Galena Park Elementary's Music

  • Visit Mr. Zamarron's Website

    Below is my curriculum summary by the time students reach the 5th grade.

    Children as performers.
    For a music education to be complete, it must begin with singing and experiencing the production of sound on a daily basis. In fifth grade, students will improve part singing skills and extend their vocal range by using canons and two and three part song arrangements of various cultural origins. Students will also learn songs in preparation of 6th grade concepts. They will add double circle games, basic square dancing and conducting complicated meters to their movement skills. They will demonstrate melodic and rhythmic concepts on recorders as well as other classroom instruments. Students will accompany a song with rhythmic ostinato using dotted eighth and sixteenth note combinations, as well as an eighth note followed by a dotted quarter note. Students will accompany songs using compound meter and melodic ostinati using ti and si. These skills not only have a sociological impact on their world, but they also benefit the children as they find their place socially in their own environment.

    Children as stewards of their cultural heritages.
    Children experience a repertoire of music that includes folk music, art music, patriotic music and recently composed music. They will explore music from cultures such as the Southern Appalachians, African American, British Isles and Eastern Europe. This exposure deepens children's understanding of the various styles of music, giving them tools to compare musical styles as well the cultures they come from.  Fifth grade students will be able to connect music to the subject areas of reading, writing, language and math.

    Children as critical thinkers.
    As critical thinkers, children use the scientific method to analyze music. Music teaches children to become problem solvers and self-motivated, lifelong learners. In fifth grade, the students will analyze rhythmic and melodic elements. Rhythmic elements include dotted eighth and sixteenth note combinations, eighth note followed by dotted quarter note, various subdivisions of compound meter including triplets. Melodic elements include High ti, major, minor and modal scales.  They learn to sight read and write simple minor, major, or modal melody exercise on the staff and various key signatures; as well as composing a rhythmic accompaniment or an ostinato to accompany it. Students will write known songs using rhythmic and staff notation where Do=F, G, C, and D and apply absolute letters names to simple major, minor, and modal melodic exercises on the staff in selected key areas. Students will analyze the form of typical classical forms such as binary, ternary, sonata, and rondo form. Students will be able to recognize simple harmonic functions in both major and minor scale, and name intervals such as major third and minor third.

    Children as creative human beings.
    When children learn how to express themselves through improvisation and form, melodic and rhythmic composition, they learn more about who they are and what they are capable of accomplishing.  They will compose and improvise rhythmic canons and two part melodic pieces, as well as compose endings for given melodies and rhythmic patterns. Students will be able to sing simple major melody in minor tonality.

    Children as informed listeners.
    Children in the 21st-century are surrounded by music from a variety of mixed media sources on a daily basis. The fifth grade musical concepts will be reinforced through an expanded listening repertoire including local artists, classical compositions, popular styles, and peer performances.  Along with the melodic and rhythmic concepts, they will recognize musical features including pentatonic scale, triple meter, and simple compound meter. Recognize forms in classroom song repertoire, folk song, masterworks, including compound binary, compound ternary, rondo, and sonata allegro. Students develop an awareness of dynamics, tempo and timbre through masterworks of various historical periods.

    "Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression." ~ Haim Ginott

    "Our age of mechanization leads along a road ending with man himself as a machine; only the spirit of singing can save us from this fate." ~ Zoltan Kodály