Unit Plan 23 (Grade 2 Music): Music Around the World

Focus: Experience and discuss music from different cultures, showing how music connects to stories, movement, visual art, daily life, and special events around the world.

Grade Level: 2

Subject Area: Music (Connecting • Responding • Cultural Awareness)

Total Unit Duration: 1–3 sessions (3+ weeks), 50–60 minutes per session

I. Introduction

In this unit, students take a simple “trip” to hear music from around the world. They listen to songs and pieces from different cultures and traditions, noticing how people use music for dance, celebration, work, worship, storytelling, and daily life. Students learn that music is often connected to other arts (dance, visual art, drama) and contexts (festivals, ceremonies, games). Through movement, drawing, and discussion, they show how music from different places is both different and similar to the music they know.

Essential Questions

• How do people around the world use music in their daily lives and special events?
• How is music connected to other arts like dance, stories, and visual art?
• What is similar and what is different between music from other cultures and the music I know?
• How can learning about music from other places help us understand and respect different cultures?

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:

1. Listen to music from at least three different cultures and describe how it is used (dance, celebration, story, work, worship, etc.).
2. Identify at least one way music from another culture connects to movement, stories, or visual art.
3. Respond to world music using movement or drawing that matches its mood, tempo, or purpose.
4. Compare one example of music from another culture to familiar music, naming at least one similarity and one difference.
5. Create and share a simple “Music Around the World” response (drawing, movement, or mini-poster) that shows how music fits into daily life or special events in a culture.

Standards Alignment — Grade 2 Music (NAfME-Aligned)

• MU:Cn11.0.2a — Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.
  • Example: Connecting music to stories, movement, or visual art.

Success Criteria — Student Language

• I can listen to music from other places and say how people use it (dance, celebrate, pray, work, play).
• I can show how music connects to dance, stories, or pictures.
• I can move or draw in a way that matches the feeling and purpose of the music.
• I can say one way music from another culture is like and one way it is different from music I know.
• I can share my ideas about music from around the world and respect other cultures.