Unit Plan 4 (Grade K Music): Loud & Soft Sounds
Kindergarten music unit on dynamics where students safely identify and demonstrate loud/soft sounds using voice, instruments, and movement, while listening for expressive changes and applying simple loud/soft plans in class songs.
Focus: Identify and demonstrate loud and soft sounds (dynamics) using voice, instruments, and movement.
Grade Level: K
Subject Area: Music (Exploring Sound • Performing • Responding)
Total Unit Duration: 2–4 sessions (2+ weeks), 20–30 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, students explore how music can be loud and soft and how changing dynamics can make music feel different. Through echo games, movement, and simple instrument activities, students practice using loud and soft voices and sounds in a safe and controlled way. With guidance, they begin to notice how performers use dynamics to show energy, calm, and other expressive ideas, and how these choices match what the music is trying to say.
Essential Questions
- What does it mean for music to be loud or soft?
- How can we show loud and soft using our voice, instruments, and movement?
- How do loud/soft changes help music feel exciting, calm, or surprising?
- How can we use dynamics to help our class music sound its best?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- With guidance, use their voice to perform loud and soft sounds appropriately.
- Explore loud/soft contrasts using classroom instruments and safe playing.
- Move their bodies to show when music sounds loud, soft, or changes from one to the other.
- Identify whether a short musical example is mostly loud or mostly soft and describe how it feels.
- Help choose when to use loud and soft in a simple class piece (e.g., loud ending, soft beginning).
Standards Alignment — Grade K Music (NAfME-Aligned)
- MU:Pr4.2.Ka — With guidance, explore and demonstrate awareness of music contrasts such as high/low, loud/soft, and same/different.
- Example: Singing echoes using high and low voices.
- 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 show loud and soft with my voice without shouting.
- I can play instruments in a loud and soft way while staying safe.
- I can move my body to match loud and soft sounds in music.
- I can say if a piece of music sounds mostly loud, mostly soft, or changing between the two.