Students across grade levels were engaged in a variety of units. I’ll give a quick breakdown for each grade. Where there are pictures or videos, I’ll add those too.

3K

In 3K students are exploring the basic fundamentals of music. We are singing songs where they sing their names and sing “hello” to start the class. Students are given opportunities to explore with basic percussion instruments. They use their singing voices to sing to their music class friend Melody the Elephant. Melody can do almost anything you ask if you sing to her!

Pre-K

Pre-K students are learning to make their way to the music room on the third floor. They are singing music from Cuba such as the songs, “Sun Sun sun” and “Quimbara” while learning about the musician Celia Cruz. They are learning to respond to music cues with a game called “Hands like this,” where the teacher plays on a drum and they respond by clapping their hands at the right time and doing movements with different parts of their bodies.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students are learning about their Five Voices: Speaking, Whisper, Shouting, Singing, and Inner. They are learning to use body percussion for a partner clapping game called “Double Double.” You can see this in the video here.

Kindergarten students are also learning the music of Celia Cruz and singing “Sun sun sun” and “Quimbara.”

Grade 1

Grade 1 spent September learning the rules of the music room and the September welcome song, “Welcome Music Friends.” They explored ways to move around the music room with the song, “Rig a Jig Jig,” which involved galloping, walking, and skipping.

Grade 2

Grade 2 spent September exploring the different ways we can make music in class. They sang in many languages with a song called “Hello, Hello” and its goodbye song equivalent, “Goodbye, Goodbye,” where they learned greetings in different languages. They played a movement game called “Let’s Take a Walk” where they explored movement in the music room and then played a hand clapping game with a partner. They also learned to play a basic pattern on hand drums and xylophones to accompany this song. Grade 2 started using the Carnegie Hall Musical Explorers program where they learned to play body percussion patterns shown in the video below and met Juan and Julia Gutierrez, who taught them songs from the Bomba and Plena styles of music from Puerto Rico.

Grade 3

In Grade 3, students explored the instruments of the music room and singing songs that helped them to learn their names and a basic dance routine. They sang the song, “Number Concentration,” which also helped them to learn each others’ names. The song “Rocky Mountain” introduced drums and xylophones as well as a circle dance for three verses.

Grade 4

Grade 4 students started the year by learning a body percussion pattern that went along to a book called “Looking Like Me,” where they explored different identities. They also started the North American Indigenous People’s Music unit by learning lummi stick games from Northwestern and Apache tribal traditions.

Grade 5

Grade 5 started the year off learning basic tones on conga-style drums and with exploring the cultures of West Africa. They learned to sing the song “Funga Alafia,” while accompanying their singing on drums and bells.