Fifth grade music introduces students to music as a structured language that involves reading and notation. Students are exposed to vocal techniques such as pitch, tone, breathing and vowel formation. They also discover musical phrasing and pitch patterns, and get their first taste of opera. Students brainstorm and collaborate to compose Orff-based compositions on classroom instruments using melodic patterns, and employ problem-solving skills through storytelling, set and costume building, blocking and other elements related to their capstone project – the Fifth Grade Opera. Much of the second half of the year is spent composing and rehearsing for the production, with review of song forms, story-boarding, writing metered rhyming dialogue and composing melodies, harmonies and choral numbers. In April, the opera is blocked and rehearsed on stage, with costumes and sets created in art classes. The performance occurs in early May.