St. Helena Music program
The Saint Helena elementary music program is a strong, diverse, music curriculum that enhances each child's education while simultaneously establishing an understanding and appreciation of this art form. The purpose of the program is to develop awareness that music is a vital part of each student's daily life. A comprehensive and well-planned sequence of developmentally appropriate experiences lead to clearly defined skills and knowledge and allow for exploration, cultural and aesthetic enrichment, and personal satisfaction.
Students are encouraged to further enrich their musical talents by participating in the school’s Performing Arts, which includes: singing and leading all School Liturgical Functions, Concerts, Christmas Caroling, Spring Musicals, Handbell Choir, and Community events.
The music program is offered to students of all learning modalities in grades prekindergarten through eight and is designed to offer a myriad of opportunities for active participation and success. Students are regularly engaged in singing, playing instruments, moving to music, learning to read and notate music, creating music, and listening to, analyzing, and evaluating music and music performances.
Carefully selected materials are utilized for their aesthetic value to the program and provide a framework whereby students learn to understand and appreciate their own historical and cultural heritage as well as those of other cultures.
The students will:
1. Experience, recognize, respond to, read, notate, perform, and create rhythms and rhythmic patterns in a variety of meters.
2. Experience, recognize, respond to, read, notate, perform, and create melodic patterns.
3. Experience, respond to, and perform a variety of musical textures and harmonic structures.
4. Experience, recognize, identify, and explain aspects of musical form.
5. Recognize, identify, and respond to expressive elements of music, including dynamics, tempo, and articulation, and will perform music with appropriate expressive qualities.
6. Experience, recognize, and respond to a variety of instrumental and vocal timbres.
7. Experience and respond to music of various styles and genres from a variety of world cultures, including music of the classical Western tradition.
8. Employ available technology to augment experiences in the other program objectives.
9. Recognize and apply appropriate music vocabulary as they relate to the other program objectives