Our music program uses the Core Knowledge Sequence, which aligns with the Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Frameworks and the National Standards of Music, as the base for our music curriculum. Music students meet once peer week and are exposed to the classics as well as modern composers. All the senses are used to help familiarize the student with music basics.
Starting with the younger classes, students are engaged with movement, rhythm instruments and pitched instruments, such as the xylophones and glockenspiels. This is an approach to music education designed by Carl Orff (pictured right).
Orff, a German composer, felt movement and activity should be incorporated into a child’s music education. The Orff philosophy combines the elements of speech, rhythm, movement, dance and song with participation, creativity and personal musical growth.
Also used in collaboration to this method are concepts from the Dalcroze method of music. Emile Jaques-Dalcroze was an Austrian composer who integrated movement into music education with the concept that children learn more effectively by using as many of their senses as possible. Students learn music through a combination of these methods. They move with music, play instruments and sing.