September 22 - 26 (Music Week 4)

 Learning Intention Legend (Blue = Kindergarten, Green = 1 / 2, Purple = 3 / 4, Red = 5 / 6)

-I can demonstrate steady beat through movement.

-I can differentiate speaking from singing voices.

Students performed silly action songs and kept beat on different parts of their bodies to reinforce rhythmic awareness. We practiced humming, whispering, speaking and singing to explore our capacity to make sound with our voices. We also sang about Pete the Cat's groovy buttons. 

-I can play a steady beat using rhythm instruments.

-I can perform simple action songs and singing games. 

Grade 1 and 2 students continue to learn and perform a variety of silly action songs as part of their daily singing warmup. We incorporate increasingly complex body percussion to reinforce beat. Students played shakers, drums and sticks to accompany singing. Students also created actions to perform with a song that they are learning for performance at their Terry Fox assembly next Friday.  

-I can identify repetition and contrast; use awareness of patterns to perform movement sequences. 

-I can demonstrate pitch awareness while singing.

We continued to revisit some familiar singing games this week. There are many singing games that involve passing an object to the beat around the circle. Students are eliminated at the end of the song and then keep the beat on a percussion instrument such as a shaker, drum or boomwhacker. We also learned some rhythm patterns with sticks to accompany the Friendship Stick Game song. This activity reinforces awareness of repetition and contrast but more importantly, it is an excellent way to build community through singing and having fun. 

-I can identify repetition and contrast; use awareness of patterns to sing and play from a musical staff.

-I can demonstrate pitch awareness while sight singing.

Students continue to review absolute note names - we tried two different reading and playing activities this week. In the first one, students worked at an instrument with a short melodic pattern on a strip of paper. They were asked to write the pitches beneath each note and then practice the repeating pattern to improve skill to play with rhythmic and melodic accuracy. In the second reading activity, we played together as a large group, reading 2 and 3 note melodies accompanied by a youtube backing track. The second activity yielded a higher level of participation from the group. Students were motivated by their success reading the simpler patterns. We will continue with recorders to strengthen skills for reading and playing in upcoming weeks using the large group appraoch. 

You can support students at home by playing music and creating movement to represent different parts of the music. All music has some essence of organization or musical form. Create movement sequences to show the different sections. Kinesthetic experiences help to reinforce awareness of musical form - it can also be really fun to make up movement routines for a variety of songs that you like!

Best wishes for a beautiful weekend.

Musically Yours, 

Mrs. M