Music at Loon Lake Elementary: Week Thirty in Review (Apr. 18

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 focused primarily on telling the difference between high and low sounds this week. Students were given the opportunity to play the xylophone and were introduced to the high and low sounds that this instrument makes. Students compared the xylophone's high notes to the voice of our puppet Bella and the low notes to the voice of our puppet Bo. Students also continued to practice keeping a steady beat while singing the song My Pony Macaroni and playing its game.

First grade students began learning a new song, Lucy Locket. This song is being used to review melodic notes sol mi and la as well as loud and quiet singing. This song includes a game in which one student hides a 'pocketbook' and afterwards another student tries to find it. The class's job is to sing either loudly or quietly in order to help the student find it. When the student is next to the pocket, the class sings loudly. When the student is not next to the pocket, the class sings quietly. Students also practiced quarter notes and quarter rests while reading the story Drummer Hoff. Students were challenged to read and repeat a pattern of quarter notes and quarter rests while Mrs. Aaronson read the story!

Second grade students continued to review half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes through the song Farmer John. Students played a game in which one student hid his eyes while another student chose a rhythm. Afterwards, the class played the rhythm on xylophones and the student hiding his eyes had to guess which rhythm the class was playing. Students also sang the song I Got a Letter and discovered the location of four beat notes. Students learned that two half notes can be tied together to create one note that receives four beats.

Third grade students reviewed dotted half notes (three count notes) this week by reviewing the song Music Alone Shall Live and playing a rhythm game called Rhythm Go Fish. Students reviewed a series of rhythms including quarter notes, quarter rests, eighth notes, half notes, half rests, and dotted quarter notes. After students were secure with these rhythms, they broke into groups of 4-5 to play Rhythm Go Fish. The rules and format of this game are identical to the children's game Go Fish. The only difference is that instead of matching numbers, students had to ask for, perform, and match rhythms. I was truly impressed with the students' ability to stay on-task and accurately perform all ten rhythms in the playing deck!

These four boys are trying to make more matches in Rhythm Go Fish.

"Do you have ta-a ti-ti ta?" (half note, eight notes, quarter note)

One more group playing Rhythm Go Fish.

Fourth grade enjoyed learning about classical, pop-rock, and folk instruments through an iPad app called Instruments 360. In this app, students were able to view and listen to a wide variety of instruments. Students were also able to see the spelling of each instrument in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, and French. This app also includes a quiz in which students listened to a recording of an instrument and then tried to correctly identify the correct answer from four choices. Students also learned about the characteristics of orchestral instruments and the seating arrangements of the orchestra through the iPad app MSO Learn. Lastly, students enjoyed listening to selections of iconic pieces of classical music in the iPad apps Classical I and Classical II.

These ladies are learning about the clarinet on Instruments 360.

These young men are learning about folk instruments on the app Instruments 360.

Fifth grade students created their own listening map to the composition Los Mariachis this week. After a brief discussion of the mariachi music, students were given the choice to work individually, in partners, or in groups of three. Students listened to the composition numerous times and were asked to create a listening map which demonstrated their knowledge of the composition's most important instruments and its form. Students did terrific work on this project; examples of their work are now displayed on the music room bulletin board!