Philosophy

As a four-year-old girl, I remember being terrified at the prospect of talking to anyone I

wasn’t familiar with. I would hide and look down at my toes while my cheeks grew redder than a

ripe tomato. All of a sudden, all of that changed. The sound of beautiful music drifted through

the room and enveloped me with its comfortable cadence. From that point on, no matter what

genre of music was playing, I would sing and dance without a single care of who was watching.

That is exactly why the arts have such an important and personal role within humanity: it gives

people the chance to express themselves in an extraordinary way.

Once I was in elementary school, I continued to be awkward and out of place. Yet, I

would strut into the music classroom knowing what was waiting for me. It’s somewhat cliché, but

the music room was the safest place for me to explore who I was. It was so beautiful! The

chance to finally communicate in a way that I enjoyed and understood was available in that

room. My music teacher was genuinely a hero in my eyes because she consistently gave me a

chance to be myself, and that is precisely what I want to be able to do for the next generation of

children.

An education in music provides skills and understanding that foster the development of a

well-balanced human being. Through lessons that broaden students’ perspectives, my students

will be able to sustain cultural contributions to society and afford opportunities to explore music

as a form of personal expression. When students are able to express themselves in a creative

way, they are able to contribute to the social practice of making music, through being able to

communicate through performance, as well as having the ability to work as a team. This

knowledge, in relationship to the aesthetic of consuming and producing music in itself, leads to

the enhancement of the quality of life.

 Once I am officially a teacher, my goal is to make my teaching thoroughly about the

students. I want to make sure that each individual feels comfortable and knows that my

classroom is an area of safety and creativity, a place of self-exploration and love. Far too often,

children become too embarrassed to be themselves and to potentially not “fit in.” That

description fits many of the peers that I have attended school with over the years; bland and

constantly afraid of being an outcast. This common recurring lifestyle is not a happy or safe way

to live, and I desperately want to help the future generations accept their wonderful, individual

features and attributes. So, that is what I’m going to do while teaching elementary students.
Kindergarten:
Scope and Sequence
Melody • Develop repertoire

Harmony • Experience pulse against rhythm

Rhythm • Demonstrate pulse

• Experience short rhythm patterns through speech, body percussion, and un-pitched
instruments

Form • Experience same/different

• Explore time/space/shape/force in movement

Melody:
• The Twelve Days of Christmas (pg. 55)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform movements/actions
• Objective: Repertoire

• This Old Man (pg. 95)

• Enactive presentation: Students play instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher shows visual of instruments
• Objective: Repertoire, un-pitched percussion technique

Harmony:
• Hush, Hush (pg. 62)
• Enactive presentation: Students play glockenspiels and copy movement of the
feather
• Iconic presentation: The feather moving through the air
• Objectives: Same/different, time/space/shape/force

• Hey Diddle, Diddle (pg. 15)

• Enactive presentation: Students perform action to rhythm
• Iconic presentation: Teacher presents chart of pictures
• Objectives: Pulse against rhythm, phrase, same/different

Rhythm:
• Listen to the Hens (pg. 7)
• Enactive Presentation: Students play tambourine
• Objectives: Rhythm patterns, un-pitched percussion techniques

• Old Mister Bunny (pg. 103)

• Enactive presentation: Students move to actions in song
• Objectives: Pulse, rep, time/space/shape/force
• Improvisation: Students improvise movements and freeze in personal statue

Form:
• Ten Little Fingers (pg. 61)
 • Enactive presentation: Students speak poem with actions
• Objectives: Same/different

• Alphabet Fun (pg. 68)

• Enactive presentation: Students perform actions and form shapes of letters with
their body
• Objectives: Body awareness, time/space/shape/force

First Grade:
Scope and Sequence
Melody • Develop repertoire
• Differentiate between high/low
Harmony • Experience pulse against rhythm
• Experience ostinato
• Demonstrate chord bordun
Rhythm • Demonstrate pulse individually and as a group
• Experience short rhythm patterns through speech, body percussion, and un-pitched
instruments
• Identify ♩
Form • Experience same/different
• Explore time/space/shape/force in movement
• Identify same/different as AB (ABA)

Melody:
• Five Little Monkeys (pg. 3)
• Enactive presentation: Students explore vocal qualities and perform actions
• Objectives: High/low

• Jim Along, Josie (pg. 37)

• Enactive presentation: Students walk counterclockwise and perform movement
• Iconic presentation: Teacher writes names on the board
• Objectives: Vocal repertoire, pulse
• Improvisation: Students come up with actions for the end of the song

Harmony:
• Chase the Squirrel (pg. 29)
• Enactive presentation: Students play instruments
• Objectives: Chord bordun

• Higglety, Pigglety, Pop (pg. 93)

• Iconic presentation: Teacher writes ideas for form on board
• Objectives: Ostinato

Rhythm:
 • I Think Music’s Neat (pg. 5)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform/lead actions
• Objectives: Pulse
• Improvisation: Students improvise/lead different actions

• The Old Gray Cats Are Sleeping (pg. 53)

• Enactive presentation: Students pantomime action while singing verses
• Iconic presentation: Teacher writes important words of verses on board and
presents visuals of quarter note, eighth notes, and quarter rest
• Objectives: Quarter note, eighth notes, quarter rest
• Improvisation: Students pantomime actions
• Technology: Teacher presents visuals on SmartBoard or projector

Form:
• Two Little Apples (pg. 4)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform actions
• Objectives: Same/different

• A Kite (pg. 75)

• Enactive presentation: Students improvise a contrasting section on the wind
chimes, hand drum, and soprano xylophone
• Iconic presentation: Teacher presents shapes in visual to represent form
• Objectives: Label AB (ABA)
• Improvisation: Students improvise a contrasting section on the wind chimes, hand
drum, and soprano xylophone
• Technology: Teacher presents chart on SmartBoard or projector

Second Grade:
Scope and Sequence
Melody • Develop repertoire
• Differentiate between high/low
• Perform MRD/SMRD/SMD/SMLD
Harmony • Experience pulse against rhythm
• Experience ostinato
• Demonstrate chord bordun and broken bordun
• Develop proper mallet technique

Rhythm • Demonstrate quarter note/half note pulse

• Experience short rhythm patterns through speech, body percussion, and un-pitched
instruments
• Identify ♩
• Define tempo
Form • Experience same/different
• Explore time/space/shape/force in movement
• Identify same/different as AB (ABA)

Melody:
• My Aunt Came Back (pg. 66)
• Iconic presentation: Teacher introduces melody with solfege and hand signals
• Objective: SMLR
• Improvisation: Class creates new verses of song with rhyming action words

• Mouse Mousie (pg. 95)

• Enactive presentation: Students perform body percussion and play instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses mouse card to move contour of vocal sounds
and solfege on chart
• Objectives: SMD, broken bordun
• Improvisation: Students take turns conducting a section using the mouse card to
explore S-M-D on the chart

Harmony:
• Go! Go! Go! (pg. 3)
• Enactive presentation: Students play barred instruments and conga
• Objective: Mallet technique, AB

• Play in the Snow (pg. 61, 65)

• Enactive presentation: Students play broken bordun
• Iconic presentation: Teacher demonstrates pattern on xylophone visual
• Objective: Broken bordun

Rhythm:
• I Can Keep the Beat (pg. 5)
• Enactive presentation: Students keep beat by patting and students speak their
name
• Objective: Pulse

• Five Little Monkeys (pg. 100)

• Enactive presentation: Students perform actions while performing speech activity
• Objective: Label tempo

Form:
• Yes or No? (pg. 70)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform actions/movements
• Objectives: AB

• The Bubble Gum Machine (pg. 75, 77)

• Enactive presentation: Students perform broken bordun
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses chart #11 and visual #11, review game
• Objectives: Broken burdun, AB
Third Grade:
Scope and Sequence
Melody • Develop repertoire
• Differentiate between high/low
• Perform MRD/SMRD/SMD/SMLD
• Identify high Do
• Experience SMRDL melodies

Harmony • Experience pulse against rhythm

• Label ostinato
• Demonstrate chord bordun and broken bordun
• Demonstrate proper mallet technique

Rhythm • Demonstrate pulse (quarter note/half note/dotted half note/whole note)

• Experience short rhythm patterns through speech, body percussion, and un-pitched
instruments
• Identify ♩
• Define tempo
• Label sixteenth notes
Form • Experience same/different
• Explore time/space/shape/force in movement
• Identify same/different as AB (ABA)
• Demonstrate phrase
• Label rondo

Melody:
• Great Big House (pg. 36)
• Enactive presentation: Students play instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses solfege ladder to sing short patterns, presents
chart for text and more reviewing multiplication facts
• Objective: Label high Do
• Improvisation: students improvise in C pentatonic on AG/SG using the rhythm of
the words

• Sweet Dreams (pg. 95)

• Iconic presentation: Teacher shows illustrations of book and presents chart
• Objective: SMDL

Harmony:
• I Went to the Animal Fair (pg. 18)
• Enactive presentation: Students speak poem and ostinato, as well as perform
movements
• Objectives: Label ostinato
• Improvisation: Students create movements or actions to accompany the poem
 • When Johnny Comes Marching Home (pg. 38)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform movements and body percussion
• Iconic presentation: Teacher writes “interlude” on the board and describes it as
“something short that happens in the middle of a piece of music”
• Objective: Ostinato, interlude

Rhythm:
• A Rig-A-Jig-Jig (pg. 16)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform motions
• Objectives: pulse

• Love Somebody (pg. 77)

• Enactive presentation: Students speak rhythms and play instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher presents one-beat rhythm cards
• Objective: Pulse, sixteenth notes
• Technology: Teacher presents one-beat rhythm cards, on SmartBoard or projector,
in different orders and students speak rhythms

Form:
• Smitty (pg. 43)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform body percussion and play handheld un-
pitched instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher shows visuals for families of instruments
• Objectives: Phrase, classify un-pitched percussion

• Instrumental Pieces III #32 (pg. 125)

• Enactive presentation: Class creates a simple body percussion ostinato
• Objective: Rondo
• Technology: Students use Garage Band to create ostinatos to accompany the
melody

Fourth Grade:
Scope and Sequence
Melody • Develop repertoire
• Differentiate between high/low
• Perform MRD/SMRD/SMD/SMLD
• Identify high Do
• Experience SMRDL melodies
• Demonstrate melodies on barred instruments

Harmony • Experience pulse against rhythm

• Experience ostinato
• Demonstrate chord bordun, broken bordun, and crossover bordun
• Demonstrate proper mallet technique
• Experience I-V
Rhythm • Demonstrate pulse (quarter note/half note/dotted half note/whole note)
• Experience short rhythm patterns through speech, body percussion, and un-pitched
instruments
• Identify ♩
• Define tempo
• Label sixteenth notes
• Label eighth rest
Form • Experience same/different
• Explore time/space/shape/force in movement
• Identify same/different as AB (ABA)
• Demonstrate phrase
• Label rondo
• Label D.C. al Fine

Melody:
• Tom Dooley (pg. 16)
• Iconic presentation: Student creates pulse ostinato on the body percussion staff
• Objective: Repertoire
• Improvisation: Student creates a pulse ostinato

• Sally in the Kitchen (pg. 106)

• Enactive presentation: Teacher sings pattern using MRDL and students echo on
the instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses solfege ladder to sing short patterns with MRDL
and uses the xylophone visual to help students discover that MRDL=AGFD
• Objectives: Low La, rep, melody playing
• Improvisation: Student sings a four-beat melodic pattern using MRDL

Harmony:
• Listen (pg. 3)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform body percussion, speak sections, and
play barred instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher presents chart with text for sections and form in
shapes
• Symbolic presentation: Letters of form on chart
• Objective: Crossover bordun

• Roll the Chariot (pg. 116)

• Enactive presentation: Students finger recorder, play melody on recorder, and play
xylophones
• Iconic presentation: Teacher presents chart for teaching soprano recorder part, and
shows notes needed on the xylophone visual
• Symbolic presentation: Teacher uses soprano recorder visual
• Objective: I-V, mallet technique

Rhythm:
• Get Up, Get Up (pg. 24)
 • Enactive presentation: Student draws on board and students speak rhythm
• Iconic presentation: Teacher draws a whole note on board and students identify
name of note and value (4 beats), teacher draws rhythm on board
• Objective: Label eighth rest

• Ding, Dong, Diggidiggidong (pg. 112)

• Enactive presentation: Students perform body percussion
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses hand signs
• Objective: Rhythm patterns

Form:
• Old Tom White (pg. 28)
• Enactive presentation: Students speak/clap rhythm and sing letter names while
fingering recorder pitches
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses solfege ladder to introduce melodic ostinati
• Symbolic presentation: Teacher uses xylophone visual to help students discover
that La-So-Fa-Mi = A-G-F-E, and teacher presents visual of song with notes
• Objective: Introduction/Coda

• Scales are a Breeze (pg. 90)

• Enactive presentation: Students sing patterns from D-D1, clap rhythm of melody,
and play melody on instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses solfege ladder to conduct short patterns
• Symbolic presentation: Teacher presents chart with parts notated and “D.C. al
Fine” and “Fine” and teacher presents xylophone visual
• Objective: Label D.C. al Fine

Fifth Grade:
Scope and Sequence
Melody • Develop repertoire
• Differentiate between high/low
• Perform MRD/SMRD/SMD/SMLD
• Identify high Do
• Experience SMRDL melodies
• Demonstrate melodies on barred instruments
• Experience Mixolydian melodies
• Experience BAGE on soprano recorder

Harmony • Experience pulse against rhythm

• Experience ostinato
• Demonstrate chord bordun, broken bordun, and crossover bordun
• Demonstrate proper mallet technique
• Label I-V
• Experience canon/round
Rhythm • Demonstrate pulse (quarter note/half note/dotted half note/whole note)
• Experience short rhythm patterns through speech, body percussion, and un-pitched
instruments
• Identify ♩
• Define tempo
• Label sixteenth notes
• Label eighth rest
• Identify eighth note with sixteenth notes

Form • Experience same/different

• Explore time/space/shape/force in movement
• Identify same/different as AB (ABA)
• Demonstrate phrase
• Label rondo
• Label D.C. al Fine
• Label 1st and 2nd endings

Melody:
• Rattle on the Stovepipe (pg. 115)
• Enactive presentation: Students create answers using body percussion
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses cards to familiarize students with the text
• Objectives: Rhythm patterns, question-answer, experience myxolydian, phrase
• Improvisation: Students create answers through body percussion

• Skin and Bones (pg. 24)

• Enactive presentation: Students play recorder/echo patterns and identify BAGE
melody on chart
• Iconic presentation: Teacher demonstrates fingering for low E on recorder
• Symbolic presentation: Teacher presents chart with song notated
• Objective: SR-BAGE

Harmony:
• Out Goes the Rat (pg. 3)
• Enactive presentation: Students perform body percussion and perform on barred
instruments
• Objectives: Mallet technique, canon/round, ABA, classify pitched percussion

• Sambalelê (pg. 87)

• Enactive presentation: Students perform on barred instruments
• Iconic presentation: Teacher uses the xylophone visual to identify F as the root of
the I chord
• Objective: I-V
• Improvisation: Students add style to performance, through dance or body
percussion

Rhythm:
• Cup Game (pg. 124) — Recording: Sun Flower Slow Drag from Rhythmically Moving 9
• Enactive presentation: Students speak text rhythmically, remove cards, and play
cup game
 • Iconic presentation: Teacher presents cards
• Objectives: Rhythm patterns, phrase
• Technology: Teacher plays recording of Sun Flower Slow Drag off of computer or
phone

• Pomme de Reinette (pg. 18)

• Enactive presentation: Students identify the root of the V chord when given F as
the root of the I chord, students sing harmony while teacher sings melody, and
students perform orchestration
• Objective: Prepare eighth/two sixteenths

Form:
• Hot Lunch Jam (pg. 124)— Recording: Hot Lunch Jam from Fame
• Enactive presentation: Students perform lummi stick activity
• Objectives: Rhythm patterns, phrase, AB
• Technology: Teacher plays recording of Hot Lunch Jam off of computer or phone

• Jolly Old St. Nicholas (pg. 48-49)

• Enactive presentation: Students play melody on recorder
• Symbolic presentation: Teacher presents chart with song notated, along with the
music symbol card that shows first and second endings
• Objective: Label first/second ending
• Technology: Teacher presents chart and music symbol card on SmartBoard or
projector

 References
Kriske, J., Delelles, R. (2011). GamePlan: An active music curriculum for children; Kindergarten.
Las Vegas, NV: KiD sounds.

Kriske, J., Delelles, R. (2005). GamePlan: An active music curriculum for children; Grade One.
Las Vegas, NV: KiD sounds.

Kriske, J., Delelles, R. (2006). GamePlan: An active music curriculum for children; Grade Two.
Las Vegas, NV: KiD sounds.

Kriske, J., Delelles, R. (2007). GamePlan: An active music curriculum for children; Grade Three.
Las Vegas, NV: KiD sounds.

Kriske, J., Delelles, R. (2008). GamePlan: An active music curriculum for children; Grade Four.
Las Vegas, NV: KiD sounds.

Kriske, J., Delelles, R. (2009). GamePlan: An active music curriculum for children; Grade Five.
Las Vegas, NV: KiD sounds.