Welcome to the Ocarina Arena!
As teachers ourselves, we have a great desire to help our students meet and exceed the national music standards. We also want to balance that work with instilling a life-long love of music. We created the Ocarina Arena to assist teachers everywhere in making these goals a reality.
The Ocarina Arena is a new, student AND teacher-friendly program that supports the following content standards for grades K-4: You can see a Teacher to Teacher video about our lesson plans on this page.
1. Content Standard: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
We strongly believe in the importance of quality singing in developing musicianship. The program lesson plans include sight-reading, pitch matching, maintaining a steady tempo, harmony, blending vocal timbres, and responding to the cues of a conductor. These plans are listed throughout the Teacher's Edition.
2. Content Standard: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
The Ocarina Arena is a great program to use before introducing the recorder or to alternate with teaching recorder when you have combined grades. It is a fun way for your students to be successful in performing on pitch, in rhythm, with appropriate dynamics and timbre, and maintaining a steady tempo.
3. Content Standard: Improvising Melodies, variations, and accompaniments
Your Teacher's Edition includes plans for your students to improvise rhythmic and melodic "answers," phrases, and variations.
4. Content Standard: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines
Your students will be creating and arranging music to accompany stories and composing songs and instrumental pieces.
5. Content Standard: Reading and notating music
The Ocarina Arena program gets your students reading and writing whole, half, dotted, half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 meter signatures. It offers extensions for your advanced students, too. The program uses solfeggio, notes, time signatures, rhythmic notation and ocarina tabulature in the treble clef in major keys.
6. Content Standard: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
Your students will be able to identify various forms, demonstrate their perceptual skills through movement, and use appropriate terminology in explaining music and music notation.
7. Content Standard: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts
We believe in the importance of the integration of the arts with other curriculum areas. We've provided some fun ideas and reminders for you and your students in our program.
8. Content Standard: Understanding music in relation to history and culture
The Ocarina Arena gives you background information and ideas to present the historical and cultural contexts of various folk songs. Your students will be able to identify these examples and explain the historical periods and cultures that are represented in each song.
Enjoy the journey!
