March in Music

____ Here's what happened in music recently (March):

• Kindergartners took a break from our instrument focus to do lots of singing and moving.  We learned a new singing/movement game- Down in the Valley  and had fun singing Throw It Out the Window a song that plugs in the words to nursery rhymes and always has a funny twist when the rhyme is interrupted with "throw it out the window".  Another silly song we explored was the Vowel Song . . . or Apples and Bananas.  So fun to sing with the guitar and a bit of silliness.  We also learned another singing/listening game, Who Has the Penny.  In this game a penny passes from one person to the next around a circle as the penny passing song is sung.  On the last word of the song everyone in the circle closes their hands.  One person is at the door and sings, "Who has the penny" using a S-M-S-M melody.  The person with the penny echoes with "I have the penny."  The guesser takes their first guess from that distance away from the circle.  If they don't get it, then they move next to the circle and sing the question again.  If they need a 3rd guess then then step inside the circle and sing the question one final time.

• First Graders and Second Graders reviewed their performance, Earth Matters, with 'Popcorn and a Movie' - as they watched the video of their performance with some focus questions about the performance, and had a pop corn treat.  Students did a self-evaluation of their contributions to the Sight, Sound and Sensation (feeling/expression) of the performance.  Students also had a day of choosing songs to sing.  They also revisited some favorite singing / movement games.  Then we got back to reading and writing rhythms with traditional notation.  We took our 2nd 'snap-shot' (assessment) of solo/tutti rhythm reading.

• Third Graders continued focusing on learning to play the recorder and reading traditional notation.  In this rotation they reviewed B - A - G notes and fingering and were introduced to a new note, low E.  Students reviewed the three notes by extending the familiar Hot Cross Buns into a longer form of Theme and Variations on Hot Cross Buns.  Check out our audio recordings on the In the Spotlight page of this blog.  Students were introduced to a new melody based on a nursery rhyme, See a Pin.  With this piece we explored two tonalities - one centered on Do (major sounding) and one centered on La (minor sounding).  This piece introduced the new Low E.  Playing an E has added the right hand covering holes, too.  

• Fourth Graders got back to working on pieces for their upcoming Colorado Connection Concert.  These will happen before spring break and parents will be notified of their child's performance date and time 3 weeks ahead.  In this rotation students were introduced to the last new song to be added into our concert, Colorado!  We continued working to get all the pieces ready to share.

• Fifth Graders spent their week in this rotation learning all of the parts to a piece called Driving Force by my friend, Danai Gagne.  We all learned the accompanying drum pattern and the soprano recorder part for the A section of the Rondo.  The A section introduced students to a high c fingering.  Students also partnered up so that one in their pairing learned the B section of the Rondo and the other the C section.  The whole piece is a Rondo Form:  A B A C A.  The B and C portions required students to learn a high E fingering on the recorder and introduced a half-hole technique for getting to the upper octave.  By the end of the week we had woven all of the parts together - including the drum accompaniment.  A video recording is available for your viewing/listening on the In the Spotlight page of this blog.