Unit Plan 30 (Grade K Music): Choosing Instruments
Choose and notate classroom instruments to show loud/soft and fast/slow ideas, organizing sound plans with icons, then perform and explain expressive choices.
Focus: Select classroom instruments to match simple musical ideas and expressive qualities (loud/soft, fast/slow), then organize those ideas with pictures or simple notation.
Grade Level: K
Subject Area: Music (Creating • Performing • Responding/Connecting)
Total Unit Duration: 2–4 sessions (2+ weeks), 20–30 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, kindergarten musicians explore how different instruments can show musical ideas like loud/soft and fast/slow. Students listen to short music examples, talk about how they sound, and then choose instruments that match those expressive qualities. Using simple picture icons or marks, they organize their ideas into short “instrument plans” and share them with classmates in tiny performances.
Essential Questions
- How can different instruments help us show ideas like loud, soft, fast, and slow in music?
- How can we organize our musical ideas so we remember what to play and when to play it?
- How do our choices about instruments, dynamics, and tempo change the way music feels?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Listen to short musical examples and identify simple expressive qualities such as loud/soft and fast/slow.
- Choose classroom percussion instruments to match a picture, word, or feeling (e.g., “storm,” “tiptoe,” “march”).
- Use icons or simple drawings to organize a short pattern of instrument sounds (a “sound plan”).
- Perform their planned sound pattern and explain how their instrument choices and expressive qualities match the idea.
Standards Alignment — Kindergarten Music (NAfME-Aligned)
- MU:Cr2.1.Ka — With guidance, organize personal musical ideas using iconic notation and/or recording technology.
- Example: Drawing symbols to represent loud and soft sounds.
- MU:Re8.1.Ka — With guidance, demonstrate awareness of expressive qualities such as dynamics and tempo that reflect a creator’s or performer’s intent.
- Example: Identifying music as “fast” or “slow.”
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can say whether music sounds loud or soft and fast or slow.
- I can choose instruments that match a picture, word, or feeling (like “rain” or “marching”).
- I can draw simple symbols to show the order of my instrument sounds.
- I can perform my sound plan and tell how my instrument choices and playing show the idea.