The standards in this section describe the cumulative skills and knowledge expected of all students upon exiting grade 4. Students in the earlier grades should engage in developmentally appropriate learning experiences designd to prepare them to achieve these standards at grade 4. Determining the curriculum and the specific instructional activities necessary to achieve the standards is the responsibility of states, local school districts, and individual teachers.

Children in grades K-4 love to move and learn through engagement of the whole self. They need to become literate in the language of dance in order to use this natural facility as a means of communication and self-expression, and as a way of responding to the expression of others. Dancing and creating dances provide them with skills and knowledge necessary for all future learning in dance and give them a way to celebrate their humanity.

Dance education begins with an awareness of the movement of the body and its creative potential. At this level, students become engaged in body awareness and movement exploration that promote a recognition and appreciation of self and others. Students learn basic movement and choreographic skills in musical/rhythmic contexts. The skills and knowledge acquired allow them to begin working independently and with a partner in creating and performing dances.

Experiences in perceiving and responding to dance expand students' vocabularies, enhance their listening and viewing skills, and enable them to begin thinking critically about dance. They investigate questions such as "What is it? How does it work? Why is it important?" Practicing attentive audience behavior for their peers leads to describing movement elements and identifying expressive movement choices. Students learn to compare works in terms of the elements of space, time, and force/energy and to experience the similarities and differences between dance and other disciplines.

Through dance education, students can also come to an understanding of their own culture and begin to respect dance as a part of the heritage of many cultures. As they learn and share dances from around the globe, as well as from their own communities, children gain skills and knowledge that will help them participate in a diverse society.

Content Standard #1: Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance

Achievement Standard:

• Students accurately demonstrate nonlocomotor/axial movements (such as bend, twist, stretch, swing)
• Students accurately demonstrate eight basic locomotor movements (such as walk, run, hop, jump, leap, gallop, slide, and skip), traveling forward, backward, sideward, diagonally, and turning
• Students create shapes at low, middle, and high levels
• Students demonstrate the ability to define and maintain personal space
• Students demonstrate movements in straight and curved pathways
• Students demonstrate accuracy in moving to a musical beat and responding to changes in tempo
• Students demonstrate kinesthetic awareness, concentration, and focus in performing movement skills
• Students attentively observe and accurately describe the action (such as skip, gallop) and movement elements (such as levels, directions) in a brief movement study

Content Standard #2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures

Achievement Standard:

• Students create a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end, both with and without a rhythmic accompaniment; identify each of these parts of the sequence
• Students improvise, create, and perform dances based on their own ideas and concepts from other sources
• Students use improvisation to discover and invent movement and to solve movement problems
• Students create a dance phrase, accurately repeat it, and then vary it (making changes in the time, space, and/or force/energy)
• Students demonstrate the ability to work effectively alone and with a partner
• Students demonstrate the following partner skills: copying, leading and following, mirroring

Content Standard #3: Understanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning Achievement Standard:

• Students observe and discuss how dance is different from other forms of human movement (such as sports, everyday gestures)
• Students take an active role in a class discussion about interpretations of and reactions to a dance
• Students present their own dances to peers and discuss their meanings with competence and confidence

Content Standard #4: Applying and demonstrating critical and creative thinking skills in dance Achievement Standard:

• Students explore, discover, and realize multiple solutions to a given movement problem; choose their favorite solution and discuss the reasons for that choice
• Students observe two dances and discuss how they are similar and different in terms of one of the elements of dance by observing body shapes, levels, pathways

Content Standard #5: Demonstrating and understanding dance in various cultures and historical periods

Achievement Standard:

• Students perform folk dances from various cultures with competence and confidence
• Students learn and effectively share a dance from a resource in their own community; describe the cultural and/or historical context
• Students accurately answer questions about dance in a particular culture and time period (for example: In colonial America, why and in what settings did people dance? What did the dances look like?)

Content Standard #6: Making connections between dance and healthful living

Achievement Standard:

• Students identify at least three personal goals to improve themselves as dancers
• Students explain how healthy practices (such as nutrition, safety) enhance their ability to dance, citing multiple examples

Content Standard #7: Making connections between dance and other disciplines Achievement Standard:

• Students create a dance project that reveals understanding of a concept or idea from another discipline (such as pattern in dance and science)
• Students respond to a dance using another art form; explain the connections between the dance and their response to it (such as stating how their paintings reflect the dance they saw)

Performing, creating, and responding to music are the fundamental music processes in which humans engage. Students, particularly in grades K-4, learn by doing. Singing, playing instruments, moving to music, and creating music enable them to acquire musical skills and knowledge that can be developed in no other way Learning to read and notate music gives them a skill with which to explore music independently and with others. Listening to, analyzing, and evaluating music are important building blocks of musical learning. Further, to participate fully in a diverse, global society, students must understand their own historical and cultural heritage and those of others within their communities and beyond. Because music is a basic expression of human culture, every student should have access to a balanced, comprehensive, and sequential program of study in music.

Content Standard #1: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music

Achievement Standard:

• Students sing independently, on pitch and in rhythm, with appropriate timbre, diction, and posture, and maintain a steady tempo
• Students sing expressively, with appropriate dynamics, phrasing, and interpretation
• Students sing from memory a varied repertoire of songs representing genres and styles from diverse cultures
• Students sing ostinatos, partner songs, and rounds
• Students sing in groups, blending vocal timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor

Content Standard #2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music

Achievement Standard:

• Students perform on pitch, in rhythm, with appropriate dynamics and timbre, and maintain a steady tempo
• Students perform easy rhythmic, melodic, and chordal patterns accurately and independently on rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic classroom instruments
• Students perform expressively a varied repertoire of music representing diverse genres and styles
• Students echo short rhythms and melodic patterns
• Students perform in groups, blending instrumental timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor
• Students perform independent instrumental parts (e.g., simple rhythmic or melodic ostinatos, constrasting rhythmic lines, harmonic progressions, and chords) while other students sing or play contrasting parts

Content Standard #3: Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments

Achievement Standard:

• Students improvise "answers" in the same style to given rhythmic and melodic phrases
• Students improvise simple rhythmic and melodic ostinato accompaniments
• Students improvise simple rhythmic variations and simple melodic embellishments on familiar melodies
• Students improvise short songs and instrumental pieces, using a variety of sound sources, including traditional sounds (e.g., voices, instruments), nontraditional sounds available in the classroom (e.g., paper tearing, pencil tapping), body sounds (e.g., hands clapping, fingers snapping), and sounds produced by electronic means (e.g., personal computers and basic MIDI devices, including keyboards, sequencers, synthesizers, and drum machines)

Content Standard #4: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines

Achievment Standard:

• Students create and arrange music to accompany readings or dramatizations
• Students create and arrange short songs and instrumental pieces within specified guidelines (e.g., a particular style, form, instrumentation, compositional technique)
• Students use a variety of sound sources when composing

Content Standard #5: Reading and notating music

Achievement Standard:

• Students read whole, half, dotted half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 meter signatures
• Students use a system (that is, syllables, numbers, or letters) to read simple pitch notation in the treble clef in major keys
• Students identify symbols and traditional terms referring to dynamics, tempo, and articulation and interpret them correctly when performing
• Students use standard symbols to notate meter, rhythm, pitch, and dynamics in simple patterns presented by the teacher

Content Standard #6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music

Achievement Standard:

• Students identify simple music forms when presented aurally
• Students demonstrate perceptual skills by moving, by answering questions about, and by describing aural examples of music of various styles representing diverse cultures
• Students use appropriate terminology in explaining music, music notation, music instruments and voices, and music performances
• Students identify the sounds of a variety of instruments, including many orchestra and band instruments, and instruments from various cultures, as well as children's voices and male and female adult voices
• Students respond through purposeful movement (e.g., swaying, skipping, dramatic play) to selected prominent music characteristics or to specific music events (e.g., meter changes, dynamic changes, same/different sections) while listening to music

Content Standard #7: Evaluating music and music performances

Achievement Standard:

Students devise criteria for evaluating performances and compositions Students explain, using appropriate music terminology, their personal preferences for specific musical works and styles

Content Standard #8: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts

Achievement Standard:

Students identify similarities and differences in the meanings of common terms (e.g., form, line, contrast) used in the various arts

Students identify ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with those of music (e.g., foreign languages: singing songs in various languages; language arts: using the expressive elements of music in interpretive readings; mathematics: mathematical basis of values of notes, rests, and time signatures; science: vibration of strings, drum heads, or air columns generating sounds used in music; geography: songs associated with various countries or regions)

Content Standard #9: Understanding music in relation to history and culture

Achievement Standard:

• Students identify by genre or style aural examples of music from various historical periods and cultures
• Students describe in simple terms how elements of music are used in music examples from various cultures of the world
• Students identify various uses of music in their daily experiences and describe characteristics that make certain music suitable for each use
• Students identify and describe roles of musicians (e.g., orchestra conductor, folksinger, church organist) in various music settings and cultures
• Students demonstrate audience behavior appropriate for the context and style of music performed

Theatre, the imagined and enacted world of human beings, is one of the primary ways children learn about life -- about actions and consequences, about customs and beliefs, about others and themselves. They learn through their social pretend play and from hours of viewing television and film. For instance, children use pretend play as a means of making sense of the world; they create situations to play and assume roles; they interact with peers and arrange environments to bring their stories to life; they direct one another to bring order to their drama, and they respond to one another's dramas. In other words, children arrive at school with rudimentary skills as playwrights, actors, designers, directors, and audience members; theatre education should build on this solid foundation. These standards assume that theatre education will start with and have a strong emphasis on improvisation, which is the basis of social pretend play.

In an effort to create a seamless transition from the natural skills of pretend play to the study of theatre, the standards call for instruction that integrates the several aspects of the art form: script writing, acting, designing, directing, researching, comparing art forms, analyzing and critiquing, and understanding contexts. In the kindergarten through fourth grade, the teacher will be actively involved in the students' planning, playing, and evaluating, but students will be guided to develop group skills so that more independence is possible. The content of the drama will develop the students' abilities to express their understanding of their immediate world and broaden their knowledge of other cultures.

Content Standard #1: Script writing by planning and recording improvisations based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history

Achievement Standard:

• Students collaborate to select interrelated characters, environments, and situations for classroom dramatizations
• Students improvise dialogue to tell stories, and formalize improvisations by writing or recording the dialogue

Content Standard #2: Acting by assuming roles and interacting in improvisations

Achievement Standard:

• Students imagine and clearly describe characters, their relationships, and their environments
• Students use variations of locomotor and nonlocomotor movement and vocal pitch, tempo, and tone for different characters
• Students assume roles that exhibit concentration and contribute to the action of classroom dramatizations based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history

Content Standard #3: Designing by visualizing and arranging environments for classroom dramatizations

Achievement Standard:

• Students visualize environments and construct designs to communicate locale and mood using visual elements (such as space, color, line, shape, texture) and aural aspects using a variety of sound sources
• Students collaborate to establish playing spaces for classroom dramatizations and to select and safely organize available materials that suggest scenery, properties, lighting, sound, costumes, and makeup

Content Standard #4: Directing by planning classroom dramatizations

Achievement Standard:

• Students collaboratively plan and prepare improvisations and demonstrate various ways of staging classroom dramatizations

Content Standard #5: Researching by finding information to support classroom dramatizations

Achievement Standard:

• Students communicate information to peers about people, events, time, and place related to classroom dramatizations

Content Standard #6: Comparing and connecting art forms by describing theatre, dramatic media (such as film, television, and electronic media), and other art forms

Achievement Standard:

• Students describe visual, aural, oral, and kinetic elements in theatre, dramatic media, dance, music, and visual arts
• Students compare how ideas and emotions are expressed in theatre, dramatic media, dance, music, and visual arts
• Students select movement, music, or visual elements to enhance the mood of a classroom dramatization

Content Standard #7: Analyzing and explaining personal preferences and constructing meanings from classroom dramatizations and from theatre, film, television, and electronic media productions

Achievement Standard:

• Students identify and describe the visual, aural, oral, and kinetic elements of classroom dramatizations and dramatic performances
• Students explain how the wants and needs of characters are similar to and different from their own
• Students articulate emotional responses to and explain personal preferences about the whole as well as the parts of dramatic performances
• Students analyze classroom dramatizations and, using appropriate terminology, constructively suggest alternative ideas for dramatizing roles, arranging environments, and developing situations along with means of improving the collaborative processes of planning, playing, responding, and evaluating

Content Standard #8: Understanding context by recognizing the role of theatre, film, television, and electronic media in daily life

Achievement Standard:

• Students identify and compare similar characters and situations in stories and dramas from and about various cultures, illustrate with classroom dramatizations, and discuss how theatre reflects life
• Students identify and compare the various settings and reasons for creating dramas and attending theatre, film, television, and electronic media productions

These standards provide a framework for helping students learn the characteristics of the visual arts by using a wide range of subject matter, symbols, meaningful images, and visual expressions, to reflect their ideas, feelings, and emotions; and to evaluate the merits of their efforts. The standards address these objectives in ways that promote acquisition of and fluency in new ways of thinking, working, communicating, reasoning, and investigating. They emphasize student acquisition of the most important and enduring ideas, concepts, issues, dilemmas, and knowledge offered by the visual arts. They develop new techniques, approaches, and habits for applying knowledge and skills in the visual arts to the world beyond school.

The visual arts are extremely rich. They range from drawing, painting, sculpture, and design, to architecture, film, video, and folk arts. They involve a wide variety of tools, techniques, and processes. The standards are structured to recognize that many elements from this broad array can be used to accomplish specific educational objectives. For example, drawing can be used as the basis for creative activity, historical and cultural investigation, or analysis, as can any other fields within the visual arts. The standards present educational goals. It is the responsibility of practitioners to choose appropriately from this rich array of content and processes to fulfill these goals in specific circumstances and to develop the curriculum.

To meet the standards, students must learn vocabularies and concepts associated with various types of work in the visual arts and must exhibit their competence at various levels in visual, oral, and written form. In Kindergarten-Grade 4, young children experiment enthusiastically with art materials and investigate the ideas presented to them through visual arts instruction. They exhibit a sense of joy and excitement as they make and share their artwork with others. Creation is at the heart of this instruction. Students learn to work with various tools, processes, and media. They learn to coordinate their hands and minds in explorations of the visual world. They learn to make choices that enhance communication of their ideas. Their natural inquisitiveness is promoted, and they learn the value of perseverance.

As they move from kindergarten through the early grades, students develop skills of observation, and they learn to examine the objects and events of their lives. At the same time, they grow in their ability to describe, interpret, evaluate, and respond to work in the visual arts. Through examination of their own work and that of other people, times, and places, students learn to unravel the essence of artwork and to appraise its purpose and value. Through these efforts, students begin to understand the meaning and impact of the visual world in which they live.

Content Standard #1: Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes

Achievement Standard:

• Students know the differences between materials, techniques, and processes
• Students describe how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses
• Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories
• Students use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner

Content Standard #2: Using knowledge of structures and functions

Achievement Standard:

Students know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey ideas Students describe how different expressive features and organizational principles cause different responses Students use visual structures and functions of art to communicate ideas

Content Standard #3: Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas

Achievement Standard:

• Students explore and understand prospective content for works of art
• Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning

Content Standard #4: Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Achievement Standard:

• Students know that the visual arts have both a history and specific relationships to various cultures
• Students identify specific works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times, and places
• Students demonstrate how history, culture, and the visual arts can influence each other in making and studying works of art

Content Standard #5: Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others

Achievement Standard:

• Students understand there are various purposes for creating works of visual art
• Students describe how people's experiences influence the development of specific artworks
• Students understand there are different responses to specific artworks

Content Standard #6: Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines

Achievement Standard:

• Students understand and use similarities and differences between characteristics of the visual arts and other arts disciplines
• Students identify connections between the visual arts and other disciplines in the curriculum