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MusicCongratulations to our K-3 students for a wonderful Spring concert! Your children worked very hard and sounded great as they performed for a full house. If you weren't there here is a little bit of what you missed:
Next up is our upper grades (4-6) who have been rehearsing hard for their talent assembly coming up in just over two weeks! The children are excited to perform their songs and creative movement routines for the rest of the school. March is Music In Our Schools Month! Here is what we have been working on this month... Kindergarden and First Grade: We have just completed a unit on improvisation. Students learned to improvise by using the black keys of the xylophone to make up their own melodies. We learned that each child's melody would be unique and include an element of self expression, as opposed to the fixed melodies we learned last month. Students have also been experimenting with Tempo (fast and slow) and Dynamics (loud and soft) by using these elements to change the feeling of a piece of music (ie: playing or singing a song fast but soft, loud but slow, changing tempo mid-song, etc). Second Grade: This week we took the song Row, Row, Row Your Boat and split the melody into 4 parts. The students then performed the song as a quartet on the xylophone. We also tried rearranging the parts in a mixed-up order to create a whole new melody. Each student was able to play at least two of the different sections. Students also worked together in groups of 4 and each student taught a classmate the notes they had learned. Third Grade: Over the past few weeks the 3rd graders have been learning and singing songs in the call and response form (Go Down Moses, Erie Canal, Swing Low Sweet Chariot). Call and response is one of the classic forms in American folk music, especially found in work songs and spirituals. The students were able to work in groups to compose their own song in the call and response format, and performed their compositions for their classmates. This week 3rd grade learned about the role of a conductor and students were able to practice conducting a song with their classmates singing/playing. Students incorporated cues, cutoffs, and tempo changes into their conducting, and everyone did a great job! Fourth Grade: We have been working scales- how to play them, and how to write them on the musical staff. Each student performed the C scale on the xylophone individually for a graded quiz, and since then we have also learned the G and D minor scales. We also spent a week on learning sharps and flats, again how to write them and play them. 4th grade is also singing the song "I Know You Are God." Fifth and Sixth Grade: Last week we started an exciting new project with both 5th and 6th grade. Students will be working in groups to create their own version of STOMP, the popular rhythmic group that uses regular household items to make music rather than instruments. (Click here to see a video of the group STOMP making a beat by bouncing basketballs) Just like in the video above, each group of students will have one set of objects they will use. The materials we have chosen are plastic buckets, 2 liter bottles, plungers, and carpet tubing. Each group is working hard to find all of the possible percussive sounds they can get out of their objects, and working together to create layers of rhythm. Each week one of our class periods will be used for rehearsing these projects, and the other for learning songs/music theory/playing instruments etc. The 5th graders have also learned the Irving Berlin standard "Blue Skies" (perfect for our early spring this year) and are working on learning a beautiful traditional round called "Dona Nobis Pacem." |
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