The installment in the My Music Journal, designed for first grade students, will continue to teach students the basics of music theory and how they are applied to create music. Students will learn the basics of rhythm and beats, introductory sheet music, such as quarter notes, half notes, and rests, and how notes and beats are related to one another. This textbook will teach students the basics of pitch and tone and will apply these lessons by singing select songs. Visual and audio identification of several basic musical instruments will be taught. Students will also be taught to identify how musical vocals differ from other oral communication methods, such as talking and shouting, and will learn to differentiate between major and minor tones aurally. From this first installment, students will also begin to grasp the basic concepts of tempo and dynamics, learning when the music gets faster or slower and softer or louder. This textbook will begin to introduce students to vocabulary related to lyrics, for example, chorus, verse, introduction, and coda. The students will study music history and style, learning about music from various cultures and time periods. These lessons will be applied as students will perform along with select instrumental and vocal pieces.
Teacher and student follow the same textbook. The teacher receives also Curriculum Outline and Assessments for My Music Journal - Music Teaching Method for First Grade.

My Music Journal - Music Teaching Method for First Grade teaches the following:

Concept: Rhythm
The student will:
• play and listen to music with a beat/no beat
• recognize beat/no beat
• keep a steady beat
• demonstrate a beat through body percussion or movement
• recognize sounds that are short/long
• begin to recognize a quarter note as one beat
• begin to recognize a half note as two beats
• realize that a rest represents a beat with no sound
• begin to recognize a half note, quarter note, eighth note, and quarter rest when written
• sing, listen to, and move to the music in a variety of meters
• imitate rhythm patterns using body percussion or rhythm instruments
• begin to read rhythm patterns
• recognize repeated rhythm patterns in songs

Concept: Melody
The student will:
• vocally reproduce pitches of the teacher/piano/guitar
• vocally reproduce high/low pitches
• demonstrate through movement whether pitches in listening selections are high/low
• begin to recognize upward/downward movement of pitches
• demonstrate through movement the upward/downward movement of pitches
• echo-sing melodic patterns
• sing isolated phrases of a song
• sing songs in a major/minor tonality
• list the letters in the musical alphabet

Concept: Tone Color
The student will:
• distinguish between a man’s, woman’s, and child's voice
• identify and demonstrate talking, singing, whispering, and shouting
• begin to aurally and visually identify various orchestral/folk instruments
• identify environmental sounds
• create sound effects to accompany stories or songs

Concept: Tempo
The student will:
• identify faster/slower
• sing faster/slower upon request
• participate in activities in which students initiate tempo and tempo changes
• demonstrate changes in tempo through movement
• use the term tempo correctly

Concept: Dynamics
The student will:
• identify louder/softer in a listening selection
• begin to identify forte and piano in a listening selection
• represent changes in dynamic level through movement
• respond to changing dynamic levels when echoing, singing, and speaking
• begin to use the terms crescendo and decrescendo correctly

Concept: Form
The student will:
• identify same, different, and similar phrases and sections
• label same and different phrases and sections using the letters AB
• identify various forms including AB, ABA, call/response
• respond appropriately to the call-response sections of a song
• respond appropriately to an “echo” song
• recognize the introduction and coda of a song
• begin to understand the visual format of a church song in a hymnal

Concept: Harmony/Texture
The student will:
• discriminate between one sound/many sounds in listening selections
• aurally identify an ostinato in a listening selection
• perform an ostinato vocally or with instruments and body percussion
• accompany songs on rhythm instruments and body percussion
• sing songs with/without accompaniment

Concept: Style
The student will:
• begin to recognize variations in the style of songs/listening selections
• listen to a variety of suites
• listen to and sing music from diverse cultures in various styles
• listen to and respond to classical music

Apollo Publishing has 9 music textbooks for each grade level, K-8. Each grade level is Teacher and Student edition. Teacher and student follow the same textbook. In addition teacher receives Curriculum Outline and Assessments for each grade level.