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Galesburg-Augusta Music Education Program
Galesburg-Augusta’s elementary music program is a developmental, sequential, and experiential curriculum designed to teach the National Standards for Music Education to all children. G-A students attend music classes every third day of school for 40 minutes (35 minutes for kindergarten classes) and participate in a variety of activities including:
SINGING-a wide variety of styles of music, both accompanied and unaccompanied
MOVING-creative movement to music, beat competency (including some dance/simple choreography and American Sign Language), body percussion, the Brain Dance
INSTRUMENTS-playing a wide variety of non-pitched rhythm instruments and pitched Orff instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels, and metallophones); soprano Baroque recorders are studied in the Intermediate grades
READING MUSIC AND MUSIC SYMBOLS-each school year your child adds new notes and symbols to those learned in previous years
MUSIC GAMES-to reinforce concepts learned an an enjoyable way (Find the Beat games, Rhythm Baseball, Music Styles BINGO, Instrument Identity games, Recorder Baseball, World Instrument games, computer music games)
FAMOUS COMPOSERS AND THEIR MUSIC-one individual is highlighted each month so that we can both read/learn about composers and listen to their creations
GUEST MUSICIANS-guests from the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and other individuals share their musical skills with our students
FIELD TRIPS TO CHENERY AUDITORIUM-all 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders participate in our annual field trips to see musical performances and hear live concerts
VISITATIONS/DEMONSTRATIONS/PERFORMANCES-each Primary grade level hosts a “Look What We Can Do” Day during which we share and demonstrate our developing music skills. Traditionally, the 4th grade Intermediate students present a musical production called the “Red, White and Blue Museum”. This program is a collaborative project of both our Social Studies and Music Education programs.
All of this learning prepares our students for continuing musical participation in Galesburg-Augusta’s excellent Middle and High School band programs. In the spring our Intermediate 5th graders will be involved in making their instrument decisions for joining 6th grade band in the fall of 2007.
To learn more about music education facts and figures, please visit the following links:
www.menc.org
www.supportmusic.com
www.musicfriends.org
http://www.amc-music.com/
http://www.thebrainstore.com/
http://www.schoolmusicmatters.com/
Music Education In Action
WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?
Listen to many different kinds of music with your child
Sing and play music with your child, invent songs together or make up new words to
familiar tunes you both know
Go to concerts or watch concerts on television
Encourage your child to participate in musical activities at school, church, and home
Listen and show enthusiasm for your child’s musical achievements
Attend your child’s school/church music programs
Be active in your child’s everyday life
Engage in musical activities with your child on the internet. Some recommended sites:
www.dsokids.com
www.sfskids.org
www.nyphilkids.org
http://www.classicsforkids.com/
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