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 :)

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! 

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Instrument Centers

After our trip to hear the Symphony Orchestra, we ended our instrument unit with centers.  Students had a great time using the SMART board, listening to "The Monster Mash" and playing Instrument Memory.  It was a fun way to finish up our unit on the 4 Instrument Families.  Check out our fun below!

Instrument Memory

At the SMART board students had to take all of the instruments

and place them into the correct family.  When the group was finished,

they tapped the 'check' tab to see if they were correct.

There were lots of "YESSS!" cheers!

One center was to reflect on the concert we had just returned from seeing. 

Here is an example of what most students found to be most memorable.

3rd Grade Orchestra Field Trip!

What a fun morning!  We traveled to Wheaton College to see the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra perform but before we went into the auditorium, we walked through campus to see Perry's Mastadon.  The Mastadon was recovered from Perry's Pond in the 1960s.  Perry's Pond is right here in our town!  It was exciting to see all of the information about the Mastadon before the concert.

On to the concert!  After reviewing concert ettiquite, we entered the auditorium ready to listen to the music.  Little did we know we would also be treated to a magic show with local magician, Mike Folker!  Mr. Folker was fantastic!  He talked about how music can be colors for your ears.  He created many memorable works of color including a backwards American flag (he later fixed it) and a bright rainbow!  All the while, the orchestra played many familiar tunes, including Variations on America  which we listened to in class. 

Here are some links to videos of the music we heard at Wheaton College:

Sabre Dance by Katchaturian
Thus Sprach Zarathustra by Strauss
Storm Movement from Symphony #6 by Beethoven
March Militaire by Schubert
Violin Concerto in G Major Op 12 #1 by Vivaldi
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach/Stokowski
Variations on America by Ives

The students and teachers enjoyed our trip!

In our seats waiting for it to start.



Very excited!

Our teachers were excited too!

Some of us got to sit with our friends.

Our reaction to the question "How was the concert?"