Second through fifth grade students wrote reviews of the concert before the break. These reviews are very valuable to me in planning our next concert and ensuring that students can take ownership of their performances. The thought that students put into critically thinking about their performance also makes this a great educational activity for them. Evaluating performances is one of our music standards!
I really enjoyed reading the students' thoughts and noticing the trends in their answers. Here's a summary of their responses. Students chose their favorite concert song from a list. All other responses were short answers, and the lists below show the top five responses. 5th Grade Favorite Songs
4th Grade Favorite Songs
3rd Grade Favorite Songs
2nd Grade Favorite Songs
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,What a busy and fun week! The school was full of energy as excitement for the upcoming break and holidays grew. A great time seemed to be had by all at the holiday sing-along on Wednesday morning! Each grade presented one or two songs to the student body, and there was even a surprise visit from Frosty the Snowman!
3rd-5th Grade On Monday and Tuesday, the first through fifth graders continued their until on the classical period and the music of Mozart. The classes in these grades also had reward days. This was supposed to be for Mozart House's victory in first quarter, but because they students have put so much work into preparing for their concert and the sing-along, I decided that everyone deserved a reward. However, the students in Mozart House got to choose the activity. Some classes chose to play a music board game called Encore. Others chose to organize a fast-paced American Idol style composition competition. One class of 33 third graders decided to play a massive game of musical chairs. When a person was "out" of the game, they got to play an instrument along with the music. It was a fun (and noisy) time! 1st-2nd Grade Most of the second graders only had one music class this week due to Jingo Bingo being scheduled during their specialist time on Wednesday. They continued their study of Mozart's variations on the "Twinkle, Twinkle" theme by demonstrating their understanding of the ABA form of the main theme through movements. They also made up some fun variations on walking to show the difference between the variations on the theme in the piece. On Wednesday, first graders had a special visit from Mr. Jennings who brought his guitar to play some Christmas songs. They kids loved singing, dancing, and playing along with him! Kindergarten Kindergarten enjoyed playing the "Lucy Locket" game this week! They studied the beat and rhythm in this song last week, so they knew it well for this singing game in which a student with his or her eyes closed tries to guess which classmate sang. It also gave me a chance to hear individual students sing by themsevles. In just half a year, they have made so much progress in using their higher "head" voice and matching pitches! Tomorrow, all K-6 elementary students will be participating in the annual holiday sing-along! Each grade will be leading the student body in singing a song that that grade chose. Parents are welcome to join us in the elementary gym at 8:30am for this event!
I am so proud of the students' for their performances on Sunday! Despite our sound system not working as it should have (sorry!), the students sang and played beautifully. Way to go!! We started off the week discussing the concerts. Students were able to identify many of the highlights and parts of songs that had been difficult, but went well in the concert thanks to their hard work. We also discussed some of the things that didn't go as well as they could have and what we can do to make the next concert even better. We also talked about the many people involved in making our concert a success, such as our administrators, teachers who helped out by making it possible for us to have extra practice time, custodians who set-up for the concert, and the audience. Each student chose somebody to write a card to to thank them for their role in the concert. The later part of the week was spent learning about Mozart! In grades 3-6, Mozart House won first quarter, so we are celebrating by learning about Mozart, his life, and his music, and next week, Mozart House will get to choose a reward for their great work in first quarter! Grades 3-5 These grades have been reading about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's life, and learning about the classical period (approximately 1750-1820). The classical period is characterized by balance, structure, and simplicity. Grades 1-2 First and second graders have been exploring one of Mozart's famous pieces, Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, maman." In this piece, Mozart uses the tune we know as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," but mixes up the sections and includes several different variations. Variations use the original tune, but changes it in some way. Students have been demonstrating their understanding of the different sections (form) of the piece by using listening maps and using different movements to show different sections. They especially have fun when they use streamers with their movements! Kindergarten Kindergarten has been doing an in-depth lesson on the song "Lucy Locket." They have been making up their own stories about the song, and using a variety of ways to show steady beat and rhythm in the song, including body percussion, rhythm syllables (ta and ti-ti), and simplified notation. Next week, they'll get to try out the Lucy Locket game! It's been an exciting week of preparing for our upcoming concert on December 11th! The music is in good shape, and we're now working on details including how to stand on risers, concert logistics, and how to deal with stage fright. Students are getting excited for their performance, and so am I!
If your children want to practice their music at home (which would be awesome!), you can check out the Concert Info page to find lyrics and videos of their concert songs. For any children who are feeling nervous about the concert, you might want to check out another blog post I wrote about last year's students' advice on how to manage those feelings. Everyone (including me) feels nervous about performing in front of others sometimes. Those feelings are normal, and not all bad. Nervousness means that you care about doing a good job! |
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