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!