Week Twenty Nine in Review (Apr. 11 - Apr. 15)

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

Kindergarten students were formally introduced to the difference between high and low this week. After reviewing the chant Two Little Puppets, the puppets were hidden behind Mrs. Aaronson's back and students were asked to guess which puppet was talking. This activity gave students the opportunity to differentiate between high and low voices. Students were then led in a discussion about how they knew which puppet was speaking and led to discover that one puppet has a high voice while the other has a low voice. Students then reviewed the song Higher Than a House and used the words high and low to identify the last note of the song. Students also moved their bodies high and low as the puppets Bella and Bo tried to play the piano! Additionally, students explored the upper and lower ranges of their voice by following a ribbon up and down with their voice. 

First grade students learned a new song entitled Acaka Backa. This folk song contains a fun chase game similar to duck, duck, goose. Students enjoyed playing the game and after mastering the song, decoded which notes were sol mi and la. Students also enjoyed playing a 'wind game' that is similar to the game hot/cold. One student hid their eyes while another student hid a blue puff ball somewhere in the music room. The class helped the student who hid his eyes find the puff ball by making low and high 'wind' sounds with their voices. The lower the students' voices, the farther away from the puff ball the student was. The higher the students' voices, the closer to the puff ball the student was. Lastly, students enjoyed learning about musical form by dancing to Cumberland Square. This two-part dance to two-part music allowed students to get their hearts pumping while learning about patterns in music!

Second grade students reviewed new low note do this week. Students reviewed the note's placement on the staff in relation to the other notes that they know. Students practiced singing melodic patterns containing do and practiced writing the pattern do mi sol la on the interactive white board. Students also learned a new song entitled Mouse, Mousie. This song includes a fun cat and mouse chase game in which the student playing the mouse does not who the cat is until the end of the song! This song will be used to help students practice melodic note do. Students began learning a jump rope song entitled Mother, Mother which will also be used to help students practice melodic note do. Lastly, students reviewed half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes through a song entitled Farmer John. 

Third grade students were formally introduced to dotted half notes this week. Students were shown how a three-beat note can be written as a half note tied to a quarter note or as a dotted half note. Students then played a game called poison pattern to practice this new note. In the game poison pattern, students echo all patterns clapped by the teacher except for the one designated as the poison pattern. Students also began learning a new song entitled Music Alone Shall Live which will be used to help students practice dotted half notes. Lastly, students sang, read, and identified melodic patterns containing melodic notes low sol, low la, do, re, and mi. Students identified melodies containing steps, skips, and repeats. Students completed their melodic post-assessment this week and have made great progress on their melodic note reading since the beginning of the year! 
 

Some of the third grade students thought the dotted half note is was like Batman and Robin. Batman is the main character, the half note, yet to be truly powerful he needs his trusty side kick Robin, the dot.

Fourth grade students began the week with a recorder day. Students reviewed the song Hop, Skip, Jump and tried playing it at a faster tempo! Students were also given the opportunity to test for their next recorder karate belt. During the rest of the week, students reviewed the differences between bands and orchestras and began learning about jazz. Students were introduced to the instruments of the jazz band and jazz techniques. Students learned about improvisation and scat singing. Students listened to and discussed recordings of the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald, and jazz legend Louis Armstrong.

Fifth grade students continued their music evaluation unit this week. Students were introduced to listening maps and followed  instrument/instrument family listening maps for Mussorsky's Promenade and Saint-Saens' Fossils. Students identified qualities of a good listening map and suggested ways to improve the listening map for Fossils. Students were led to discover how the theme of a piece of music can be used when creating a listening map. For example, one listening map for Fossils included dinosaurs. Students also reviewed dynamics terms and examined a listening map for Dvorak's Slavonic Dance which contained many dynamic markings. Slavonic Dance was also used to review form. Students were led to discover how the capital letters marked throughout the map indicate repetition. Students also worked with partners to pair the English and Italian words for dynamics. 

A pair of fifth grade students correctly matched English and Italian dynamic terms.

Week Twenty Eight in Review (Mar. 28 - Apr. 1)

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

Kindergarten students began preparing to be formally introduced to high and low sounds. As part of this preparation, students learned a new song entitled Higher Than a House and a chant entitled Two Little Puppets. While singing Higher Than a House, students raised their arms to indicate that they heard high notes and lowered their arms to indicate that they heard low notes. Students identified whether the last note of the song was high or low and then moved pictures on the interactive white board into the ocean, low, or into the sky, high. Students enjoyed using the interactive technology to place pictures of mermaids, treasure, and submarines into the ocean and pictures of birds, balloons, and rocket ships into the sky. During the chant Two Little Puppets, students echoed puppets Bella and Bo by imitating their high and low voices. This chant will be used next week to make students conscious of the difference between high and low voices.

First grade students focused primarily on quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes this week. On Monday, students practiced these rhythms by playing a game in which the teacher played a rhythm pattern on the recorder and students spoke the rhythm using rhythm syllables. Students did so well at translating the recorder music into rhythm syllables that Mrs. Aaronson started playing two, three, or even four rhythm patterns at a time! Students were very proud of themselves when they were able to successfully translate a series of four rhythm patterns! On Friday, students completed their student growth post-assessment on rhythm. I could not be more proud of the progress that each student made on this assessment. At the beginning of the year, I watched students guess on the pre-assessment as many were not familiar with written music at this time. In stark contrast, after the post-assessment many students actually commented that they thought it would be harder! Get it, first grade!


Second grade students were formally introduced to melodic note do this week! After students were successfully able to demonstrate that they could hear the difference between sol mi and the 'mystery' low note by responding to notes played on the xylophone, they identified the location of the low in the song Apple Tree and were told that the name of this low note is do. Additionally, students practiced identifying and playing half notes in the song Who's That. First, students identified the location of half notes by clapping the rhythm. Then students played xylophones on all of the half notes. After achieving mastery, students added triangles and woodblocks to this song. Students were then challenged to perform the song in ABA form. During the A section, students were to sing the song and play the instruments. During the B section, the students were to play the instruments while remaining silent and singing the song in their heads.

Third grade students practiced new melodic note low sol this week. Students also began preparing for their melody post-assessment by singing and identifying five-note  patterns containing melodic notes low sol, low la, do, re, and mi. Students learned a new song containing low sol entitled I Got a Letter This Morning. Students learned the song and a melodic ostinato for it. Once students became familiar with both the song and the ostinato, students were divided into two groups and both parts were sung simultaneously. Students were led in a discussion about using proper vocal technique when singing more than one part. Students were especially cautioned against shouting instead of using their best singing voice. Lastly, students reviewed the song My Country 'Tis of Thee and how to tie together a quarter note and a half note to create a three-beat note.

Fourth grade students began to synthesize all of their knowledge about instruments and instrument families this week. Students reviewed the sounds of all four instrument families: woodwind, brass, string, and percussion. Students also completed a post-assessment on the instruments of the orchestra. Students showed remarkable growth in their ability to hear the differences between each instrument family! Students also began exploring the differences between bands and orchestras. Lastly, students concluded the week with a recorder day. On Thursday, students finished learning a rock-style song entitled Hop, Skip, Jump and were able to practice and test for their next recorder karate belt.

Fifth grade students began a music evaluation unit this week. In this unit, students will be analyzing music based on pitch, rhythm, dynamics, form, and tone color. This is the biggest unit in the fifth grade curriculum and will conclude with students creating their own listening map for a piece of classical music. Students began the week by reviewing the instrument families. Students created lists of woodwind, brass, string, and percussion instruments and were asked to describe the characteristics of each instrument family. Students were also asked to describe the sound difference between big and little instruments. Students were introduced to families of specific instruments, for example: the clarinet family. Lastly, students worked with partners to identify instrument families by listening to recordings.