Music and Movement in Early Childhood and Lower School

Lindy Bourque and Jennifer Thiemann join us to share about their curriculum design work for Music and Movement in the lower grades (Beginners - 4th grade) at NCCS.

Summary from the Guests

In the 2021-2022 school year, we combined what had previously been a Lower school “Creative Dramatics” class and a Lower School “Music” class into one course called “Music and Movement”. In the 2023-2024 school year, we made that same
intentional shift to “Music and Movement” in EC. We reviewed and made adjustments to the curriculum based on a year of living the program. Then we worked backwards to create the new EC “Music and Movement” curriculum:

• Skill development, from B3/4 to Grade 4, was defined.
• Learning objectives and grade-level summaries were written.
• Connections to external learning standards were identified and recorded.
• Basic pacing guides were created.