2nd Grade

AUDIATION
When students learn to read, they hear sounds first, then learn to say those sounds, and finally learn to read and write them.  We use the same process when we learn music - first we experience and hear specific sounds, then sing them, and then we learn to read and write them.  Second graders are mastering "re," the second note of the major scale.  They worked on a song called "Riding in a Buggy" to not only practice the pitch "re," but also to practice audiation - hearing music inside our brains, just like they can read a book silently to themselves.  Students learned the song, and moved by creating "buggies" with their bodies.  Then they added body percussion for specific words and transferred it to the vibraslap, hand drum and triangle, and finally performed the song ABA - singing the song, thinking the song (audiation) and singing the song.

YESH!
Second graders are studying folk dance - and with that comes folk music!  They are learning basic forms of folk music (AB and AABB, etc.) and basic folk dance terms, including longways set, head couple, alley, and casting off.  Folk dancing allows students to explore moving expressively and appropriately to music and developing important social skills.  Second graders danced to "The Grand Old Duke of York," "Here Comes Sally Down the Alley," and (the favorite) "Yesh."  The last is a folk dance from Isreal that speaks about having a goat.  Here is one of our 2nd grade classes performing "Yesh" in a longways set:

Our first week in 2nd grade music has been exciting!  We explored a steady beat with "Mother Goonie Bird" and "Vacation Fun," worked with partners singing a hello song, and explored different types of voices (whisper, speaking, singing, yelling, and "silent") with the chant "Johnny, Whoops!"

The 2nd Grade music curriculum is based on the elements of music and is aligned to the National and State Music Standards.  Here is an outline to give you an overview of what your student will learn in music this year:
RHYTHM: rhythm patterns: half note, half rest, tie, meter, accent
MELODY: patterns with steps, skips, and repeated notes; solfege: do, re, mi, so and la
FORM: AB and ABA patterns, musical questions and answers, coda
HARMONY: partner songs, canon, ostinato (a short repeated pattern)
TIMBRE: body percussion, percussion (xylophones), singing voice, woodwind family
EXPRESSION: dynamics (piano and forte)
THEORY: measure, bar line, time signature, repeat sign
HISTORY & CULTURE: music as it relates to story telling, patriotic music, folk dancing, play parties