*******SAVE THE DATES**********************************
LS Spring Vocal Concert:
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Opera for the Young:
Friday, February 12, 2016
**********************************************************
Nova Classical Academy Music Curriculum: K-5
Ms. Urbrock (1-5) and (K) Oratory School, Ms. Anderson (K) Music
Room 130
Emails: rurbrock@novaclassical.org janderson@novaclassical.org
Teacher Web: http://teacherweb.com/MN/NovaClassicalAcademy/Urbrock/index.aspx
Dear Nova Parents,
We are excited to be working with your child in music class!
Please check Nova News for updates on concert dates and for what is happening in music class. Although there is
no official homework assigned for K-5 music class, we encourage you to ask your child to sing and share with you
which songs he or she is learning. From time to time we may also send study sheets or memos home.
Ms.Urbrock will often send emails regarding K Oratory School songs, lyrics, and sound clips we are studying.
Please contact us if you ever have questions or concerns regarding your child in music class. We check email and
our main office mailboxes daily. We look forward to seeing you over the course of the year.
Sincerely,
Ms. Urbrock & Ms. Anderson
Skills
Skills are sequential, reviewed, and practiced throughout the curriculum.
Students will:
 Sing alone, and with others, a varied repertoire of music
 Perform on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
 Improvise melodies, variations, and accompaniments
 Compose and arrange music with specified guidelines
 Read and notate music
 Listen to, analyze and describe music
 Evaluate music and music performance
 Understand music in relation to history and culture
Memorization
Important facts are memorized: Dates, composers, treble clef note names, instrument families and specific
instruments, time periods, dynamics in order from soft to loud, common rhythmic patterns, melodic patterns, solfege
syllables and hand symbols, lyrics to songs and poems, as well as various musical terms and concepts.
History
Music history is directly related to general history studied in the classroom:
2nd Grade – Medieval and Renaissance
3rd Grade – Baroque and Classical
4th Grade – Romantic and Modern
5th Grade – Ancient and World Music
We memorize all the time periods in order. We read about and discuss music history specific to the class, listening
to and analyzing actual music examples when possible. We also sing songs from or about the time period being
studied.
Kindergarten Oratory School
At Nova, we want all students to learn how to be good Speakers and Listeners.
Students learn these skills not just for school, but for life.
“Non Scholae sed Vitae Discimus”
Students will learn “Orator 5” and “Listener 5” chants. We will further practice our Oratory skills through chants,
songs, and memorization, focusing on a World theme.
Students will be given the chance to stand at a podium, while the rest of the class is the audience. I will be
individually assessing each student on his/her Oratory (speaking/listening) and memorization skills.
I will post all the words to the songs and assessment rubrics on my Teacher Web.
Please visit my website and click on the Kindergarten Icons to view and practice the songs with your child.
http://teacherweb.com/MN/NovaClassicalAcademy/Urbrock/index.aspx
The K-5 music program incorporates:
Grammar Stage
 Reciting, chanting, memorizing
 Singing songs, jingles
 Dancing and movement
 Playing educational games
 Using visuals, manipulatives and hand symbols
 Learning bits about composers and instruments of the orchestra
Logic Stage
 Integrated subject matter/links between areas of study; understanding music in relation to history and
culture
 Application of musical knowledge (play recorder, sing harmony, read and notate music, compose,
improvise)
 Performance and critique
 Comparing and contrasting musical performances (same piece/different conductors, for example)
 Written exercises
Main Textbook: “Share the Music Series” by MacMillan/McGraw-Hill
Included in this text:
 A sequenced approach to melodic, rhythmic, and essential skills
 Curriculum integration
 Use of different learning styles
 Informal and formal assessment tools
 Resource masters (worksheets and manipulatives)
 Orff (xylophone) arrangements for songs
 Recorder arrangements for songs
 Singing, movement, instruments, exploration activities through improvisation
 Composition
Supplemented with:
 “The Story of Music” published by Usborne
 “The Story of the Orchestra” by Robert Levine
 Related lesson plans using Orff, Kodaly, and Dalcroze methods
 Grades 4 & 5: “My Recorder Book!” published by Feldstein
 Instrument demonstrations, guests, field trips, Opera for the Young
 Classroom CD library
Curriculum Essentials: Skills and Concepts
Kindergarten
Melodic
Vocal Exploration
4 Voices: Speaking, Singing, Calling, Whispering
Tone Color and Inflection (Solfege sol-mi incorporated in many songs)
High/Low
Rhythmic
Steady Beat
Long/Short
Fast/Slow
Essentials
Traveling through shared space (movement/ music as time and space)
Instrument Families: Percussion, Woodwind, Brass, Strings, and Keyboard
1st Grade
Melodic
Vocal Exploration
4 Voices: Speaking, Singing, Calling, Whispering
Tone Color and Inflection (Solfege sol-mi incorporated in many songs)
High/Low
Rhythmic
Steady Beat
Long/Short
Fast/Slow
Essentials
Ancient Music History: Harps
The Music Staff, lines and spaces
Style (March or Lullaby)
Form
Percussion Families: Woods, Shakers/Scrapers, Metals, Drums
2nd Grade
Melodic
Vocal Registers
Singing in Tune
Vocal Warm-ups
Rhythmic
Half note (Ta-o)
Beat vs. Rhythm
Tempo (speed)
Essentials
Medieval and Renaissance Music History
Dynamics (pp through ff, crescendo and diminuendo)
3rd Grade
Melodic
Pitch and melodic direction (melodic contour)
Rhythmic
Beat vs. Rhythm
Dictation (identify and write a heard rhythm)
Essentials
Baroque and Classical Music History
The Orchestra
4th Grade
Melodic
Melodic steps, skips, and repeats
Treble clef notes Middle C to high F
Question and Answer improvisation
Partner Songs (2 different songs that can be sung at the same time)
Rhythmic
16th notes (boom-a-chick-a) and eighth/16th combinations (ti-chicka and chicka-ti)
Essentials
Romantic and Modern Music History
Folk Songs
Spirituals
Opera and Musicals
Notation
Recorder unit
5th Grade
Melodic
Solfege major scale: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti do’
Vocal warm-ups using combinations of solfege, note names, and numbers 1-8
Tonal center
Harmony
Major/minor/modes
Rhythmic
Syncopation and Poly-rhythms
Essentials
Ancient Music History
World music
Drumming/percussion, Recorder unit
Grading
We will be looking for a proficiency of understanding in the above concepts. We informally assess students on a
daily basis.
Students will be experiencing, performing, and identifying these musical concepts as well as taking occasional
written assessments. There will be many listening and movement exercises. We incorporate a variety of teaching
methods in the classroom, including the methods of Orff, Kodaly, and Dalcroze. Above all, we encourage good
participation, effort, and virtuous behavior.
K & 1st
Daily skill assessments (Emerging, Proficient, Exceeding)
Participation/Effort/ Virtuous Behavior
Concert Attendance
2nd and 3rd
Daily skill assessments (Emerging, Proficient, Exceeding)
Written and Oral assessments
Participation/Effort/Virtuous Behavior
Concert Attendance
4th and 5th
Daily skill assessments (Emerging, Proficient, Exceeding)
Written and Oral assessments
Participation/Effort/Virtuous Behavior
Concert Attendance
4th Grade: Participation in Opera for the Young
Concerts
There will be one LS Vocal Concert in the spring. Concert attendance is required for all
students. An excused absence would include illness or family emergency; please keep us
informed.
*******SAVE THE DATE************************************
LS Spring Vocal Concert: Thursday, May 12, 2016
*********************************************************************
Mission Statement
Thoughts on Elementary Music Education, Ms. Urbrock:
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Music Education promotes social skills in children through cooperation, shared
experiences, ensemble work, and speaking and listening to one another through
improvisation, composition, and performance.
Music should be celebrated. Everyone can learn to be an active musician and to enjoy
music. Music is a necessary primal expression, synonymous with life.
Children need to be given the key to discover this truly amazing gift inside themselves.
Music can promote a sense of pride, confidence, accomplishment, and well-being.
Music is complex, involving many parts of one’s brain to be engaged at once. Through
the study of music, children develop spatial skills, coordination, concentration,
memorization, articulation, creativity, and sensitivity.
I am honored to be responsible for crafting a significant and insightful music curriculum,
showing children what they can accomplish through practice and discipline, and seeing children
become fascinated by something in the world that is new to them; something that was there all
along, waiting to be discovered.
Through music we can touch the hearts of others. When asked if he could think of one word to
describe music, Isaac Stern says, no, it would not be “passion”—it would be “compassion.”
Revised 09/01/2015