The entire Lower School is excited about our Lower School Musical Peter Pan, Jr. performances this coming weekend! Lower School students Pre-K to 5 will get a preview during the day Wednesday; the performances are Friday, April 24 and Saturday, April 25 7pm Panther Hall. Admission is free, doors will open for seating at 6:30. Students Beginner through Fifth Grade have also been preparing for Parents’ Day on Friday, May 8; see the flyer with a schedule of events in the right hand column. Also in the right hand column is the flyer for Spring Concerts in May featuring our Ranney Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School Bands, Orchestras, and Choruses. Our composer of the month for March was Johannes Brahms, students especially enjoyed his Hungarian Dances. Antonio Vivaldi is our composer for April and we have explored the Four Seasons featuring “Spring”. Beginner through First Grade students have explored jazz music through our story about the Flying Jazz Kittens using instruments such as egg shakers, xylophones, jingle bells, and triangles to represent actions. We experienced some “scat singing” with the Jazz Kitten song “Twinkle Baby”. Students Pre-K through First Grade read the book Tubby the Tuba further exploring instruments of the orchestra; they got a special introduction to my piccolo. Second Grade students read about and listened to “Carnival of the Animals” by Camille Saint-Saens featuring instruments of the orchestra. Third Grade students continue to review the songs “Hot Cross Buns,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “Miasama”, and “Peace” on the recorders; they have learned two new notes (C & D) and are working on Beethoven’s “Chorale” melody from the 9th Symphony. Fourth and Fifth Grade classes listened to a performance by a group of students aged 7-14 in Louisville, KY called the “Louisville Leopard Percussionists”; I put a link to their page in my music education links column on the right. Fourth and Fifth Grade students continue to explore mallet technique on the xylophones using chopsticks to practice with on the floor before moving to the instruments. We continue to practice the “Percussion Concussion” piece with body percussion adding drums and xylophones. Fourth Grade students began a composition project beginning with eight measures of rhythm; the next step will be adding pitches. Fifth Grade will begin a similar project soon. Fifth Grade students have been completing a General Music review; they will bring this home soon. Happy Spring!
