February 2 - February 6 (Music Week 17)

 UPCOMING DATES

Teachers' Convention - February 12th and 13th

EMBRACE MUSIC WHILE SWIRLING AROUND IN YOUR LIVES WITH KIDS:

Keep singing, keep moving, keep listening to music together. The theme of conversation in many classes this week was attention to organized sound. We have established in class that we have a wonderful capacity to make lots of noise. Our goal is to harness the noise and to create sound that is cooperative and accessible for everyone. One way we do this at school is by listening to one another while playing and singing. We also listen for patterns in the music that we hear - we pay attention to repetition of phrases and sections. Listen for patterns while you experience music at home. For an extra challenge, try listening for the duration of a song before commenting on what you hear. 

LEARNING INTENTION LEGEND (Blue = Kindergarten, Green = 1 / 2, Purple = 3 / 4, Red = 5 / 6)

-I can move to beat in music through walking, running,  jumping and skipping.

-I can play steady beat to accompany singing on barred instruments.

Kindergarten students continued participation in movement activities this week to experience musical pulse and to strengthen beat awareness. Jumping, stomping and galloping were popular suggestions. We also took some direction from students who suggested different 'jiggling' movements - spaghetti arms seemed to be an important component here. Students also continue to practice technique for keeping steady beat on barred instruments. Students are increasingly confident to sing while playing.

-I can represent like and unlike patterns in music through movement.

-I can play rhythm patterns (subdivisions of beat) on rhythm instruments.

Grade 1 and 2 students experienced sectional form through movement with ribbons while listening to Frederics Chopin's 'Wrong Note' Study (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPbc8F7u1s). Students created bumpy and wiggly ribbon movements for the 'A' section and smooth, swirly ribbon movements for the contrasting 'B' section. Frogs vs Butterflies was a popular suggestion to describe the different parts of this piece. 

Students also continued to demonstrate awareness of rhythm concepts while playing 'the way the words go' with sticks, drums and barred instruments.  

-I can sing and play rhythm patterns including quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes.

-I can read and play melodic patterns (xylophones). 

Students continued to read and play melodic patterns on barred instruments. This week, we started with reading melody and rhythm from a staff (in contrast to playing by ear, like we did last week). Some people preferred this to playing by ear. We reinforced the idea of using both listening (picking out the melody on instruments/playing by ear) and reading notation as a wonderfully balanced approach to learning new pieces. Students finished the week playing a 4 phrase piece as a group. All classes made my heart grow exponentially by singing while playing. I think that they were proud and happy too - a group sound is a powerful thing.

-The lyrics and meaning of a song may be enhanced by the vocal interpretation as well as by its instrumental accompaniment.

-I can differentiate divergent musical styles. 

The students participated in some cover music trivia this week. We also looked at several Jimmy Fallon classroom instrument pieces for inspiration as well as pieces suggested by members of the class. Each group has chosen some music to dive into next week. Hopefully I can cobble some arrangements together over the weekend so that we can start learning some components of these songs. If anyone has creative ideas for 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' or 'Skater Boy' using recorders, xylophones or small percussion instruments, shoot me a note. The kids already have some interesting suggestions - one of them involves kazoos. We'll see what happens. 

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. McMillan













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