Unit Plan 34 (Grade 3 Music): Independent Music Centers

Focus: Explore a variety of music tasks in independent centers, using improvisation for a purpose and showing understanding of musical structure in songs and patterns.

Grade Level: 3

Subject Area: Music (Creating • Performing • Structure)

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

I. Introduction

In this unit, students work in independent music centers to practice creating and performing music with more responsibility and choice. At each center, they improvise rhythms or melodies for a purpose (games, moods, stories) and explore the structure of songs and patterns (sections like AB, ABA, verse/chorus). Students learn to follow routines, make musical decisions, and explain how their ideas fit both the context and the structure of the music they are working with.

Essential Questions

• How can music centers help us become more independent musicians?
• How do we improvise rhythms and melodies that match a specific purpose or context?
• How can we show that we understand the structure of music (sections, patterns, forms) when we create and perform?
• What routines and choices help music centers run smoothly and safely?

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:

1. Follow clear center routines and expectations, working cooperatively with a partner or small group.
2. Improvise rhythmic and melodic ideas at a center and describe how they fit a purpose or context (game, scene, feeling).
3. Demonstrate understanding of musical structure (e.g., AB, ABA, verse/chorus, repeated patterns) when singing, playing, or moving at a center.
4. Complete simple center task cards that ask them to identify or create patterns and sections in music.
5. Reflect on their work at one or more centers, explaining what they created and how it shows imagination and structure.

Standards Alignment — Grade 3 Music (NAfME-Aligned)

• MU:Cr1.1.3a — Improvise rhythmic and melodic ideas and describe how they connect to a specific purpose or context (such as personal or social).
  • Example: Creating a rhythm to represent teamwork or a game.
• MU:Pr4.2.3a — Demonstrate understanding of the structure of music selected for performance.
  • Example: Identifying verses and choruses in a song.

Success Criteria — Student Language

• I can follow center directions and stay on task with my group.
• I can improvise rhythms and melodies that match a game, mood, or story idea.
• I can show that I understand patterns and sections (like AB, ABA, or verse/chorus) in the music we use at centers.
• I can use center task cards to complete a musical job and explain what I did.
• I can talk about my work at a center and tell how it fits a purpose and a structure.