Sunday, December 18, 2016

Week Fifteen in Review (Dec. 12 - Dec. 16)

Greetings from the music room! This was an exciting week of singing, moving, and playing instruments! Here are some of the highlights: 

Kindergarten students practiced combining steady beat and loud/quiet this week. Students reviewed the chant Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop while Mrs. Aaronson pointed to beat icons on the interactive white board. Students kept the beat by pretending to chop vegetables. Students then decided which sentences should be loud and which should be quiet. While students kept the beat, they also had to use the correct volume. Students reviewed songs When I Was One, Here Comes a Bluebird, and My Pony Macarnoi. Students finished working with the song My Pony Macroni this week and as one of the students said, "next time, we can start something new!"

First grade students were formally introduced to quarter rests this week. Students reviewed the song Hot Cross Buns and discovered the beats of silence in this song are quarter rests. Students also practiced writing and reading quarter notes and eigthth notes by reading "magic sticks" and writing patterns using their own "magical" Popsicle sticks! Students did an excellent job writing four-beat quarter note and eighth note patterns. Lastly, students learned a Dance for Hanukah and practiced identifying high and low notes in the song Walk and Stop.

Second grade students focused on the new melodic note 'do' this week. Students reviewed 'do's placement on melody street and the properties of this note (it is a skip lower than mi and in the same family as sol and mi). Students learned to read a series of three melodic patterns containing notes do mi sol and la. Students found one of those patterns in the song Rocky Mountain. Students also began preparing to learn about half notes (notes that receive two counts). Students learned new songs Grandma Grunts and Draw a Bucket of Water. Both of these songs will help students to learn about half notes. Students also discovered the location of four long notes in the song Rocky Mountain.

Third grade focused on discovering a new high note this week. Students learned a new song, Li'l Liza Jane, and searched for the highest note in this song. Students also reviewed the song I Lost the Farmer's Dairy Key and located the highest note in this song. Students were led to discover that this high note is higher than melodic note la (the highest note that the students currently know). Students also practiced performing a two-part body percussion canon and transferred this to an exercise entitled I Love the Holidays. Students also reviewed how to play rhythm tic tac toe and were able to play this game in groups of four to five students. 

Fourth grade students focused on learning the recorder note E this week. Students practiced switching between the notes G and E and learned to play the song Rain, Rain. Once students mastered this song, they were given the opportunity to create an accompaniment for it using the xylophones. Students were challenged to create a four-beat pattern that could be repeated as an ostinato. After students shared their four-beat patterns with the class, one pattern was selected for the entire class to learn. After all Ss had learned to play this pattern, a quarter of the class played the accompaniment while the rest of the class played Rain, Rain on the recorder. This proved to be quite challenging for the students as they had to focus on their part while staying in time with the other part.

Fifth grade students began a unit on music evaluation this week. The goal of this unit is to begin piecing together the information that fifth grade students have learned throughout elementary school music class. We began this week by reviewing the four instrument families (woodwind, brass, strings, and percussion). Students were asked to make lists of the instruments in each family and aurally identify each family. Students did a wonderful job recalling what they had learned about these instrument families in fourth grade! Students then began learning how to follow along with a listening map containing instrument families. Students learned about the history behind Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's composition Pictures at an Exhibition and followed along with a listening map to the movement Promenade. Students also began learning a Czech song entitled Ho Young Rider

Mrs. Ellis's continued to practice steady beat and prepare for quarter notes and eighth notes this week. Students were particularly successful at walking to the steady beat while Mrs. Aaronson played the cajon. Students were challenged to freeze when they heard the pattern - 'short-short long.' Students also enjoyed having the opportunity to play the cajon. Some students even chose to play the steady beat! Additionally, students learned a fun counting song about pirates entitled When I Was One

Mrs. Ross's students focused on melodic notes do re and mi this week. Students were introduced to melody street and reviewed how to sing do re mi patterns. Students reviewed the placement of do re mi patterns in the songs Rocky Mountain and Great Big House in New Orleans. Students also began discovering patterns that contain the melodic note sol. Due to the student's mastery of do re and mi, next week students will begin focusing on adding patterns with melodic note sol to their list of known patterns.

Mrs. Muller's students continued to review the rhythms dotted quarter note/eighth note and syncopation this week. Students reviewed the rhythm tic tac toe game and were assessed on their ability to read rhythmic patterns as they played this game. Students also began learning a Czech song entitled Ho Young Rider.

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