Week Fourteen in Review (Dec. 5 - Dec. 9)

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


Kindergarten students continued to focus on steady beat this week. Students reviewed Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop, We Clap Our Hands Together, and Pony Macaroni. Students also learned the songs Alice the Camel and Dr. Knickerbocker. All of these songs and chants provide students with the opportunity to practice keeping the steady beat by using their bodies. Students were asked to reflect on their movements and assess whether or not they matched the movements of the teacher. Additionally, students learned a fun counting song about pirates entitled When I Was One and a movement filled song entitled Here Comes a Bluebird. During Here Comes a Bluebird, students join their hands in a circle and lift them to create 'windows'. One at a time, students are chosen to be bluebirds and are able to 'fly' in and out of the 'windows'. Students enjoyed flying through the windows and being able to choose new partners.

First grade students continued to practice reading quarter notes and eighth notes this week. Students reviewed the difference between beat and rhythm by singing the song Snail, Snail and patting the beat or clapping the rhythm. Then students practiced clapping the rhythm to the song Starlight, Starbright and drawing rainbows in the air to show the song's phrases (a phrase is a musical sentence). After students were successful in showing the song's four phrases, they were shown four boxes of music notes on the interactive white board. Students were led to discover that these four boxes contained the music notes for each of the song's four phrases; however, they were out of order. Students worked together to place the four rhythm patterns in the correct order! Students also practiced showing the location of silence in music by singing and playing games to the songs Hot Cross Buns and Naughty Kitty Cat.

Second grade students learned their final folk dance, Rural Felicity, this week. Students have developed such a remarkable dance vocabulary during our folk dancing unit that they were able to learn this entire dance in five minutes! It was the perfect way to wrap up our unit. It combined many different movements that students had learned in previous dances as well as a new and exciting tunnel at the end! Students were also formally introduced to the melodic note do this week! Students sang short melodic phrases containing this new note, reviewed its place on the staff and on melody street, and practiced writing the pattern do mi sol la on the interactive white board as a class.

Third grade students continued to review rhythm this week while also building repertoire for learning a new melodic note. Students played rhythm Tic Tac Toe as a class and were instructed to play Tic Tac Toe for homework! Next week students will play this game in small groups and it will be necessary for students to be confident in how to play the game. Students also learned a new song, I Lost the Farmer's Dairy Key, which will be used to learn the a new high melodic note. Students enjoyed performing a body percussion pattern and playing rock, paper, scissors while singing this song.

Fourth grade students reviewed the song Merrily We Roll Along and were invited one at a time to test for their orange belt. During testing, students were able to play musical dominoes or Go Fish. After testing, students learned to play a French folk song, Au Claire de la Luna, on the recorder. Students also learned a new note, E. Lastly, students practiced a variety of rhythms by responding through movement to notes played on a drum and notes played on temple blocks.

Fifth grade students began the week by focusing on their rhythm post-assessment. Students played a variety of review games such as finding the correct rhythm on the floor, Morse Code (tapping a rhythm on a friend's hand and the friend must figure out the correct rhythm), and heads up, rhythms up. Following the assessment, students began a unit on music evaluation by reviewing the four orchestral instrument families and the instruments that belong to them.

Mrs. Ellis's students reviewed all of the material from last week and continued to focus on steady beat and the preparation of quarter notes and eighth notes. As an extension to the game move and freeze, students were asked to move to a steady beat prior to freezing. Students also practiced a chant called Two Little Apples and performed a series of movements to this chant. Students were challenged to perform the movements while saying the words in their heads. It was really fun to watch the level of concentration that students had while performing this task. Lastly, students practiced using their loud and quiet voices with the chant Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop. 

Mrs. Ross's students reviewed all of the material from last week and continued to focus on melodic notes do re and mi. Students learned a new song, Rocky Mountain, and searched for a more complex pattern in this song: mi mi re re do. This task proved to be difficult for many of the students as this pattern contains two more notes than the patterns learned thus far. However, with a bit of practice, students were also able to find similar patterns. Lastly, students began to study the rhythm to the song Frog in the Meadow.

Mrs. Muller's students focused on preparing for their rhythm post-assessment. This week, students played a variety of review games such as finding the correct rhythm on the floor, heads up, rhythms up, and rhythm tic tac toe. Students particularly enjoyed playing tic tac toe and were delighted when they were able to beat Mrs. Aaronson at this game - twice!