The mission of the performing arts curriculum in Hanover County is to equip students with the skills to communicate through music and drama, with the understanding that these art forms are an important universal language basic to our society and other cultures. According to Victor Hugo, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
All Ashland Tigers attend music class once a week. Music class is an all-encompassing journey where students learn to create, recreate, and process music in ways that develop their musical skills and enhance their appreciation of music as an art form. As Cheryl Lavender once said, “The fact that children make beautiful music is less significant than the fact that music makes children beautiful."
In our class, students learn to read music, play rhythms, and sing joyful songs while utilizing instruments, including xylophones, drums, ukulele, recorder, and guitar.
Contact
Mrs. Megan Standlick, Music Teacher
Mr. Fred Horn, Itinerant Music Teacher
Our Music Program: Goals and Learning By Grade
We believe music is a vital subject that develops creativity, discipline, and critical thinking. Below are the key skills and experiences your child will have in our music program at each grade level. Our standards of learning follow Virginia state recommendations.
Pre-K
- Sound Explorers: Discovering the difference between high/low sounds and learning to use our voices and instruments to be loud/quiet.
- Instrument Play: Getting hands-on experience with simple classroom instruments like shakers and drums, and learning how to use them gently.
- Singing Games: Participating in fun, simple singing games and group activities that encourage sharing and listening.
- Learning Through Songs: Singing lots of familiar songs that connect directly to what we are learning in the classroom, such as songs about colors, animals, and the seasons.
- Movement: Moving our bodies in different ways (fast, slow, big, small) to match the music we hear.
Kindergarten
- Exploring Our Voice: Learning to use our voices in many ways—singing, speaking, whispering, and shouting—to express different feelings and ideas.
- Movement & Dance: Moving our bodies to music! We practice different movements like fast/slow, big/small, and moving in place vs. moving around the room.
- Music's Volume and Speed: Discovering the difference between loud/soft and fast/slow music by singing, moving, and playing simple instruments.
- Playing Instruments: Learning how to properly hold, play, and care for the simple instruments in our classroom.
- Music Around the World: Experiencing music, songs, rhymes, and dances from many different cultures.
- Creative Storytelling: Using movement and creating sounds to act out our favorite children's stories and poems.
First Grade
- Rhythm Building: Performing and recognizing rhythm patterns, including notes that get one beat, half a beat, and rests.
- Music Symbols: Beginning to read and write simple rhythms using both picture-symbols and standard music notation.
- Melody Basics: Learning to sing three-pitch songs (Sol, Mi, La) and practicing how to draw and write symbols for high/low pitches.
- Keeping the Beat: Focusing on keeping a steady beat while performing a song's specific rhythm.
- Musical Conversations: Playing vocal "call and response" games where we improvise simple sung answers to questions.
- Form: Identifying when sections of music are the same or different.
Second Grade
- Reading Music: Identifying and writing simple melody patterns that move up, down, or stay the same; reading and writing simple five-note melodies.
- Advanced Rhythms: Expanding our rhythm reading skills to include notes and rests that last for two beats and four beats.
- Playing Together: Developing skills to play and sing as a group, including adding simple, repeating musical patterns (ostinatos) to songs.
- Listening Carefully: Identifying the sounds of various instruments and describing changes in how loud (dynamics) or how fast (tempo) the music is.
- Movement and Form: Creating dance or movement to show different musical structures (like A-B or A-B-A form).
- Creative Music Making: Practicing composition by creating simple rhythmic "question and answer" phrases and writing accompaniments.
Third Grade
- Complex Rhythms: Learning to perform and write more complex rhythm patterns, including quick sixteenth notes and dotted notes.
- Vocal Confidence: Gaining confidence in singing alone and with classmates.
- Instrument Families: Becoming experts at recognizing the four main orchestra instrument families (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion) by sight and by sound.
- Cultural Journeys: Exploring music from a wide range of cultures and different eras in history.
- Introducing Ukulele: Beginning to learn to play the ukulele, focusing on simple chords and strumming patterns.
Fourth Grade
- The Treble Staff: Mastering all the notes on the treble clef staff so we can read standard sheet music.
- Musical Markings: Learning to identify important musical markings, such as time signatures; beginning to recognize the difference between happy-sounding (Major) and sad-sounding (Minor) music.
- Creating Our Own Tunes: Practicing improvisation by making up our own melodies using a five-note scale.
- Independent Playing: Developing the skill to play or sing a part independently while others perform a different part in a two-part ensemble.
- Introducing Recorder: Learning to play the recorder, focusing on breath control and clear tone.
Fifth Grade
- Music Evaluation: Developing the language and vocabulary to thoughtfully talk about our personal music preferences.
- Advanced Performance: Playing and performing music that requires greater focus, technique, and complexity.
- Composition: Creating original music or rhythmic piece.
- Reading on Sight: Developing strategies and skills to read new rhythms and melodies accurately without much practice (sight-reading).
- Global Comparisons: Exploring the role of music in various global cultures and comparing different musical styles and traditions.
- Introducing Guitar: Beginning to learn the fundamentals of playing the guitar.
- Chorus Opportunity: Having the exciting opportunity to join the fifth-grade chorus.
