Dry Creek Music

My name is Jessica Pedersen and I am the music teacher at Dry Creek Elementary. I
received my bachelors’ degree from the University of Northern Colorado in music
education. I have been teaching elementary music for over 18 years. I love getting to
know my students both musically and personally and I value the opportunity to see them
grow over their elementary years.

At Dry Creek, the goal of the music department is to instill a life long appreciation of
music in all students so that they can experience music in a more profound way. To achieve this goal, students are exposed to many different musical experiences including various musical genres and music of different cultures. Students learn the basics of music theory and are given many opportunities to create, compose, and perform music in meaningful ways.

There are 3 main goals of the music program at Dry Creek Elementary School:

• To provide authentic musical experiences that will further develop students ability to properly use the singing voice.
• To provide authentic musical experiences that will further develop student’s ability to read, create, and imitate grade appropriate rhythms.
• To foster creativity and an appreciation for music in everyday life.

Each class has music once a week for 45 minutes (Kindergarten has music for 20 minutes).  Music is taught through various methods and philosophies including solfege (do-re-mi) in conjunction with hand syllables used in Kodaly’s method, as well as with the Orff-Schulwerk approach.  Orff instruments (xylophones, etc.), drums and simple hand percussion, are used with an emphasis on beat and rhythm.  Other methods such as rhythmic speech and body percussion are also used.

Programs are performed throughout the year with First, Third, and Fifth grades as well as with the band, choir, and drum group.