Unit Plan 31 (Grade 3 Music): Music & Imagination

Focus: Use music and imagination to inspire creative movement, stories, and play, improvising rhythmic and melodic ideas that connect to students’ own interests, experiences, and purposes.

Grade Level: 3

Subject Area: Music (Creating • Connecting • Expressive Play)

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

I. Introduction

In this unit, students explore how music can spark imagination, leading to creative movement, stories, and games. They listen to short musical excerpts, imagine scenes or characters, and then improvise rhythms and melodies that match those ideas. Students also connect music-making to their personal interests—favorite hobbies, games, places, or feelings—and design simple movement or play activities that fit their own lives. By the end, they present a short “music & imagination” piece and explain how it reflects who they are and what they enjoy.

Essential Questions

• How can music inspire pictures in our minds, movement, or pretend play?
• How do our interests, experiences, and hobbies influence the music we choose or create?
• What does it mean to improvise music for a specific purpose or context (like a favorite game, story, or place)?
• How can we explain how our musical choices show our intent and connect to something we care about?

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:

1. Listen to short musical excerpts and imagine scenes, characters, or types of play they could support.
2. Improvise rhythmic and melodic ideas that match a chosen purpose or context (e.g., running game, quiet reading time, pretending to be in space).
3. Choose music-making tasks that connect to their own interests and experiences (favorite hobby, game, or story).
4. Create a short “music & imagination” activity (movement, game, or story moment) that combines their improvised music with a simple plan for how to use it.
5. Present their idea for others and describe how it shows their personal choices and expressive intent.

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:Cn10.0.3a — 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.

Success Criteria — Student Language

• I can improvise rhythms and melodies that match a scene, game, or idea in my imagination.
• I can explain how my music connects to a purpose or context, like a favorite activity or story.
• I can make choices about instruments, tempo, and dynamics that show what I enjoy or care about.
• I can design a simple movement or play activity that goes with my music.
• I can share my idea with the class and describe how it shows my interests and intent.