Music

Welcome to Elementary Music!

Welcome back students, parents, families! What a great year ahead in music; we will sing, dance, chant, play, create, improvise and perform music as a community among friends and P.K. family.  Elementary music at P.K. Yonge is informed through best practices of Dalcroze, Gordon Learning Theory, Kodaly, and Orff Schulwerk. We play drums, xylophones, ukulele’s, exotic instruments, we even play on our own bodies! Welcome all to the beautiful world of elementary music!

The Elementary Music Curriculum is based on state standards and grade level expectations (GLE’s), for example, playing, clapping walking to a steady beat (1st grade/ Kindergarten GLE), or perform a syncopated rhythm on a rhythmic instrument (4th, 5th grade GLE). There are virtually no written assignments or homework that figure in elementary music grades. As many of you know I teach within a philosophy called Orff Schulwerk, which is a dynamic, active approach to music education. We learn music through doing activities, not reading or filling out worksheets. The activities performed in class are directly related to the standards and the GLE’s. The activities within any given lesson are expressly designed to meet the GLE’s for that class or specific unit.

Michael Roberts Bio

Michael Roberts is currently in residence at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School within the Department of Education at the University of Florida. Michael teaches children and undergraduates the joy of music, movement, and improvisation through sequential/ developmental scaffold pedagogy.  He leads workshops for Orff Chapters throughout the U.S. and provides sessions for state and international music education conferences including AOSA and NAfME.  Mr. Roberts is National Board Certified in early childhood music education and Master level Orff-Schulwerk pedagogy.

Find out more about grading and assessment:

A Note About Grades and Report Cards

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Campus Health – COVID-19
For information regarding P.K. Yonge’s COVID-19 Campus response and links to updates, visit Campus Health – COVID-19.

Supporting Students Learning from Home
For suggestions for families as they work with students spending extended periods off campus, visit Supporting Students Learning from Home.