Unit Plan 15 (Grade 1 Music): Music & Feelings
Grade 1 music unit where students identify emotions in music, connect dynamics, tempo, and timbre to feelings, and relate musical choices to personal interests and experiences.
Focus: Identify how music expresses different emotions and connect personal feelings and interests to musical choices.
Grade Level: 1
Subject Area: Music (Responding • Connecting • Expressing)
Total Unit Duration: 2–4 sessions (2+ weeks), 20–30 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, first graders explore how music and feelings go together. Students listen to short pieces of music and notice how dynamics, tempo, and timbre (sound color) can make music feel happy, sad, sleepy, excited, or brave. They respond through movement, facial expressions, and simple drawings, then share which pieces they like and why. Students begin to connect their own interests and experiences (games, hobbies, favorite activities) to the way they create and choose music.
Essential Questions
- How can music make us feel happy, calm, sad, excited, or scared?
- How do dynamics, tempo, and timbre help music show different feelings?
- How do my own interests and experiences change the kind of music I like or create?
- How can I use music to show how I am feeling or what I want to express?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- With limited guidance, identify how expressive qualities (dynamics, tempo, timbre) in a piece of music suggest certain feelings.
- Show feelings from music using movement, facial expressions, or simple drawings.
- Describe in simple language how a piece of music sounds (loud/soft, fast/slow, smooth/bouncy, bright/dark) and how that connects to an emotion.
- Share personal preferences for certain pieces and explain how their interests, knowledge, or experiences relate to those choices.
- Help create a simple “feeling sound piece” (short pattern or soundscape) to match a chosen emotion and explain their intent.
Standards Alignment — Grade 1 Music (NAfME-Aligned)
- MU:Re8.1.1a — With limited guidance, demonstrate and identify how expressive qualities (such as dynamics, tempo, and timbre) are used in performers’ and personal interpretations to reflect expressive intent.
- Example: Changing tempo to make music sound exciting or calm.
- MU:Cn10.0.1a — Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.
- Example: Creating music inspired by a favorite hobby or game.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can listen to music and say how it makes me feel.
- I can tell if music sounds loud/soft, fast/slow, or has different kinds of sounds (timbre) and connect that to a feeling.
- I can move, draw, or act out how the music feels.
- I can say which music I like and why it fits something I enjoy or do.
- I can help make a short piece of music that matches a feeling on purpose.