Week of February 8

It's been a snowy and busy week at Wayne Thomas!  We celebrated Valentine's Day, enjoyed the third graders' version of the Olympic relay, and raised money for Haiti!  Read on to see some of the neat things students learned in music this week...

Kindergarteners did a partner dance with a Valentine's Day song they sang.  They played the rhythm sticks to the steady beat in the song, and they sight-read rhythms using quarter notes and quarter rests.


First graders learned the movements for the first song in their Spring Sing.  They also learned about how one of the themes in the entrance song was borrowed from Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."  They were surprised to find out that "Flight of the Bumblebee" actually comes from an opera!  They also began learning their second Spring Sing song.

Second graders sang and learned the movements for their first Spring Sing song.  They learned the vocal part for their second song, too.  They are doing a great job at holding their own parts in the sections that have two-part harmony!


Third graders sang and added movement to their second Spring Sing song.  Their second song is about board games, so if your students suddenly want to play board games, don't be surprised!  Some of the students were confused at the term "board game" and thought it was actually "bored game," so we had a mini-lesson about homophones, too.


Fourth graders learned the vocal part and movement for their second Spring Sing song, which is about board games.  They enjoyed discussing all of the different board games mentioned in the song.  The games that the fewest students knew were Tiddly Winks and Rack-O.  The fourth graders did a great job singing in three-part harmony!


Fifth graders have been doing a fantastic job with their recorder music!  Most students are working on their purple or blue belts.  Next week will be their last week of recorder in class, but if your child would like to continue working towards the black belt, he or she can work outside of class and set up a time to test with me.

Have a great weekend!