October Objectives

I have been an absent blogger and I have to apologize.  All of the sudden it's October 1st!  What happened to September?
Well, it's been busy in the Music Room!  We are actively learning, playing instruments, reading stories, moving, dancing, playing games...  Check out or objectives for October!

Kindergarten:  I can keep a steady beat (this is the same as September, but it's a skill that serves as the foundation for all music concepts).
1st Grade:  I can identify sounds that go up, down and stay the same.
2nd grade:  I can find the strong beat in recorded music.
3rd Grade:  I can identify instrument families by sound, sight, and name.
4th grade:  I can explain the role of a time signature.
5th Grade:  I can name rhythms using numbers.

If you're checking the blog this week, come in and tell me the secret password for a blog-checker prize!  This week's password is 'candy corn'!

Level 3 Drumming begins!

Over the past two weeks, Level 3 students have started drumming in the Music room.  We have learned to play open tones on the drums and have tried our best to avoid the 'poison patterns' (thank you Aileen Miracle!).  Soon everyone will have learned "Annie Ate Jam" (from Hands On!) and how to play bass tones and open tones on the drum.  Be sure to ask your child about it!

Students!  If you read this blog entry, come and tell me the secret password sometime this week (September 7-11).  I'll have a prize if you do!  This week's password is 'Italy'.  See you soon!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back everyone!  I hope you all had a relaxing summer filled with loads of fun.  I had a wonderful summer traveling and spending time with my family and friends.  On Monday, we are back to school and back to making music!

This year, I will be checking in with you to see if you have been reading the blog!  There will be little mini-incentives for checking out the blog and telling me about what you saw.  I will let you know exactly when it starts.  It's so exciting!

Here are our objectives for the first few weeks of school:

Kindergarten:  I can keep a steady beat.
1st Grade:  I can sing alone and with the group.
2nd Grade:  I can read and perform rhythms with ta and ta-tee.
3rd Grade:  I can sing So-Mi-Do melodies.
4th Grade:  I can play 3 note recorder songs.
5th Grade:  I can describe and analyze music.

I can't wait to see you!  Enjoy the last few moments of summer vacation :)

Jazz in Level 3

We have been studying form and order again in Level 3!  This time, we worked with one of my favorite jazz pieces called "Potato Chips" by Slim Galliard.  I used a sequence I learned from Marcie Kumor at an institute day several years ago with the students to create our motions to go with the form of the song.  Students had to remember what music went with what stick patterns.  Students also had to improvise a section of the music by using the names of different kinds of chips (i.e. crunchy cheesy, cool ranch, sour cream and onion, etc.).  You can hear several of the students (and sometimes me) speaking the different chip names during the videos.  You'll also see some stick tricks which were tricky but super fun to learn!

Brennan AM

Brennan PM

Harte-Naus AM

Harte-Naus PM

Mason AM

Mason PM

Vail AM

Vail PM

Thanksgiving Dinner Fun

It's the week of Thanksgiving and we are all dreaming of the plate we will construct for Thursday's dinner.  Whatever your favorite, everyone's plate looks just a touch different even when the same dishes are on the table.  Level 3 students used Thanksgiving Dinner Rhythm Cards (click here for the TPT link) to create a rhythmic Thanksgiving dinner to perform for the class.

Some groups went back for seconds (it's hard not to on Thanksgiving!).

Students performed their Thanksgiving dinner rhythms for the class on the drums.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

2nd Grade goes cloud watching

The 2nd grade singers went cloud watching this week in the music room.  

I found these fantastic music clouds on Cherie Herring's blog Just a Little More (click here for link) and placed them on my ceiling this year.  The students cloud watched for the melodies I sang (all included So, La and Mi- the three notes we have been studying this trimester).  Then the students partnered up and cloud watched together, taking turns finding and singing the melody or rhythm found on the cloud.

Cloud watching in Music

1st Grade Composers

First grade has been listening for high and low sounds as well as short and long sounds this month.  This past week, students attempted to write music on their risers using paper plates.

The Writing Process

Checking work with the team

High and low are a skip apart on the music staff, so the students used their risers as their staff.  Each group did a beautiful job skipping the step between our high sound and our low sound.  Some students wrote the song "See Saw" while others invented new songs during our writing activity.