January Music Notes

Happy New Year! Beginner and Pre-K students have enjoyed moving and clapping to our songs Jump and ABC Rock. We read the books Say What and I Like the Music. We also read the book Rain Talk and after discussing the rain sounds created our own rain sounds using drums and percussion instruments. Beginner,  Pre-K, and Kindergarten students listened to the Surprise Symphony by our composer of the month Franz Joseph Haydn and pretended they were an audience in the 1700’s reacting to the “surprise”. Pre-K learned the song Bingo with letter cards. We continue to keep a steady beat and explore rhythms using rhythm sticks and percussion instruments. Kindergarten students have been practicing place memory with the song Bingo and letter cards.  They also have been singing Old MacDonald and Walk With Me. Kindergarten students can match pitch and continue to practice rhythms using quarter notes, quarter rests, half notes, and eighth notes in Kodaly notation. First grade students have learned a new song Mrs. Grady which incorporates movement with the days of the week. We continue to practice rhythms using quarter notes, quarter rests, half notes, sixteenth notes, and eighth notes in Kodaly notation using rhythm sticks and percussion instruments. First grade students are beginning to explore instrument families (String, Woodwind, Brass, Percussion) using the San Francisco Symphony kids site (see link in right hand column). First and Second grade students discovered the music of Haydn through our listening examples. We began using the second grade music textbooks learning Make New Friends in canon, hand jive, a trio of patriotic songs (America/You’re a Grand Old Flag/Yankee Doodle, and the partner dance Jump Jim Joe. Second through fifth grade students have reviewed solfege syllables and hand signs in the scale and with echos on intervals. Third grade students continue to play their recorders; they know the notes G, A, B and the song Hot Cross Buns. Third grade also has been practicing the chant/body percussion for Here Comes the Rain in two and three part canon. Fourth grade students continue to practice parts one and two (separate and together) of Percussion Concussion using body percussion. Fifth grade students are beginning to learn this also. Fourth and fifth grade students researched information on Haydn during music class using my links to the Classics for Kids and Dallas Symphony Kids sites. Fourth grade began using the music textbooks discussing a cappella music, Chubby Checker and The Twist, and performer/audience etiquette. Fifth grade students learned Lean on Me and We Are the World in their textbooks as well as discussing folk music of the 1960’s.  We also discussed percussion, improvisation, and the significance of the “We Are the World” music videos in 1985 (Africa) and 2010 (Haiti). All Lower School students explored the music and instruments of  the Caribbean, our World Music of the Month. Lower School Chorus performed at the Lower School Winter Concert on January 17; after reviewing that experience we are beginning to look at new music. Rehearsals are underway for our Lower School Musical Junie B. Jones The Musical, Jr. which will be performed at in April.