Mrs. Kistler's
MUSIC CLASS
1st Grade Music
Active music-making
Music is learned through doing. We participate with our whole bodies in music-making through listening, singing, rhythmic speech, playing instruments, music games, and movement.

Building musical understanding
Throughout the year we explore and discuss musical concepts such as dynamics (loud/soft), tempo (fast/slow), form (the roadmap of the music), phrase (musical sentences), ostinato (repeated musical patterns), musical instruments, and melodic direction (the way the notes go).
We talk about those concepts in music that we hear and demonstrate that knowledge through our own singing, moving and instrument playing. We work toward musical understanding where children can create their own music (improvisation), and read and write basic rhythmic and melodic (notes) patterns of music.
Composers of the month
Each month we focus on the music and life of a different Classical music composer. We listen to major works by those composers and continue to build our musical understanding as we identify instruments we hear, move to the music, and recognize musical concepts, like changes in tempo or dynamics.
