Our music block has come quickly to an end! Some of my favorite days of the year are the days that the parents come and join us to play in Music! This week was no exception. Thank you so much to all the parents who came and played with us. Many of you may have been pushed a bit out of your comfort zones but played along anyway. The kids really do get a kick out of seeing you learning these games in the same manner that they do. As I mentioned at the time, these songs have many, many levels that are working on our students social emotional, literacy, math, musical, kinesthetic and aural skills. If you ever want more information about why I'm doing what I'm doing, please don't hesitate to ask. I am very passionate about the education of your WHOLE child. :-) Until we meet again in January! Have a fabulous Fall and start to Winter!
This week, all classes learned about our September Musician of the Month, Camille Saint-Saens. Saint-Saens was a French composer who lived during the Romantic Period in music. He was a child prodigy much like Mozart but with much less exposure. He was known for writing music that could tell a story. One of his most famous pieces is The Carnival of the Animals. Kindergarteners will study that piece next year when they are in 1st grade. Current 2nd graders remembered the piece from last year.
One of his other well-known pieces is called Danse Macabre and was the subject of our listening for this lesson. We started by listening to piece without knowing anything about it's inspiration. Quotes from students was that it sounded joyful but spooky, happy but sad. Little did they know that those were precisely the feelings that Saint-Saens hoped to convey. He was inspired to write the piece after visiting the Catacombs under the streets of Paris with his friend and poet Henri Cazalis. Cazalis wrote a poem about Maestro Death leading the skeletons through a dance in the middle of the night. Saint-Saens ran with the idea using a violin to represent Maestro Death and a xylophone to represent the rattle of the skeleton bones. Check it out online and have your students tell you what they remember about Camille Saint-Saens. Kindergarteners continued their study of Nursery Rhymes this week with a song based on the story of Jack and Jill. We learned what happened after they fell down the hill as well as noticing how our voices travel up and down the hill in the song just like Jack and Jill.
In addition, I worked with Mrs. Jones class as they studied Pets this week. We learned a song called "We Love Our Pets!" If your student is in Mrs. Jones' class, ask them to sing it for you. :-) 2nd graders learned about lines and spaces in music this week as well as the specific names of 6 of the lines and spaces of the Treble Clef that were introduced in last week's story, Freddie the Frog and the Thump in the Night. Students should now know that the staff has 5 lines and 4 spaces, they should recognize a Treble Clef, and they should be able to name at least 4 of the 6 lines and spaces pretty quickly and accurately. We are also doing a lot of melodic, rhythmic, and music reading activities with our Education Through Music songs such as Farmer in the Dell, Clickety Clack, and Bluebird. These are being done mostly through play. So, while we are laying some great groundwork, the kids probably don't even know it's happening! ;-) 4th Graders have added a new note to their recorder repertoire. They should now be able to tell you and show you how to play B, A, and G. Most students chose to bring their recorders home again this weekend to work on Recorder Karate. Remember that this is an OPTIONAL program, and every student will move at their own pace if they choose to participate. So far, 11 students have earned their White Belt and have been added to our Recorder Karate bulletin board. Have a great weekend! We started diving into our thematic curriculums in all grade levels this week!
Kindergarteners will be focusing on nursery rhymes throughout the year. I find these nursery rhymes provide a familiar background from which to start for most of the students. Onto these, we layer elements of music such as melodic movement (high, low, up, down) and the concepts of beat and rhythm. We began with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. We've sung the song, played a "find the star" game, worked with the melodic movement of the song, followed various "shooting star" paths with our voices and wrapped up with every student making a crown to take home with the words of the song on it. Have your child sing the song to you this weekend! 2nd Graders will be learning about the staff this year along with the names of the lines and spaces in the Treble Clef. We began our study with a quick pre-test to see what students already knew. Then, today, we listened to and followed along in our book with the story of Freddie the Frog and the Thump in the Night. Freddie lives on Treble Clef island along with his Elephant friend Eli. These two characters will be leading us through the names of the lines and spaces. Ask your child what they remember about Freddie! For 4th graders, this year's focus will be on applying the musical skills of rhythm and melody that we have learned over the last 3 years to the playing of the recorder. We will be really reading music and improving our musical skills a lot this year. On Fridays, students will be allowed to take their recorders home if they wish to work on the option Recorder Karate program. More details about all of this should have reached 4th grade parents via email. If you didn't receive that email from me, please let me know! Ok, then! Have a great long weekend! |
Mrs. BlackerEvery week, I'll try to write a quick note about what's happened in music class this week. Archives
October 2019
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