Music For Learning: Unit 1 Foundation Year

Overview

In Foundation Year Unit 1, Music Is All Around Me, students develop an understanding of what music is through listening, composing and performing activities. They focus on the purpose of music in society, what is music as opposed to non-musical sound and the ways music can be made. Students learn through songs based on so-mi patterns and ta and titi rhythms.

Students explore a variety of repertoire to build their skills in music literacy while learning to express their own voices and ideas in performing.  

This unit aligns to the Australian Curriculum, Version 9:

• AC9AMUFE01 – Explore how and why the arts are important for people and communities.
• AC9AMUFD01 – Use play, arts knowledge, processes and/or skills to discover possibilities and develop ideas.
• AC9AMUFC01 – Create artworks that communicate ideas.
• AC9AMUFP01 – Share their artworks with audiences. 

Learning objectives

• Distinguish between high sounds and low sounds.
• Distinguish between loud and soft sounds.
• Distinguish between long and short sounds.
• Distinguish between slow and fast sounds.
• Learn the difference between music and environmental sounds.
• Graphically notate and read high sounds and low sounds.
• Graphically notate and read ta and titi rhythms.
• Sing together and sing after the teacher.
• Sing in solfege using a body ladder (s-m).
• Learn that music has a beat.
• Learn how to march and skip to a beat.
• Learn the difference between speaking voice and singing voice.
• Learn the four types of voices: singing, speaking, whispering and shouting.
• Explore why music is made.
• Demonstrate recall and memorization when learning a cumulative song.
• Learn five good listening behaviours.

Teaching resources

• 18 PowerPoint lessons
• Teaching Guide
• Student Workbook

Assessment

The End-of-Unit Assessment occurs in Week 8 in the Lesson 1 Series. It consists of a responding and performing task consisting of:

• Identifying good listening behaviour pictures from a selection of right and wrong images.
• Recognising high and low patterns
• Notating the gaps in a known song (ta and titi)
• Teacher sings the ‘Cuckoo’ call and each child individually sings the response back – checking for in-tune singing, memorization and maintenance of beat and rhythm.