Week Five in Review (Oct. 5 - Oct. 9)

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

Kindergarten students learned a short story about a big pig who likes to dig, dig, dig in the garden. This story allows children to explore their high and low voice. Students also explored their vocal range and the difference between high and low sounds by moving to and imitating the sound of a slide whistle. Students also began learning a chant called 1, 2, 3-4, 5 which will be used to explore the difference between high and low sounds. New songs this week included Hey, Betty Martin and Alice the Camel. Children also enjoyed experiencing the difference between fast and slow (while keeping the beat) by dancing to the chicken dance!

First grade students practiced differentiating between fast and slow by learning a chant called Grandma Moses. Students also used their bodies to demonstrate whether sounds on a glockenspiel or a piano were high or low. Students created new verses for a chant called Saw, Saw, Saw Away which also provided opportunities for students to keep the steady beat using the interactive white board and their bodies. Let Us Chase the Squirrel and Big Black Cats were two more songs we learned this week. Instruments were added to these songs in order to practice high vs. low and beat vs. rhythm.

Second grade students learned the Italian terms for loud and soft this week: forte and piano. Student conductors were then chosen to show the class whether to use a forte or piano voice. Students also began using hand signs for sol and mi while singing See Saw and Poor Little Kitty Cat. Students practiced differentiating between fast and slow by learning a chant called Grandma Moses. Students also reviewed the chant Go! Go! Go! and created an accompaniment for it using the xylophones.

Third grade students took a rhythm pre-assessment this week. This assessment will be used to help track each third grader's progress on rhythmic skills throughout the school year. Students also began learning a two-part xylophone accompaniment to the song Tideo. One part practiced using two hands independently, while the other part required students to play mi re do at the correct time. Next week third grade classes will simultaneously sing and play these two different xylophone parts. If students are up for a real challenge, we will also have a group of students performing movement.

Fourth grade students performed a three-part canon using the song Crow Rooster. Students also decoded the final line of rhythm for the song No One in the House and discovered that four sounds on one beat indicates sixteenth notes. Students also reviewed the notes on the treble clef staff and enjoyed using music department mini-ipads, which are shared among Walled Lake Elementary Schools, to practice their note name reading. 

Fifth grade students took a rhythm pre-assessment this week. This assessment will be used to help track each fifth grader's progress on rhythmic skills throughout the school year. Students also began a rhythm unit which will focus on syncopation, dotted quarter and single eighth notes. Students began learning three songs with these rhythms: Ye Toop Doram, Chairs to Mend, and Al Citron. These songs are from the countries of Afghanistan, England, and Mexico. Students also reviewed the notes on the treble clef staff and enjoyed using music department mini-ipads, which are shared among Walled Lake Elementary Schools, to practice their note name reading.