Week of October 24

Arts in Action Day has been scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday, March 22!  Students will spend the entire afternoon during the school day engaged in arts-related activities as a way to celebrate Music in Our Schools Month and Youth Art Month, which both take place in March.  More information to follow!

This week, Kindergarteners in Ms. Tepper’s classes sang several Halloween songs.  They played a game with one of the songs and acted out another one.  Students in Ms. Waller’s class learned that they each have four voices: singing, speaking, whispering, and calling.  They used these voices in different ways throughout class and learned a song about fall.

First graders worked on rhythmic and melodic dictation using a song with the pitches "sol" and "mi."  They also played Orff instruments with a song called "Halloween B-A-G" and enjoyed singing several other Halloween songs.

Second graders sang and worked in groups to rhythmically dictate a song called "Nine Lives."  They also learned to do the hand jive with a song called "Halloween Hand Jive."  They discussed tempo markings including allegro, largo, and andante.

Third graders learned two partner songs called "Black and Gold" and "Trick or Treat."  They really enjoyed these songs because they are in minor keys, and they added dynamics to make them sound especially spooky.  They sang each song on its own and then were able to hold their own parts while half the class sang one song and half the class sang the other song.  (They can do this and still sound good because these two songs are partner songs.)  They also added Orff instrument accompaniment.

Fourth graders took their note name quiz this week, played a music board game, and some of the classes began receiving their recorders.  One recorder will be left at school, and one will be kept at home.  They are incredibly excited about beginning the recorder unit!

Fifth graders reviewed the letter names of the notes on the treble clef staff this week, in addition to finishing their Native American Music unit.  They reviewed for their note name quiz, which students in 5L took today.  5J will take their quiz on Wednesday, and 5S will take their quiz on Thursday.  Any fifth graders who feel they might need extra practice with the letter names of the notes may come review on Tuesday during recess.  Also, this is a helpful game for reviewing the names of the treble clef notes:  http://www.classicsforkids.com/games/notename/notename.html

Have some fun with your young musician this Halloween by singing or dancing to a Halloween song!  A Wayne Thomas favorite is "Do the Igor!" You can listen to a sample here: http://www.musick8kids.com/kidtunes/detail.php?sku=137027  Have a happy and safe Halloween!