Before I summarize the learning from this week, I'd like to share my announcement that most have probably heard by now. Next year, I will be moving abroad to teach at an international school and will not be at Park Hill. It was a very difficult decision because of the support and care I have enjoyed in the Park Hill community. I am sad to leave such a wonderful group of families, students, and colleagues, but I'm excited at the opportunities that await me in Abu Dhabi. Please stop by in these last weeks of the school year to say goodbye!
This week in...
Kindergarten- we encouraged the sun to come out! We performed the poem "The Sun is in My Heart" using whispering, speaking, and shouting voices with movements. We also sang "Mr. Sun" and performed the steady beat of the song on rhythm sticks. We learned to perform different rhythm patterns using the word "sun" (one long sound) and "mister" (two short sounds). We arranged pictures on the board that went with the words "sun" and "mister" to figure out how to play different patterns of long and short. At the end of class, we got Baxter the Music Room Bear out of his winter hibernation! He came out to sing with us about spring time!
1st grade- we have been having fun with the song "Rain, Rain Go Away." Today we learned to read that song on the music staff! We reviewed the beat and rhythms of the song, and also remembered that we recently learned a NEW note, la. We now know the notes la, so, and mi. Woohoo! We watched a silly video, too:
Rain, Rain Go Away video
We then brainstormed ideas of things we like to do outside (or things we would like to do outside when it's raining!) and sang about them.
2nd grade- we were true royalty this week! We've been using songs and poems about kings and queens for the last month or more of music class, and today we added even more! We learned the first half of a fancy dance called "Kings and Queens," and we also go to create out own short dances with partners using different ways of walking (forward, backward, sideways), turning (right hand turn, left hand turn, two hand turn, gypsy turn), and bowing/curtseying. So much fun! We then learned the poem "Queen, Queen Caroline" and realized that the poem has the same structure as the dances we created! So, we finished class by performing our dances while speaking the poem.
3rd grade- we have been working on creating our own haiku poems! These haikus are for a joint project between music and art class that Ms. Ganser and I have teamed up on the last couple of years. Students each picked an element of nature (such as rain, mountain, lake, ocean, pine tree, snow, etc.) and created a 5-senses chart describing that element of nature. Then, students pulled out their favorite words from their chart to create a haiku. A haiku is a 3-line poem that is traditional to Japanese culture. Each line has to have a specific number of syllables. Here is an example:
ICE
Wintery sparkle
Frozen, jagged, crackle, crisp
Cold, white drops fall down
Students have created some lovely poems that they will now use to inspire a block print art piece with Ms. Ganser.
4th grade- I don't want to give too much away- come see our concert entitled "This is the Sound that Jazz Makes" next week on Wednesday, April 20th at 6pm! Students must arrive by 5:30pm and should go to their classrooms. It's going to be a great show!
5th grade- we are starting to spend our music time focusing on our upcoming May concert (Wednesday, May 18th at 6pm.) Each 5th grade class will perform an African folktale with music added to it, and the entire 5th grade will perform a few songs together as well. It's going to be a very student-driven program and I can't wait to see how it turns out!
One last announcement:
There's a music studio in Lakewood offering some FREE, family-friendly drum classes next weekend! They will offer these one hour classes at multiple times throughout next weekend, April 22, 23, and 24. I plan to go! Here's the link:
Enjoy!
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