Despite having only two days of school this week, students have continued to make progress on their concert songs. All students should now have their lyrics sheets with the words for their concert songs. Please encourage them to practice over the break by singing for family, friends, pets, to themselves, etc. Even reading over the words will help them to memorize the lyrics. Next week, I hope that we'll be able to start singing from memory in all grades!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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All of the students in grades K-5 have been hard at work on their winter concert songs. Today, each student received a packet of lyrics for their songs that they can use at home to practice. Ask your child to do a practice performance and get a sneak peak of what you'll get to hear at the concert on Sunday, December 9th! If your child's lyrics sheet gets misplaced, you can always find the lyrics through the "Concerts" page on this website.
5th Grade Fifth graders have continued to work hard on their concert song "Various Themes on Fa La La," which features four famous classical themes. They're improving their transitions and singing with more confidence! We've been brainstorming ideas for lyrics for the second verse of "So This Is Christmas." In the original song, John Lennon sang about the problems of his time and how he wished that all people, despite their differences, could get along and have a happy Christmas. The fifth graders' new lyrics will talk about different groups that they hope will get along this holiday season. 4th Grade Fourth graders are working hard on "Nutcracker Jingles." This song uses the lyrics of "Jingle Bells" with the melodies of four dances from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet. It's not easy, but it gets better with every day of practice! The singing parts of their other two songs, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Boogie Woogie Holiday" are nearly performance-ready. Next week, we'll start adding some students playing guitars and recorders to these songs! 3rd Grade Third graders started learning a Latin-style song called "Rhumba Santa" this week. They're already becoming comfortable singing the stylistic syncopated rhythms of this song. They're beginning to memorize the lyrics of their country song, "I Believe in Santa Claus," and they're learning more about its songwriter, Dolly Parton, through reading a daily chapter of the book, "Who is Dolly Parton?" And they're loving their concert song, "Jingle Bell Rock"! Get ready for an enthusiastic performance! 2nd Grade Second graders have been seeing the holidays through the perspectives of others with their concert songs. In "Christmas for Cowboys," they're imagining what it would be like to spend Christmas alone in the saddle while enjoying the natural beauty of the range. In "Christmas in Waikiki," they're picturing a very different Christmas scene in Hawaii. They just started learning their third song, "The Merry Christmas Polka," and it's already sounding great! They know how to make this cheery dance sound energetic and happy! 1st Grade First graders are already beginning to memorize lyrics of their songs! They've been doing a great job on "Old St. Nick Takes a Rockin' Trip," a rock version of the classic Christmas song. They're also getting into the jazz style of "Jazzy Jinglin' Bells," which combines the classic song with some new jazzy sections. They began learning an Irish tune called "Christmas in Killarney" this week. They'll be learning more about the features and instruments of Celtic music soon! Kindergarten Kindergartners are working hard in preparation for their very first school concert! In addition to learning three songs, they've also been working on concert behaviors, such as standing up straight and still during the songs. Sometimes that's the hardest part for the younger students! Now that the bluegrass tune "Christmas Time's A-Comin'" has become more familiar, they really enjoy singing it out! They're also becoming more comfortable singing the Hawaiian-style song "Mele Kalikimaka." The title means "Merry Christmas" in Hawaiian (if you're curious about the linguistics behind this phrase, check out this interesting article). They started working on "Rudolph the Rapping Reindeer" this week, which includes both a rapped part, which uses a speaking voice, and the classic song, which uses a singing voice. It's a lot of fun! 5th Grade, 4th Grade, 3rd Grade: Flag Designs Upper elementary grades are working on a group project. Each team is creating a flag to represent what they have learned about their Performer House leaders. They have learned about these performers through information that these musicians have sent and their answers to students' questions. I've been seeing a lot of thoughtful and creative designs! 2nd Grade and 1st Grade: Meter First graders have begun learning about the concept of meter, or how beats are organized in music, usually in music, and second graders are reviewing this concept and exploring it in more depth. Both grades began with meters of 2 and 4, learning about how it sounds and how it makes people feel like moving (i.e. marching in a meter of 2, walking in a meter of 4). This week was focused mainly on the meter of 3. Music in this meter can make people feel like swaying or dancing. Students learned about a dance and type of music that is always in a meter of 3 called waltz. They really enjoyed seeing the dancers waltzing in video below! Kindergarten: Voice and Rhythm Kindergartners finished their unit on the four voice types (whisper, talk, shout, and sing) with a short listening quiz and a performance assessment. In the quiz, they had to listen to recordings of different voices and determine what voice type was being used. In the performance assessment, we did an activity in which I whispered/said/shouted/sang, "Where is ________?" The student who was called on had to respond in the same voice type with, "Here I am!" The students did a great job identifying and using their voices! We then began a new unit on rhythm. Students are beginning to understand the difference between steady beat, which stays the same, and rhythm, which doesn't. Usually the rhythm of a song goes with the syllables of the words, but is still connected to the steady beat. We've been learning some new songs while moving or playing along with both the beat and the rhythm. 5th Grade Fifth graders finished their unit on meter this week. The students practiced 6/8 meter (six beats per measure, an eighth note equals one beat) by reading rhythmic notation in that meter and playing different percussion parts simultaneously. They also took a quiz, which involved vocabulary, deciphering meter signs, and listening to rhythms and meters. Students also had their first journaling activity this week. They listened to the third movement of Schubert's 5th Symphony and tried to imagine why he chose not to include some instruments that were typically used in orchestras of his time and what it would sound like if he had. It's always fun to read their ideas about music! 4th Grade Fourth graders were also finishing a unit this week. Their study of rhythm included divisions of a single beat, including eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes. They played instrumental parts along with "The Sixteenth Note Song" and created their own four-beat improvisations using sixteenth notes. They also took a quiz that included rhythm and meter vocabulary and identifying rhythms by listening. 3rd Grade Third graders reinforced their vocabulary words improvisation and ostinato this week. Each class composed a four beat ostinato pattern as a group, then each individual played an improvised four-beat rhythm over that ostinato. Most classes decided to revise their original ostinato pattern to make it easier to play while improvising. Revising is a big part of writing music! They wrapped up their unit on rhythm with a quiz that included vocabulary and identifying meter by listening to music. 2nd Grade Second graders began a new unit about meter (how beats are organized into groups, usually of 2, 3, or 4) this week. This is a concept that they learned about last year in first grade, but they are learning about it in more depth this year. Students moved in different ways to different meters as we listened to music (marching in a meter of 2, walking in a meter of 4), and even learned some beginning conducting! 1st Grade First graders also began a new unit on meter. They started by reviewing a favorite song from kindergarten called "Stinky Pirates," which is in a meter of two. We added some pirate actions that demonstrate the organization of beats into groups of two. We marched to a Sousa march, which like nearly all marches, was in a meter of 2. We walked to a meter of 4, while also learning about verse and chorus form in the song "Walking Home." Next week, they'll learn about the meter of 3! Kindergarten Kindergartners have continued learning about the four voice types: whisper, talk, shout, and sing. Students have practiced the song "Kangaroo, Kangaroo" using a variety of different voice types, and even created their own arrangement as a group that included all four voice types. They had fun playing a four corners game in which each corner of the room had a sign indicating a different voice type. Students were presented with a scenario, such as being at a rock concert, being in the library, or being at a birthday party. They had to move as quickly as they could to the corner of the voice they would choose for that situation before the timer ran out and we all discussed why students chose the voice types that they had. 5th Grade Fifth graders have been continuing their study of meter by learning a brand new meter sign (aka time signature): 6/8. Up to this point, all of the meter signs they've learned about have had a 4 on the bottom, indicating that a quarter note equals one beat. In 6/8, the 8 at the bottom of the meter sign indicates that an eighth note equals one beat (when a quarter note equals one beat, the eighth note equals half a beat). Students have counted, played, and listened to music in 6/8 meter, noticing that this meter can be felt as 6 individual beats or two "macro-beats" divided into 3 subdivisions.
3rd Grade Third graders have continued reviewing the basics of rhythm and meter. This week, they learned a new vocabulary word: ostinato. An ostinato is a short, repeated pattern. It can be a a rhythm pattern, and repeating melodic fragment, or even a movement with music. Ostinatos can be especially useful as accompaniment for an improvisation (making up music on the spot). Students wrote and played a four beat rhythm ostinato as a class, and then we used that ostinato to accompany each student playing an four beat improvisation on rhythm sticks. 2nd Grade and 1st Grade Second graders and first graders have been studying the concept of strong beat and weak beat as a way to identify meter. Meter is the organization into groups called measures. Understanding how to identify strong and weak beats will help students in learning to read, write, and play more advanced meters and rhythms in the years to come. Kindergarten Kindergartners wrapped up their introduction to steady beat with a little quiz this week. They did a great job showing what they've learned! We started a new unit all about the four voice types: whisper, talk, shout, and sing. They've had fun playing a game in which they have to identify which voice they hear and we've discussed when and where each voice type would be used. Understanding the different ways that our voices can be used will help students to understand how to use their singing voices when we sing songs in music class. The students and I enjoyed another visit from one of our Composer House composers last week. Mikey Maiorana and Mandy Fassett, both musicians and composers in Minneapolis, taught students how improvisation can be used in writing music. The duo first performed a piece that Mikey had composed, reading the notated music while they played. Then, they demonstrated an improvisation, making up music on the spot without any written notation, based on ideas suggested by the students. It was fun to see how the students' ideas could be instantly expressed in music.
Next, the students had their turn at collaboratively creating a new piece of music through improvisation. Each student improvised a four beat pattern using only two different pitches. Mikey notated some of the patterns so the students could see and repeat them to help them choose their favorites. As a group, they chose an order for their favorite improvised patterns to create a new piece of music. In only 25 minutes, each first through fifth grade class was able to improvise, compose, and perform their own brand new piece of music! The students were impressed by how easy, fast, and fun writing music can be. Kindergartners have been learning about instruments and how they make sounds, so they enjoyed learning about Mikey's melodica and Mandy's violin. For many students, it was their first time seeing either instrument in person. The melodica is a wind instrument in which vibrating reeds produce sound, but it looks like a tiny piano. Mandy demonstrated different ways that the strings on her violin can make sound and how she can change the pitch of the strings. You can learn more about Mikey's work as a composer at his website: https://www.maioranamusic.com/ 5th Grade Fifth Graders have been diving into the romantic period (approximately 1820-1910) of music history this week in honor of Beethoven House winning third quarter. Only the last few years of Beethoven's life overlapped what is commonly accepted as the start of the romantic period, but his innovative music helped to push new composition from the orderly and organized classical period into the more emotional and dramatic romantic period. Students began the week learning about Beethoven's life and music, then moved into learning about an important romantic era compositional technique – leitmotif. A leitmotif is a recurrent musical theme that represents a certain character, place, object, feeling, idea, etc. Romantic composer Richard Wagner is well-known for his extensive use of this technique in his operas. Today, leitmotif is still commonly used in music in musicals, movies, video games, and even pro wrestling. See how many leitmotifs you recognize in the video below! 4th Grade Fourth graders are excited to work on their new concert song, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. Many of the students are already very familiar with this popular song, but learning to sing it in two parts will be a good challenge! The students have also chosen a new recorder piece to learn for the concert. It's called "Hawaii 6-0" and is in the style of the Hawaii 5-0 theme song. 3rd Grade It's been great to see the third graders' ambition and decisiveness in planning their part of the spring concert. They've already memorized the recorder, singing, and rap parts of "Hot Cross Buns," and are adding their own fun attitude and style to this piece. They've really been enjoying their newest song, "Blast Off." We had some great conversation about the emotion in this song and what kind of story could be behind it. They also love practicing "The Star-Spangled Banner." This is not an easy song to sing well, as it requires a very wide vocal range, but their doing impressively well! 2nd Grade Second graders spent the first part of the week working on "Rocky Mountain," an old folk song that they really enjoy singing. We studied the pentatonic scale, which has only five notes (do, re, mi, sol, and la), and analyzed how those pitches are used in individual phrases (musical sentences) in the song. Students also began adding some instrument parts to one of their favorite songs, "Teemo the Singing Monkey." They have been learning about rhythmic ostinatos (repeating patterns), and have had a chance to practice playing an ostinato on triangle with the song. Next week, we'll add more instruments! 1st Grade First graders started picking out their concert songs this week after discussing what makes a good concert piece. Our criteria includes:
Kindergarten This week, we focused primarily on "Bingo," one of the songs that kindergartners have chosen for their concert. Students tried adding instruments to the song, learned about the history of this old folk song, and learning about folk instruments. Bingo was originally composed by an English actor in the 18th century, and made its way to the United States in the 19th century. It was fun to hear the kindergartner's ideas about how a song could travel so far! 5th Grade: Notation (Dynamics)
Fifth graders continued to focus on notation for dynamics (volume in music) this week. They added their own dynamics to a song, then sang it using those dynamics, and edited what they wrote to ensure that the dynamics they wrote made musical sense and helped communicate their meaning. They practiced their aural skills by listening to a song while following along with the sheet music, writing in the dynamics that they heard. They also completed a journaling activity on Modest Mussorgsky's dynamic-rich "Pictures at an Exhibition." 4th Grade & 3rd Grade: Blues and Recorder Students are continuing to play music using the BAG notes on recorder. This week, they began playing "Recorder Shuffle" which includes some tricky skips between the notes B and G. They took a Plickers quiz on blues, and did very well on it! 2nd Grade: Pentatonic Improvisation and Baroque Period Second graders reviewed what they had learned about the pentatonic scale, which is a series of five notes including the pitches do, re, mi, sol, and la. This scale works very well for improvising (making up music on the spot). The students sang the song "Makin' It Up" while taking turns improvising instrumental interludes on our Orff xylophones and metallophones. Second graders also continued studying the baroque period, focusing on the techniques used to decorate a melody to make it sound fancier. They learned about trills, turns, and appoggiaturas and used the notation for these ornaments to "fancy up" a the familiar tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." 1st Grade: Melodic Direction First graders are starting their study of melody by working on aurally identifying notes that go up, down, or repeat. We used the songs "I'm a Superhero" and "I Had a Dog" to practice hearing, singing, and using motion to show repeating notes. Kindergarten: Long and Short Kindergartners have been learning about the musical opposites long and short. In "The Long and Short Song," they are getting practice singing long and short notes as well as identifying and creating non-musical long and short sounds. They composed their own rhythms using long (one beat) and short (half beat) sounds, and they sorted our classroom instruments according to the length of sounds they can create using a Venn diagram. Some instruments are hard to classify, so a lot of them ended up in the overlapping middle section of our diagram. 5th Grade: Notation Fifth graders have continued their unit on notation, focusing this week on dynamics. Dynamics are music markings that indicate how loud or soft the music should be. Students have learned about pianissimo (very quiet), piano (quiet), mezzo piano (moderately quiet), mezzo forte (moderately loud), forte (loud), and fortissimo (very loud), as well as crescendo and diminuendo, which indicate gradually getting louder and softer. The students have enjoyed starting music class by sharing their most recent QGroove compositions with their classmates! 4th Grade and 3rd Grade: Recorders & Baroque Period This week, third and fourth graders are working on a new fingering skill. They're still using only the BAG notes, but now they're learning to skip from B to G, which requires moving two fingers at the same time. We're learning a new song, "Recorder Shuffle," that uses a few of these B to G skips. We also backtracked a bit to review the baroque period this week. Students are able to identify a lot of the defining features of music in this period. It was typically very fancy, with a lot of special ornaments, and orchestras were much smaller than they are today and didn't have conductors. 2nd Grade: Improvisation & Baroque Period Second graders have been continuing their study of the baroque period of music (approximately 1600-1750). Have already learned a lot about the characteristics of music written at this time, and they have listened to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." This week, they began studying Antonio Vivaldi in more depth, learning about his compositions and life. The students were especially interested in learning about his hometown, Venice, Italy. We also reviewed the pentatonic scale (a scale that contains only five notes), which is particularly well-suited to improvisation (making music up on the spot). Each students is getting a turn to improvise eight beats of music using a pentatonic scale on a xylophone or metallophone. I've been impressed by the variety of music the students are coming up with! 1st Grade: Melody & Performance We began a new unit all about melody in first grade this week. Melody is the tune of a song, the part you might sing or hum or get stuck in your head. We're starting by studying melodic direction, how the notes of a melody go up or down or repeat. Students explored this concept using SongBrush, a tool that allows us to "paint" music on the Promethean board, then hear what it sounds like. Different colors represent different instrument sounds that follow the direction of the line. We also had a performance day this week. Students were invited to volunteer to sing or play music that they had learned, or to make up music for their classmates. We were able to practice good performer and audience etiquette. The students really got into their performances and showed that they were listening carefully to the music they heard in their comments after each performance. We will continue to do in class performances whenever we have extra minutes in class. Kindergarten: Long and Short Sounds We started a new unit in kindergarten on yet another musical opposite. We've covered fast vs. slow, high vs. low, and soft vs. loud. Now the students will be learning about duration of notes by studying long vs. short. We began by connecting the concept of long and short to other areas of life, such as measurement of objects, distance between places, and length of time. They have started learning a fun song called "The Long and Short Song" that includes rapping, singing, and a wide variety of long and short sound effects! 5th Grade: Digital Composition Fifth graders continued working with the composition tools on Quaver this week. They have completed two QGroove compositions, and began working with the QComposer tool. QGrooves use pre-recorded 4 beat sounds in a variety of instruments, styles, and harmonies. For their latest QGroove assignment, they have created three section pieces that include a major section, a minor section, and another major section. QComposer uses traditional music notation on a music staff. Students are becoming critical listeners and thinkers as they creatively structure their own music. 4th Grade and 3rd Grade: BAG Notes on Recorder Third and fourth graders had an Accordion Day in which they learned all about how the instrument works, and reviewed concepts of major vs. minor and meter through the bass button organization and playing techniques. They are mastering the BAG notes on recorder, by playing "Hot Cross Buns" and they are preparing to learn another piece using those notes, but with skips between B and G. 2nd Grade: Baroque Period Second graders also had a fun Accordion Day. They were very interested in how the instrument works, made some great observations, and asked thoughtful questions. They started a new unit this week on the baroque period of music, which was from approximately 1600 to 1750. We are starting by focusing on the popular baroque composer, Antonio Vivaldi. Students created some great artwork to describe what they heard in sections of his well-known "Four Seasons." 1st Grade: Lines & Spaces First graders finished their unit on lines and spaces with a Plicker quiz. They have been doing an amazing job of sight-singing their first three notes on a two-line staff: mi, sol, and la. I didn't learn to sight-sing like this until I was in college, but the first graders are showing that they are very capable readers! Kindergarten: Tempo Kindergartners learned a singing (and playing) game called "Acka Backa" and finished their unit on tempo (the speed of music). They have shown that they can sing, play, and move to tempos that are fast, slow, getting faster, and getting slower. |
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