Wednesday, December 18, 2013

District Chorus performs for the Chicago Steel!

We had a great time last Saturday when we performed our national anthem for the Chicago Steel Hockey game.  Check out some of my favorite action shots from our performance!

 



 

 



 
 
 

 
 

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Just Give Me the Beat!

At last, at LONG last!  The computer has finally cooperated!!!  5th Grade students and I began work on this project in September and I have wrestled with my computer and various programs for months to create the final project.  Here it is!  Enjoy!

Just Give Me the Beat 2013

Happy Singers in the Music Room

While preparing for Veteran's Day, I took this picture while the class was singing "You're A Grand Old Flag".  It makes me so thankful to do the work I do everyday!


Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Oh, Say Can You See?

Level 3 students had a great time learning more about our National Anthem.  Students spent two lessons learning about the Star Spangled Banner using file folder games created by music materials guru, Tracy King (www.musicbulletinboards.net).  One of their favorites was Sticky Note Singing, in which one partner covered up part of the song with a sticky note or two.  The other partner then had to sing the song correctly.

Kindergarten exploring Fast and Slow

Fast and Slow are the two musical opposites we've focused on this month.  Students had a fantastic time moving scarves to show the difference between fast and slow while listening to A Walking Song found in our series (Spotlight on Music, MMH).


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Veteran's Day Celebration on Monday

Students have been preparing for Lincoln's Veteran's Day celebration for the last several weeks.  In the Music room, we are working on the following songs:

Level 1: You're a Grand Old Flag
Level 2:  This Land Is Your Land
Level 3:  Star Spangled Banner
               4th Grade: America, The Beautiful
               5th Grade: Sing America Sing!

The Kindergarten and 1st Grade students have come to love singing with this Youtube video which is set up in a karaoke style with the words at the bottom of the screen.  You can find the video we've used in clas by clicking here:   You're A Grand Old Flag

Level 2 has been working hard to sing all the parts of This Land is Your Land.  We have not been using a video, but have been practicing with the music from our music textbooks.  Want to practice for Monday?  Click here and remember, we are only singing verse 1:   This Land Is Your Land

4th Grade is singing America, the Beautiful.  Click here to review the song:  America, the Beautiful

Level 3 is singing and learning about The Star Spangled Banner.  Check out this amazing performance of our national anthem from Super Bowl XLIV:  Star Spangled Banner


Monday, October 21, 2013

Recorder Success!

5th Grade has been hard at work learning new notes on the recorder. 



 
We have been working on third space C and fourth line D.  These two notes are tricky because of how they are played.  Students are working really hard to learn and play these new notes.
 


What's next?  MORE NEW NOTES!!!  Keep up the great work, 5th Grade!  :)

3rd Grade Orchestra Field Trip a HUGE hit!

Students and teachers had a great time attending the Symphonic Band concert at Wheaton College last week! 


Ask your students about our musical trip around the world.  You won't believe what we saw!  We saw penguins in Antarctica and a didgeridoo in Australia.


We even took part in a battle between the clans in Ireland!

 

We saw all of that without leaving Illinois.  As you can see, we had a great time listening and watching the musicians play their instruments.

Instrument Investigations

Level 2 (3rd Grade) students have been researching an instrument over the last two weeks in the Music classroom.  Students have been able to use a variety of sources including apps on the new iPads, computers in the LLC  and our music textbooks!  Everyone is very excited as we begin our presentations.  Check out our research!



Starting presentation PowerPoints in the LMC
 
 
 
 


Using iPads in the Music Room
 

 
Researching instruments using classroom posters
and materials.
 
We started presenting our research to classmates this last week.  The presentations have been OUTSTANDING!  Students have lots to be proud of :)

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Program Dates for 2013-2014
 
 
5th Grade Music Program:  Tuesday, March 25 7:00pm in the New Gym, Level 3 Open House to follow.
 
1st Grade Music Program:  Tuesday, April 15 7:00pm in the New Gym, Level 1 Open House to follow.
 
3rd Grade Music Program:  Tuesday, May 13 7:00pm in the New Gym, Level 2 Open House to follow.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

4th Grade Jingles

The 4th Graders have been creating jingles to promote healthy choices.  Some students have chosen to write a jingle about a food while others have decided to write about exercise or the importance of sleep!  Below are links to some of our jingle performances.  Keep checking back here- I will be adding to the list over the next few weeks!

Mrs. Mendell's Class
Pineapple
Oranges!
Hami
Watermelon
Carrots

Ms. Gauri's Class

Pick a Pineapple
Apples
Carrots, Carrots, Carrots
Blueberries!
Bananas

Mr. Bower's Class

Potatoes
Lemons
Exerci-ee-i-ee-i-ee-ize!
Clean Water
Peanut Butter

Ms. Capenigro's Class

Muffins
Ba-Na-Na
Go Outside!
Sports of all Sorts
Exercise

Mrs. Vail's Class

A-P-P-L-E-S
Plums
Carrots
Go Swim
Apples

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

2nd Grade Studies Instrument Families!

2nd Grade has begun listening to the different instrument families of the orchestra.  We have been discussing the differences between the woodwind and brass families at length because they sound so similar!  Below is the website we visited to listen to instruments we know and had never heard of before.  There are many activities for students on the site, so have fun visiting!  If you try one of the 'home activities', share it with me when you next come to Music! 

dso KIDS™

Saturday, April 13, 2013

3rd Grade Program this Thursday

Thursday, April 19 at 7pm the third grade students will perform!  Please be prompt to allow time for open house (immediately following the program).  See you there!

4th Grade Recorder Centers

WOW, did students work hard on our recorder centers!  Check out our slide show below.




Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Opera Funtime!

5th Grade has been learning about the differences between Opera and Musical performances.  We spent some time with this Opera website last week.  We passed the Opera trivia with an average of 8-10 correct.  Many students asked for the link to play "Whack-a-Tenor".  You will find it below!

Have lots of Opera fun :)

Arizona Opera Ha-Ha

Monday, March 18, 2013

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub!

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub (Caldecott Honor Book)
Photo Courtesy of Amazon.com
ISBN #978-0152054359

Congratulations 1st Grade on a WONDERFUL music program!

You certainly DAZZLED your families with your musical abilities and performing strengths.  I am very impressed and proud of your performance tonight.  You should be too!  We will celebrate your hard work in the music room this week.  Congratulations :)

Friday, February 22, 2013

I mustache you to show your FACE

The 3rd Graders are busy learning the note names of the Treble Staff.  Students need to remember 'Every Good Boy Does Fine' to match the lines (acending order) and 'FACE' for the spaces (also in ascending order).  For fun, I gave all 3rd Grade students a paper plate and asked them each to draw a face on the paper plate.  I've gotten several fantastic faces back and can't wait to add more to our hallway board.  How, you ask?  Simply take a paper plate and create a face in the middle.  Once your plate is complete, bring it in and I'll hang it on our wall.


5th Grade Guitars!!!

Check out our fabulous work at our music program THIS MONDAY NIGHT! 
6:30- 7:30pm in the New Gym (Door 4)

Everyone has been busy preparing.  In addition to class time, many students have spent lunch recess in the Music Room with their guitars.  Check out these happy photos and I'll see you Monday!








Centers in 2nd Grade

2nd Graders have been very excited to have centers come to the music room!  Many of our activities coincided with 1st grade centers, but are focused around concepts we are learning in Music (i.e. half note and melodies using So-La-Mi-Do).  Check out some of our successes!

We listened to 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' performed by the great Ms. Ella Fitzgerald.  We had a great time listening to this new style of music and completed a listening log to show what we heard in the music.




In the reading center, students worked to match the iPods.  One iPod had the melody pattern written on the music staff and the matching iPod had the melody pattern written in pitch syllables.  Students had to work together to match all of the iPods.




We played our new favorite in the games center!






The Instrument Center looks similar to the center completed in 1st grade this week but with one change- 2nd graders wrote melodies using 3 notes (So-La-Mi) instead of the two used in 1st grade.

In the writing center we completed a worksheet about half note and half rest.  Once the worksheet was completed, students practiced writing various music symbols found in written music.  Some of them are quite strange to us!






The students and I agreed that centers were great fun.  I can't wait to put together the next round of centers!

Thursday, January 31, 2013

It's Always a Good Time Part 2

The 5th Graders and I are proud to present 'Good Time' by Owl City/Carly Rae Jepsen.  No, we did not have celebrities in our midst, but we did recreate this song using classroom instruments.  Our inspiration came from this Jimmy Fallon video.

Jimmy, The Roots, and Carly

We thought, if they can do it, WE CAN TO!!!  It was a bit rocky and took a ton of cooperation, experimenting, and collaboration before we came to these recordings.  These videos take a long time to upload, so please be patient with me- I'm adding them to the blog as quickly as I can :)

Harte-Naus
Klingberg
Pindar


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Centers in 1st Grade

The 1st Graders have been working through centers this week.  There are 4 centers the 1st Graders are working through including Listening, Reading, Composing, and Instruments.

At our Listening Lab, students used iPods for the first time to listen to 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' performed by Ella Fitzgerald.  Students learned how to use an iPod and completed the listening log.

 Teaching each other how to use the iPods.

One of my favorite answers of all time!


In the Reading center, students had to match the letter notation with the staff notation.  This helped us practice our So-Mi reading skills!
 It looked a little chaotic at first.

 Success!


In our Composing center, students used the Brown Bear, Brown Bear folders to compose melodies using So and Mi on both lines and spaces.

Singing with handsigns and melody names.

The Instrument Center was the most interesting to everyone- write a So- Mi melody using cottonballs then play your melody on the instruments.  The students had a great time creating and playing music.

So- So             Mi-Mi           So 

Written on the left, instrument on the right.

Students are having a great time with our centers and cannot wait to do them again.  Thanks for checking out the blog to see what Lincoln musicians are up to this year!  

ZAP IT!

 
2nd and 3rd Grades learned how to play the game Zap It! over the last few weeks.  Mrs. DeFrang (music teacher at Franklin) taught me this game and I am so thankful that she did because we LOVED IT!!!

We learned to play in our riser groups.  Each riser received a Popsicle stick with a rhythm printed on the end.  Each riser had to perform their rhythm by clapping and saying the rhythm (we used quarter note and rest, eighth notes, and half note).  IF the riser group clapped their rhythm correctly, they kept their stick.  If not, I took their stick back.  Tricky, eh?

But that's not all!  Students then began to pick their own sticks from the cup to perform in their groups.  If a student pulled a stick that had the words 'Zap It!' on the end, I collected all of their sticks.  *insert maniacal laugh here*

We had so much fun that we will play again.  Next time, the 3rd grade will add dotted half note to their game to make it even tougher.  *maniacal laugh*

Friday, January 11, 2013

Holiday Sing Photos!

We had a GREAT time singing together the last day of school in 2012! 











I hope you all have had a great vacation.  It was so wonderful to see you all this week!  Get ready for much more music making in 2013!