The Australian Curriculum v9 for Music includes a dedicated creating and making strand at every year level. At Years 1 and 2, the content statement for this strand requires students to “select and combine elements of music when composing and practising music for performance” (AC9AMU2C01).

The two-stage framework in this article addresses this content statement directly. In Stage 1, students select sounds and combine them into a sequence — meeting the “select and combine” requirement through a concrete, age-appropriate activity. In Stage 2, students practise their composition and develop a recording system for it, connecting to the “practising music for performance” component of the statement. No standard notation is required to meet this curriculum requirement at Years 1 and 2, and the achievement standard for this band does not reference notation literacy. Creative decision-making, sequencing, and performance are sufficient — and well within reach of every Grade 1 student.

For a complete breakdown of all four strands at Years 1 and 2, including the achievement standard and what it looks like in practice, see our Australian Curriculum v9 Years 1–2 guide.