Oh my goodness! I had no idea how long it had been since I'd posted on here! The Spring semester is always a bit more hectic as each block wraps up my year with students as well as putting on performances and running the Choir at Leal after school. My apologies for being remiss in my communication on this platform.
January and February were spent with the Yankee Ridge 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders. For 1st graders, our main focus was The Carnival of the Animals. We studied several of the different pieces within Saint-Saen's larger work discussing the various elements and musical opposites as we went. 3rd graders finished up their study of instruments with Brass and Percussion and building a few more DIY instruments to take home and use to bother parents and siblings. Lol! 5th graders focused on a bit more Form work and also spent some time comparing and contrasting the genres of Classical, Blues, Jazz, and Rock as well as discussion how they built upon one another. All 3 grade levels studied Aaron Copland and Louis Armstrong as our final 2 Musicians of the Month. We were able to make many connections between these two musicians and the others studied this year as well as musicians from earlier years. 3rd and 5th graders even had special presentations from Mr. Scott Schwartz from the Sousa Archives at U of I since we had talked about Mr. Sousa in the Fall. Finally, all of Yankee Ridge participated at some level in a Black History Month Assembly on February 14th. The K-2 students focused on Martin Luther King Jr. while the 3-5 students divided their focus between the eras of Slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. They all did a lovely job. It was bittersweet to leave this time as it meant saying a "final goodbye" to my amazing 5th graders. Those kiddos have made permanent homes in my heart over the course of the past 5 years. I will miss them greatly next year but know that they are going on to be even more amazing at the Middle School.
As for Leal, I have now been over here for 4 weeks already! The 3rd graders have wrapped up Brass and Percussion and will now spend our remaining time focusing on the Orchestra as a whole as well as singing, playing, and creating with our ETM song experience games. Maestra Ana's class continues to plug away on recorder. Many students are zipping along in recorder karate as well as the whole class progressing on their overall recorder skills. Mrs. LaDonna's kindergarteners have added two more nursery rhymes to their repertoire (Little Bo Peep and Little Miss Muffet). We will spend our last two weeks singing, playing, and generally reinforcing the "habit" of singing and experiencing musical opposites. The 2nd graders are hard at work dividing their time between preparing for their performance and learning the remaining notes of the treble clef. Along the way, we are also spending time studying the 12 Bar Blues pattern and learning to recognize it in many different songs.
Phew! I think that sums up the last 2.5 months! I'll try to be better about posting for the remainder of the year. :-)
January and February were spent with the Yankee Ridge 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders. For 1st graders, our main focus was The Carnival of the Animals. We studied several of the different pieces within Saint-Saen's larger work discussing the various elements and musical opposites as we went. 3rd graders finished up their study of instruments with Brass and Percussion and building a few more DIY instruments to take home and use to bother parents and siblings. Lol! 5th graders focused on a bit more Form work and also spent some time comparing and contrasting the genres of Classical, Blues, Jazz, and Rock as well as discussion how they built upon one another. All 3 grade levels studied Aaron Copland and Louis Armstrong as our final 2 Musicians of the Month. We were able to make many connections between these two musicians and the others studied this year as well as musicians from earlier years. 3rd and 5th graders even had special presentations from Mr. Scott Schwartz from the Sousa Archives at U of I since we had talked about Mr. Sousa in the Fall. Finally, all of Yankee Ridge participated at some level in a Black History Month Assembly on February 14th. The K-2 students focused on Martin Luther King Jr. while the 3-5 students divided their focus between the eras of Slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. They all did a lovely job. It was bittersweet to leave this time as it meant saying a "final goodbye" to my amazing 5th graders. Those kiddos have made permanent homes in my heart over the course of the past 5 years. I will miss them greatly next year but know that they are going on to be even more amazing at the Middle School.
As for Leal, I have now been over here for 4 weeks already! The 3rd graders have wrapped up Brass and Percussion and will now spend our remaining time focusing on the Orchestra as a whole as well as singing, playing, and creating with our ETM song experience games. Maestra Ana's class continues to plug away on recorder. Many students are zipping along in recorder karate as well as the whole class progressing on their overall recorder skills. Mrs. LaDonna's kindergarteners have added two more nursery rhymes to their repertoire (Little Bo Peep and Little Miss Muffet). We will spend our last two weeks singing, playing, and generally reinforcing the "habit" of singing and experiencing musical opposites. The 2nd graders are hard at work dividing their time between preparing for their performance and learning the remaining notes of the treble clef. Along the way, we are also spending time studying the 12 Bar Blues pattern and learning to recognize it in many different songs.
Phew! I think that sums up the last 2.5 months! I'll try to be better about posting for the remainder of the year. :-)