Free homeschool music appreciation curriculum: a 36-week plan

This is a full year of music appreciation, free to use: 36 weeks, one piece a week, in six units. Each week links to a guide on this site and a page to print. It suits ages 6 to 12, and a family can teach all its children at once. You do not need to read music.

How a week works

Plan for two short sessions of about 15 minutes.

Day 1

1. Read the guide yourself first. It takes five minutes.
2. Tell your child one thing about the piece.
3. Listen together.
4. Do one activity from the guide.

Day 2

1. Listen again.
2. Fill in a listening journal page.

Play the piece at other times in the week, at breakfast or in the car. For five minutes a day, read morning time music for homeschool.

What you need

• A way to play music
• A binder for each child
• Listening journal pages
• Composer study notebook pages
• The composer timeline and the music eras chart

Unit 1: Meet the orchestra (weeks 1 to 6)

Week	Piece	Read and print
1	Britten, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra	Guide and the instrument families listening chart
2	Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf	Guide and the character cards
3	Saint-Saëns, The Carnival of the Animals, first half	Guide
4	Saint-Saëns, The Carnival of the Animals, second half	The Swan
5	Mozart, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, for strings	Guide and the orchestra seating chart
6	Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man, for brass and percussion	Copland for kids

Unit 2: The Baroque era (weeks 7 to 12)

Week	Piece	Read and print
7	Vivaldi, “Spring,” from The Four Seasons	Guide and the Four Seasons listening page
8	Pachelbel, Canon in D	Guide
9	Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor	Guide
10	Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, first movement	The harpsichord for kids
11	Handel, Water Music	Guide
12	Handel, the Hallelujah Chorus	Guide

Read Baroque music for kids before you start the unit.

Unit 3: The Classical era (weeks 13 to 18)

Week	Piece	Read and print
13	Haydn, Surprise Symphony, second movement	Guide
14	Haydn, String Quartet “The Joke,” last movement	What is chamber music?
15	Mozart, The Magic Flute	Guide
16	Mozart, Twelve Variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman”	Who wrote Twinkle, Twinkle?
17	Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, first movement	Guide
18	Beethoven, “Ode to Joy”	Guide

Read Classical era music for kids.

Unit 4: The Romantic era (weeks 19 to 24)

Week	Piece	Read and print
19	Schubert, “Trout” Quintet, fourth movement	Schubert for kids
20	Chopin, “Minute” Waltz	Chopin for kids
21	Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1	Guide
22	Smetana, The Moldau	Guide
23	Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition	Guide
24	Saint-Saëns, Danse macabre	Guide

Read Romantic era music for kids.

Unit 5: Stories on stage (weeks 25 to 30)

Week	Piece	Read and print
25	Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker Suite	Guide and the listening map
26	Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake	Guide
27	Tchaikovsky, The Sleeping Beauty	Guide
28	Stravinsky, The Firebird	Guide
29	Humperdinck, Hansel and Gretel	Guide
30	Rossini, William Tell Overture	Guide

If you start in September, move week 25 to December and shift the others.

Unit 6: Modern music and living composers (weeks 31 to 36)

Week	Piece	Read and print
31	Debussy, “Clair de lune”	Guide
32	Ravel, Boléro	Guide
33	Holst, “Mars” and “Jupiter,” from The Planets	Guide
34	Copland, “Hoe-Down,” from Rodeo	Guide
35	Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue	Guide
36	Jessie Montgomery, “Starburst,” and a family concert	Montgomery for kids

Read modern classical music for kids and living composers kids can hear today.

At the end of each unit

• Play a short clip of each piece, and ask your child to name it.
• Find the composers on the composer timeline, and see who else was alive.
• Ask which piece your child liked most, and why.
• Make a listening bingo card for the favorite.

Week 36: the family concert

Your child picks five favorite pieces from the year, makes a program, and introduces each one to the family. This is the year’s review.

For different ages

Age	What to change
4 to 6	Play two or three minutes of each piece. Move and draw. Skip the writing.
7 to 9	Use the plan as written.
10 to 12	Add a composer study notebook page for each composer.
13 and up	Listen to whole works, and read music appreciation for homeschool: a plan by grade.

Keeping records

Keep a list of the pieces, with the date and one sentence from your child about each. The binder of journal pages is the record of the year.

Two other plans

This plan moves through the orchestra and the eras, with a new composer most weeks. For a plan that stays with six composers for six weeks each, use the 36-week composer study schedule. For singing, rhythm, instruments, and theory as well as listening, read homeschool music curriculum: what to cover each year.

More to use

• Music appreciation activities for kids: 15 to try
• Composer study for homeschool: how to plan a year
• Composer study planner
• 25 classical pieces checklist