Unit Plan 22 (Grade 3 Music): Music in Our Lives

Focus: Connect music to students’ school, home, and community experiences, showing how their interests, knowledge, and skills shape the way they create, perform, and respond to music.

Grade Level: 3

Subject Area: Music (Connections • Creating • Responding)

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

I. Introduction

In this unit, students explore all the ways music lives around them—in school routines, family traditions, community events, and personal hobbies. They notice how their own interests (sports, games, stories), knowledge (songs they know, instruments they play), and skills (keeping a steady beat, singing, moving) influence the music they choose, make, and listen to. Students create simple plans for using music in real-life situations (like reading time, celebrations, or calming down) and explain their intent: what they want the music to do or express.

Essential Questions

• Where do I find music in my school, home, and community, and what is it used for?
• How do my interests, knowledge, and skills change the music I choose, create, and perform?
• What does it mean to choose or create music with a purpose or intent (to calm, to celebrate, to focus, to have fun)?
• How can I use what I learn in music class to make musical choices in my everyday life?

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:

1. Identify and describe examples of music in their lives at school, at home, and in the community (e.g., assemblies, family events, places they go).
2. Explain how their interests (hobbies, favorite activities) and knowledge/skills (songs learned, instruments played, movement patterns) influence the music they prefer or choose.
3. Describe how they use—or could use—music with a specific intent (to celebrate, relax, focus, or show respect).
4. Create a simple music plan (song choice, style, or short idea) for a real-life situation and explain why it fits their purpose.
5. Reflect on how participating in music class helps them make musical choices in the rest of their lives.

Standards Alignment — Grade 3 Music (NAfME-Aligned)

• 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 name places where I hear or use music in my school, home, and community.
• I can explain how my interests (like sports, games, or stories) connect to the music I like or choose.
• I can describe how my music skills (singing, moving, playing) help me use music with a purpose.
• I can make a simple plan for music in a real-life situation and explain my intent for it.
• I can share how music class helps me with music choices outside of music class.