Music

Willow students in grades 1-2 see the music teacher for 30 minutes twice each week. Pre-School, Early Childhood, and kindergarten students attend music classes for 30 minutes once a week.

Mrs. Gdalman teaches students in EC, Pre-K, kindergarten, literacy, 1st- and 2nd-grades. Miss Clark teaches students in EC, Pre-K, kindergarten, and 1st grade.

The music curriculum at Willow School is based on research by early childhood music specialist Dr. John Feirabend. Music class is designed to prepare children to become musical in three ways:

• Tuneful – to have tunes in their heads and learn to coordinate their voices to sing those tunes.
• Beatful – to feel the pulse of music and how that pulse is grouped in either twos or threes.
• Artful – to be moved by music in the many ways music can elicit an emotional response.

To accomplish the above goals, music classes include singing, pitch matching, movement and instrument playing. Movement, hand-jives, and dances are fun ways to experience the beat of the music.

Second grade students also study the woodwind family as part of their curriculum. This unit culminates with an in-school field trip presented by a woodwind quintet. The musicians are members of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra.