April in Music

____ Here's what happened in music recently (after Spring break - April 20):

• Kindergartners focused on music notation this month - both rhythm and pitch.  We got there by taking the poem "Engine Engine Number Nine" and experiencing it with speech and a movement game.  We read a graphic representation of 'train whistle' messages and discovered that rhythm is created when sound is interrupted with silence - creating different lengths.  Students discovered and notated the number of beats in the poem.  We used the beat to help us figure out the rhythm (whether there was one sound on a beat or two) and notated it at the SmartBoard with pictures of trains (one large for one beat of sound and two smaller train engines to represent two sounds on a beat).  Later we took the rhythm and created a song using two pitches [Sol and Mi].  After experimenting (many student leaders) to create new melodies for the poem, we notated a favorite one on a three line staff at the SmartBoard - putting the trains into the spaces for Sol and Mi.  Another day students accompanied the song the beat with xylophones.  Students have also had some experience writing down Sol - Mi - La melodies on a 2-line staff.

• First Graders - Fifth grades learned 5 songs for with an environmental emphasis for an all-school sing-along for Earth Day.  
• Song of the Earth
• Care for the Earth - some 5th graders helped to accompany this on guitar or ukulele
• Ecology Round - a 4-part round  - 5th grade song leaders helped to keep us all together
• The Garden Song - chorus and 2 verses
• This Pretty Planet  - a 3 part vocal canon (staggered entrances, but all ending at the same time at the end of a phrase) - made possible with the help of 5th grade song leaders.

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.

February in Music

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

• Kindergartners finished their introduction to the different timbres of the melodic percussion (tone bars) - xylophones, metallophones and glockenspiels.  After playing each 'family' separately to explore their characteristics and size, we put two of them together to accompany our singing.  Students played a beat bordun (open 5th) on the Bass Xylophones in a pattern:  Tah, Tah, Tah, Rest (which matches "Bow Wow Wow" from the song they accompanied.  The glockenspiels played the oppositie - Rest, Rest, Rest, Tah - filling in a splash of sound on the beat the BXs were not playing.  Students were introduced to the musical notation for Tah and Rest (quarter note and quarter rest). 

• First and Second Graders prepared songs and pieces to share with families and invited guests and shared them at their Specials Program:  Our Earth Matters.  The first graders added nstrument parts to a Traditional Native American piece called The Earth is Our Mother, and the second graders added accompaniment parts on the Orff instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels and metallophones) to a piece by Colorado composer, Elizabeth Gilpatrick, called Care for the Earth.  These two pieces were woven together into one ABA musical whole at the performance.  Students prepared three other piece to share at the program - all on an environmental theme.  Throughout the process students also learned about performance etiquette.

• Third Graders continued learning to play the recorder.  In this rotation they reviewed the basics of how to hold the recorder, how to blow the recorder and how to start and stop a sound (tonguing).  We reviewed B and A - fingering and notation, and added their third note - G.  Students learned at least three songs using those three notes.  So their own personal recorders were sent home along with a packet containing music, fingering chart and some extension activities.  Students are encouraged to practice at home and log their time on the linked google form (Practice Logs) on this blog, 

• 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 returned to focusing on melody in this rotation.  The reviewed treble clef notation and had a 2nd take on the 50 in 5 challenge (timed note naming challenge).  Several students bettered their scores and more students were placed in the Hall of Fame for various times.  Our big project was being introduced to a melody as we created a choreography for the phrases and then learned to play the simple melody (really just the melodic skeleton of a piece) on tonebars set up in a pentatonic scale.  Using some fancy technology to notate the changes as we made them, students made small changes to the melody to make it their own class composition - double or quadrupling notes to change the rhythm and adding passing tones.  We played the piece in unison and in a melodic canon - dividing both by range and by timbre.

January in music

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

• Kindergartners reviewed what they knew about small percussion instruments, using their sounds to enhance a book, "Worms Wiggle" and explore movement verbs matched with those instrument choices.  They were introduced to some new singing games:  Bow, Wow, Wow and Doggie Doggie Where's Your Bone?  We also did some mallet exploration in preparation for playing and being introduced to the tone bars.  Students so far have played xylphones, focusing on mallet hold and equating what is played to the movement vocabulary we have used - walking, running, jumping, hopping and sliding.

• First Graders - Fifth Graders all took part in our first ever all-school Sing-along Assembly Thursday, January 11th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other difference makers.  They learned 5 songs for this.

• First and Second Graders then started focusing on performance etiquette and preparing songs and pieces to share with families and invited guests at their upcoming Specials Program:  Our Earth Matters.  The first graders will add instrument parts to a Traditional Native American piece called The Earth is Our Mother, and the second graders will add accompaniment parts on the Orff instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels and metallophones) for a piece by Colorado composer, Elizabeth Gilpatrick, called Care for the Earth.  These two pieces will weave together into one ABA musical whole.  There are three other pieces the students are working on to share at the program - all on an environmental theme.  For more information about the specials  program - check on the 1st and 2nd grade programs page in this blog.

• Third Graders have begun learning to play the recorder!  In this rotation they have learned some very important basics:  
• How to hold the recorder - with left hand on top
• How to blow the recorder with a gentle, warm airspeed like teasing a candle
• How to tongue - starting and stopping the sound with a gentle 'd' 
• Fingering and notation for two notes - B and A
  Once students have learned 3 songs with three notes (not two) then personally owned recorders will be coming home along with music to practice and instructions on logging home practice.

• 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 Square Dancing - which is the Colorado folk dance.  They learned the calls and moves for one long square dance, plus the few calls in The Symbol Song.  In addition, we started learning a new piece for recorder, Ride the Iron Horse which introduced us to two new notes - low d and high d.  We also got a start on a really cool piece called the Gold Rush Rap.  Some students volunteered to start learning the rap parts for this.

• Fifth Graders returned to focusing on melody in this rotation.  The reviewed treble clef notation and had a 2nd take on the 50 in 5 challenge (timed note naming challenge).  Several students bettered their scores and more students were placed in the Hall of Fame for various times.  Our big project was being introduced to a melody as we created a choreography for the phrases and then learned to play the simple melody (really just the melodic skeleton of a piece) on tonebars set up in a pentatonic scale.  Using some fancy technology to notate the changes as we made them, students made small changes to the melody to make it their own class composition - double or quadrupling notes to change the rhythm and adding passing tones.  We played the piece in unison and in a melodic canon - dividing both by range and by timbre.