In the Fourth 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 the unique qualities of each instrument. We will strengthen our musical vocabulary and analysis skills throughout the Composer of the Month series using a Music Listening Journal. We will expand our recorder technique and repertoire on soprano recorder through Recorder Karate. We will spend more time exploring student composition and improvisation on the Orff instruments. Advanced instruction is offered through Chorus, Orff Ensemble, and Recorder Ensemble.
(Compiled from the 1994 MENC Content Standards, NYC Arts Blueprint, and the Skills Scope Sequences of Making Music and Share the Music Series)
- Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
-will sing in a small group and with full class with attention to blending vocal timbres
-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 appropriate vocal timbre, expression, style, phrasing, and dynamics while maintain good singing posture and breath support
-will develop a varied repertoire of song literature representing genres and styles from diverse countries
-will sing ostinati, 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
- 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 all percussion instruments including specialization such as Soprano, Alto, Bass, etc.
-will demonstrate awareness of timbre and specialization through sight and sound: woods, shakers/scrapers, metals, sound effects, drums/skins, and melody instruments
-will demonstrate correct playing techniques of percussion instruments with special attention sound quality
-will demonstrate accurate 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 accurately perform simple melodies on the Orff instruments
-will sing a melody accurately while playing an ostinato pattern
-will develop basic recorder technique with attention to posture, breathing, intonation, fingering, expression, and self-control (B, A, G, E, C, D)
-will echo short rhythmic and melodic phrases
-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, performance etiquette, rehearsal techniques
-will show proper care of instruments during classroom routines
-will show manners and patience during instrument routines (taking turns)
- Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments
-will experience improvising ostinato accompaniments to songs, chants, and recorded music
-will improvise simple phrases in call and response form or for a given number of beats/phrases on recorder and Orff instruments in various styles, tempos, and dynamics
-will improvise expressive melodies on Orff instruments in pentatonic scales
-will improvise a simple melodic phrase on Orff instruments over a harmonic accompaniment
-will improvise simple rhythmic variations and simple melodic embellishments on familiar melodies
- Composing and arranging music within specific guidelines.
-will create and arrange music to accompany poems, readings, dramatizations, and visual artwork
-will use a variety of sound sources when composing
-will compose movement and instrumental introductions to familiar folk songs and speech pieces
-will arrange Orff ostinato accompaniment parts for songs in various styles, meters, and tempos
-will compose expressive melodies on recorder and Orff instruments
-will create contrasting sections within various larger forms (AB, ABA, ABC, ABACA) through change in dynamics, timbre, tempo, or texture
-will compose a simple melody that they are able to write down in traditional music notation for others to play
- 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, whole and half rests, dotted half note, sixteenth notes, and selected ternary beat divisions (three eighths, dotted quarter, quarter-eighth, dotted quarter rest)
-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 label and follow a simple music score of up to five parts
-will recognize an orchestral, percussion ensemble, and symphonic band score by instrumentation
- Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. (Movement-see below)
-will demonstrate appropriate listening behaviors for classroom activities and audience members
-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 solo, orchestral, band, chamber, and choral music according to instrumentation
-will identify instruments by name and instrument family
-will identify the special uniqueness of each instrument (slide, double reed, valves, chin rest, end pin, etc.)
-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 male, female, and child voices and their roles
-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 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
- 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)
- Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
-will experience literacy in the music classroom through theater pieces, monologues, and by simply adding music to stories and poetry
-will perform mini-dramas and tableaus from fairytales and fables using expressive voices and movement and musical accompaniment
-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 experience using music composition computer programs like Garage Band or Sibelius
-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, between music and theater, and between music and visual art
- 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 identify various uses of music in their daily life and describe characteristics that make certain music suitable for each use
-will attend live performances and concerts in their community and school
-will share their musical experiences with the school community
-will share their musical experiences with the neighborhood community
-will identify various job opportunities in the music field including performance, composition, education, marketing, and technology
-will understand that music reflects a composer’s ideas, emotions, life experiences, imagination, and cultural context
Additional standards inspired by Dalcroze and Orff-Schulwerk:
- 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 interrupted and uninterrupted canons
-will demonstrate respect of 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, and will identify relationships between these pairs
-will demonstrate movements of various durations related to rhythmic or melodic patterns
-will demonstrate ability to change between four movements on predetermined musical cues
