Departments

Music

The overall goal in general music is to develop musically and to foster an enjoyment of music through a range of learning experiences

"Studies have linked active music making with better language and math ability, improved school grades, better adjusted social behavior and improvements in spatial-temporal reasoning."
- American Music Conference, 2001

General Music classes are offered to all students, Kindergarten through Fifth grade, once a week for thirty minutes. Erika Hammons is the general music specialist at Munhall School.

The overall goal of our curriculum is to foster the enjoyment of music and to explore it through a variety of experiences. The Illinois Learning Standards are embedded within our curriculum.

• State Goal 25: Know the language of the arts.
  
• State Goal 26: Through creating and performing, understand how works of art are produced.
  
• State Goal 27: Understand the role of the arts in civilizations, past and present.
  

Using these goals as a guide, our students participate in a variety of musical activities:

• movement
  
• listening
  
• reading and playing simple notation
  
• musical performances
  

A variety of musical genres are introduced - folk, popular, classical, patriotic and seasonal - from which they study the basic elements of music. There are opportunities for playing rhythm instruments - rhythm sticks, maracas, drums, recorders, xylophones for example, as well as learning the fundamentals of singing. We hope to open the door to a basic understanding of music and encourage the students to incorporate music in their lives.