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Learning Standards Standards

What does a student learn in ?

This is the year music shifts from simple imitation to making real choices. Students invent short rhythms and melodies of their own, then practice and clean them up before sharing with the class. They start listening with a purpose, noticing how a song feels and what the composer might have meant. By spring, students can perform a short piece they helped create and explain why they picked the sounds they did.

  • Singing and playing
  • Making up music
  • Rhythm and melody
  • Listening with a purpose
  • Performing for others
Source: Maryland Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards
Year at a glance
How the year usually goes. Every school and district set their own curriculum, so treat this as a guide, not official pacing.
  1. 1

    Listening with new ears

    Students start the year by paying close attention to the music around them. They learn to notice fast and slow, loud and soft, and how a song makes them feel.

  2. 2

    Making up their own music

    Students start inventing short musical ideas of their own. They clap rhythms, hum tunes, and play around with sounds to see what fits a feeling or a story.

  3. 3

    Shaping a piece to share

    Students take a rough idea and clean it up. They practice the parts that are tricky, fix what does not sound right, and decide how a song should go from start to finish.

  4. 4

    Performing for an audience

    Students get ready to play or sing for others. They pick the songs they want to share, work on singing and playing clearly, and think about what they want listeners to feel.

  5. 5

    Music from people and places

    Students connect songs to their own lives and to where music comes from. They talk about why people make music, hear songs from different cultures, and use simple words to judge what works.

Mastery Learning Standards
The required skills a student should display by the end of Grade 2.
Connecting

  • Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art

    MU:Cn10.2

    Students connect what they know and what they've lived through to the music they make or perform. A song about rain means more when students bring their own memory of a storm to it.

  • Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural

    MU:Cn11.2

    Songs and music come from real places, times, and communities. Students learn to connect what they hear and create to the people and moments that inspired it.

Creating

  • Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work

    MU:Cr1.2

    Students come up with their own musical ideas, like inventing a short melody or choosing a rhythm pattern, and begin turning those ideas into a simple piece of music.

  • Organize and develop artistic ideas and work

    MU:Cr2.2

    Students take a musical idea they came up with and shape it into something more complete, deciding which sounds to keep, change, or try again.

  • Refine and complete artistic work

    MU:Cr3.2

    Students listen back to a short piece they composed, then make changes to improve it before calling it finished.

Performing/Presenting/Producing

  • Analyze, interpret, and select artistic work for presentation

    MU:Pr4.2

    Students choose a piece of music to perform and explain why it suits them. They think about what the song asks of a performer before they start practicing it.

  • Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation

    MU:Pr5.2

    Students practice a song or piece until it sounds the way they want it to, then make small adjustments to improve how it comes across to an audience.

  • Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work

    MU:Pr6.2

    Students perform a song or piece of music with intention, using dynamics, tempo, or expression to show what the music means to them.

Responding

  • Perceive and analyze artistic work

    MU:Re7.2

    Students listen to a short piece of music and describe what they notice, like how it gets louder, speeds up, or changes mood. They start building the habit of paying close attention to what a song is actually doing.

  • Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work

    MU:Re8.2

    Students listen to a piece of music and explain what it makes them think or feel, and why. They back up their ideas with what they hear in the song.

  • Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work

    MU:Re9.2

    Students listen to a piece of music and use simple questions, like "Does the rhythm stay steady?" or "Does this part feel too loud?", to decide what works and what could be better.