Happy Halloween!

We sure have been busy this week! We had a very fun and successful talent show- video to come- and lots of learning in music class.

This week in...

Kindergarten- we learned the song "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater" and played a game to go with it. For the game, one students would be "Peter" and walk around the circle with a pumpkin beanbag. At the end of the song, "Peter" chooses someone to take his/her place and then goes to the middle of the circle and chooses an instrument to play the steady beat on for the next round of the game.

1st grade- we were introduced to eighth notes this week! Last week we learned that a note that makes one sound on a beat is called a quarter note. Quarter notes work well for one-sound words like "red", "green", or "glove." Eighth notes have two sounds on a beat and work well for two-sound words like "yellow" or "mitten." We played around with lots of different rhythms using quarter notes and eighth notes.

2nd grade- we learned another new piece for our winter concert (Wednesday, December 9th!) called "Gingerbread Breakdown." In this piece, we get to create our own gingerbread rhythms using quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes, and rests. We are getting excited already for our special performance!

3rd grade- we learned a fun pumpkin poem this week that uses quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes. We added expressive voices and movements to make it a complete performance. We made up rhythms using pie (quarter note), pumpkin (eighth notes), and jack-o-lantern (sixteenth notes.) We are also continuing to work on duple versus triple meter as we explore different ways to speak the same text.

4th grade- we learned a song that connected well to Halloween called "Somebody's Knockin' at my Door." We found the spots in the song that have syncopation (a new rhythm we've been learning about) and added a B section where we got to say what our Halloween costumes are. We then played those Halloween costume patterns on recorders. Students who ordered recorders also received them this week- woohoo! For resources for practicing at home, students can check the "Recorder Music" page on this blog!

5th grade- we took the spooky song/poem "Double, Double" from MacBeth that we learned last week and added instruments! Some students learned to play the song on xylophone and also learned it on recorder. We also tried it in canon with a leader group and a follower group. Students then divided into 3 groups- each group created a unique performance with an Introduction, Body, and Coda using the song "Double, Double." They could use singing, speaking, xylo, recorder, performing the song all together, taking solos, doing it in canon, etc. Lots of possibilities!

This week (10-21-10/23)

What a whirlwind week!

This week in...

Kindergarten- we practiced moving our voices up and down like flying ghosts! Spooky! We even got to draw our own ghost pathways and practice moving our voices with our pathway. We also read the story "Five Little Pumpkins" and got to have solos for some of the speaking parts in the story. We ended class with a movement game where Ms. Buckley holds up an orange, black, or white paper. Each color paper represented a different halloween character. For example, whenever Ms. Buckley held up the white paper, we moved like ghosts around the music room.

1st grade- we are working more on "leaf rhythms" where we speak and clap along with different colored leaves. For example, for "red leaf" we clap twice. For "yellow leaf" we clap three times. We are learning that matching the words in music is called RHYTHM. We are making up our own leaf rhythms with partners and in small groups, and even learning to play these new rhythms on percussion instruments like drums, shakers, and wood blocks.

2nd grade- we have started our preparations for the winter concert, which will be Wednesday, December 9 at 6:30pm! We will be performing a piece called "Old Saint Nick", which is adapted from the poem we have been working on, "Old King Cole." We are not only performing the poem, but also creating fun question and answers rhythms with our voices and on percussion instruments. It's going to be a great show!

3rd grade- we have begun the difficult but fun work of exploring the difference between duple and triple meter in music. Duple is the meter we are all most familiar and comfortable with. Triple meter feels really different! For duple meter, there are 2 beats in each measure, whereas triple meter has 3 beats per measure. We used a Halloween poem called "Old Mrs. Witch" to speak and move to these different time signatures. We worked with partners to create movements that would the STRONG beats for duple and triple.

4th grade- we reviewed the song and instrument parts for "I've Got to Rise." We then got with a partner and composed a B section using rhythms taken from the song. See photo below.

After composing our rhythms, we got to add body percussion (stomps, pats, claps, snaps, etc) to go with it. We then performed and shared our compositions with the class, singing the song in between each group as a transition.

5th grade- we learned a short excerpt from Shakespeare's MacBeth that goes:
Double, double
Toil and trouble
Fire burn and
Cauldron bubble

We explored speaking this text at 3 speeds- fast, medium, and slow- all along with a pat/clap ostinato pattern, We tried a challenge where we had to pass the poem around the circle- it was really tough! We also learned a song with these words and sang it in canon.

Talent show next week!!!!! Wednesday, October 28 5:30pm!

This week (10/5-10/9)

This week in....

Kindergarten- we met another new animal on our farm, the horse! We learned a song about the horse and got to play sand paper blocks with it. We also learned a horse poem with matching hand movements that helped keep track of the steady beat. Lastly, we learned a fun game that goes with a song called "My Pony Macaroni." Students got to ride a stick horse while the class sang the song before choosing the next person to go. So cute and fun!

1st grade- we learned to play our "yoo hoo" patterns on the xylophone! We've been working on singing the notes so and mi with our voice, so it was time to put it on an instrument. We also practiced playing borduns again- this is a steady beat pattern using the notes C and G on the xylophone and it's used to accompany songs. We also met Baxter the Music Room Bear's good friend, Brown Bear. We sang through the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

2nd grade- we practice putting music notes on a 2 line staff this week! The real music staff has 5 lines, but because we are only in 2nd grade, we use a 2-line staff instead. We used bingo chips as music notes and got to place them on top of the 2-line staff to match with patterns that we sang. 

3rd grade- we learned a fun new song called "Chicken on a Fencepost" and finally labeled the new four-sound note we've been hearing: sixteenth notes! We sang the song, added an ostinato (a musical pattern that repeats over and over) to go with it, and even tried it as a call and response song. We then made up some of our own rhythms to use as a B section with the song.

4th grade- we finished our storybook about the life of Ella Fitzgerald- fascinating and talented lady! We learned a new song called "I've got to rise" in the blues style. We added 3 instruments parts to accompany the song: a xylophone bordun, a soprano xylophone part, and a glockenspiel part. We read and clapped rhythms to learn these parts, and then put it all together with the song.

5th grade- we learned a new song from Ghana this week called "Tue, Tue." The song is about a little boy apologizing for accidentally knocking over an old man as they are walking in a hurry. We added snaps on the rests of the song (this was tricky) and then transferred the snaps to tubano and djembe drums. We then created a B section to go with the song using rhythms we have been working on: Chad (quarter note), Ghana (eighth notes), Tanzania (sixteenth notes), Cameroon (two sixteenth notes with one eighth note), and finally a NEW rhythm for Uganda (one eighth note with two sixteenth notes.) Whew!

This week (9/28-10/2)

This week in...

Kindergarten- we met the cow and pig on our farm! We learned to play cowbells and woodblocks to match with our singing. We read two stories: the first was Cows in the Kitchen, and we added instruments to accompany it. The second was Down on the Farm, where we explore whispering and shouting voices. We are getting really good at watching our conductor (the person in charge of leading the music) and even get to follow student conductors sometimes.

1st grade- we learned a song called "In and Out" which uses the notes so and mi. We have learned all about those notes; so is high and mi is low. We show so by touching our shoulders and mi by touching our hips. We played a fun circle game to go with the song that involved 4 students in the middle playing along on xylophones. We also got to sing more for Baxter the Music Room Bear. He sings to us in a yoo-hoo voice and we get to echo him!

2nd grade- we were composers this week! We got to create and write down our own rhythms to go with the poem "Old King Cole" using the words merry (eighth notes), old (quarter note) and soul (half note.) We got to perform these rhythms with partners. We talked about different items we would want someone to bring us if we were king and queen and experimented with saying those items in the "Old King Cole" poem.

3rd grade- we just finished up our xylophone work on the song "Willowbee." For that song, we got to play our xylophone in many ways: we played a bordun (a steady beat accompaniment), a tune (that matches what we are singing), and we got to improvise a new tune (make up something new.) We put all of those parts together to make a final performance. It was so fun to share that moment with each other! We also review the song "Tideo" from 2nd grade and discovered that we are able to play many parts of that song on the xylophone by figuring out the solfege and letter names of the notes.

We also learned a fun poem this week called "Alligator Pie." It's so silly! We got to make up rhythms with a partner using the words alligator and pie. See the fun video below :)

4th grade- we learned a new song called "I Got a Letter", which is a short and simple blues tune. We then improvised a B section about pieces of mail we could receive, for example: I got a postcard, I got a post card, I got a magazine, I got a bill. We figured out how to play those patterns on our recorders using the notes B and A. Students received recorder order forms this week- they are due by Friday, October 6! It is optional for students to purchase a recorder, but encouraged so that they have one to practice at home. The cost is $3.

5th grade- we dusted off our old recorders this week! We learned how to play "Funga Alafia", which is an African welcoming song we learned last week. We learned how to sing the song first using solfege note names and letter names, and we then transferred that to our recorders. We also learned how to play that song on xylophones and worked with a partner to do call and response.