Week of October 11

It's been another busy week in the Wayne Thomas Music Room!  Read on to find out about some of the things your students have been learning...

Kindergarteners learned that many of the songs we know and love are actually from other areas of the world when they watched a video that had students around the world singing these songs.

First graders learned about pathways in movement using the book Stanley Mows the Lawn.  They also played rhythms frequently found in rock and roll music on hand drums, egg shakers, and rhythm sticks.

Second graders worked in groups to compose eight-beat rhythms using the names of the games from the painting they looked at last week.  They then decided what sol-mi melodies they wanted with their rhythms and put them on a one-line staff.  They also learned the Solfege hand signs for the pitches "re" and "do" this week.

Third graders performed a song called "Benji Met a Bear" in a four-part round.  They then worked to figure out the melody of this song on the xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels.  They also played music memory.

Fourth graders used the rhythms they created last week to compose melodies using the xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels.  They will be performing their compositions for their classmates next week.  They were also very excited to receive their recorders this week!

Fifth graders worked in groups to create rhythms that they then added movement to.  The movements that they added were representative of the kinds of movements they experienced as they learned about Native American music.  They also added unpitched percussion instruments similar to those they learned about when studying Native American music.

Have a great weekend!