
    -will participate in class discussions following music or video clip examples expressing their interpretations
    -will describe the roles of participants in a performance
    -will capture and share music through a recording or performance
    -will critique recorded and group performance (too loud/soft, too fast/slow, incorrect pitch/words)
  1. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
    -will experience literacy in the music classroom through theater pieces and by simply adding music to stories and poetry
    -will perform mini-dramas from fairytales and fables using expressive voices and movement
    -will experience picture books with music accompaniment and discuss the differences between reading it both ways
    -will identify related patterns in rhythm, reading pitch notation, musical forms, and math
    -will identify the science of sound production related to instrument timbre and family including tube length and vibration
    -will identify similarities and differences in the meanings of common terms used in the various arts and other content areas
    -will identify the relationship between music and dance, and between music and theater
  1. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
    -will learn historical purpose and meaning of folk songs, dances, and children’s games from various cultures
    -will discuss and understand roles and functions of music in different cultures across the world
    -will attend live performances and concerts in their community and school
    -will share their musical experiences with the school community
    -will identify music makers in their families, schools, and communities
    -will understand that music reflects a composer’s ideas, emotions, life experiences, imagination, and cultural context

Additional standards inspired by Dalcroze and Orff-Schulwerk:

  1. Movement and Dramatic Play:
    -will move purposefully to show expressive elements, musical events, and prominent musical characteristics in a specific piece of music
    -will demonstrate importance of beginning and ending a piece with stillness
    -will be able to discern and move to the steady beat and change movement in response to tempo fluctuations
    -will demonstrate ability to discern dynamic changes and show changes through movement
    -will demonstrate movement during an interrupted canon
    -will be able to demonstrate a varied repertoire of non-locomotor and locomotor movement skills including but not limited to: walk, run, hop, march, skip, gallop, sway, glide, jump, twirl, pat, tap, stomp, clap, snap, bend, balance, shake, stretch, etc.
    -will demonstrate ability to control their movements inside of their own personal space
    -will be able to form and move in one or two lines, a circle, concentric circles, and in free space with little assistance
    -will show a variety of emotions, energy levels, styles, and moods through contrasting movements
    -will use a clear speaking voice with a variety of expressive qualities
    -will create movements to songs and poems for performances
    -will experiment with pathways in the air and on the ground
    -will coordinate their individual locomotor movements during a singing game or circle dance with those of the entire class
    -will explore concepts of large and small, heavy and light, tension and flow, accented and unaccented
    -will demonstrate movements of various durations related to rhythmic or melodic patterns
    -will demonstrate ability to change between three movements on predetermined musical cues