Week of January 4

Welcome back!  We had a great first week back at Wayne Thomas.  You may have heard your students talking about two exciting things this week from music.  

First, students in first through fifth grades signed up for their Arts in Action workshops!  Arts in Action is a biennial event that will take place on Monday, March 21.  March is "Youth Arts Month" and "Music in our Schools Month," and  Wayne Thomas hosts Arts in Action to celebrate these events.  On this day, students will attend a music-themed assembly right before lunch.  After lunch, first through fifth graders will attend three preselected arts workshops.  We have 22 fantastic workshops to choose from this year, and students are getting very excited!

The second bit of excitement this week is that we received a 112 Education Foundation Grant for a class set of ukuleles!  (You can see what they look like in the picture at the bottom of this page.)  We will have a ukulele workshop at Arts in Action, so they will first be used then.  The fifth graders will also be playing them during music class later on this year.  We are so grateful to the 112 Education Foundation for this exciting addition to our music class!

This week in Music, kindergarteners learned that the music word for "soft" is "piano" and the music word for "loud" is "forte."  They sang and played instruments both piano and forte.

First graders signed up for their Arts in Action workshops and worked on identifying songs in call and response form.

Second graders signed up for their Arts in Action workshops and began learning a song called "Miss Sue."  This song will help them to review various dynamic levels, learn about macrobeat and microbeat, and work on their singing goals.

Third graders signed up for their Arts in Action workshops and reviewed the characteristics that go into singing well.  They began learning a song that they will be recorded singing in the future.

Fourth graders signed up for their Arts in Action workshops and worked on their recorder music this week.

Fifth graders signed up for their Arts in Action workshops this week and began learning a piece of music entirely comprised of body percussion.

Thank you to the 112 Education Foundation for our new ukuleles!

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns:  ecrutchfield@nssd112.org.