Music Notes. March, Aim 1

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Malcolm Francis
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Music Notes March, 2017 Aim 1 Our Aim 1 students are singing many songs including A-Hunting We Will Go, Alligator in the Elevator, and Aiken Drum. Moving is the favorite activity in our music class.

1 Music Notes March, 2017 Aim 1 Our Aim 1 students are singing many songs including A-Hunting We Will Go, Alligator in the Elevator, and Aiken Drum. Moving is the favorite activity in our music class. The boys and girls have a large repertoire of games. Our favorite is Horsie where we can gallop, walk, trudge and run to the beat. Each class, we play instruments and experiment with loud and soft songs as well as marching in our parades. As the year moves along, we are learning new partner games. Each week is joyful as we all explore the fun of making music together! The students and I are fortunate to be supported by a gifted and devoted group of para-professionals whom I cherish. Thank you.

Aim 2-3 These students love to sing! Our repertoire includes, This Land is Your Land, Down by the Bay, Yankee Doodle, and We All Live Together. We can sing Hello in 9 languages as well!

2 Aim 2-3 These students love to sing! Our repertoire includes, This Land is Your Land, Down by the Bay, Yankee Doodle, and We All Live Together. We can sing Hello in 9 languages as well! Our movement games include Old Brass Wagon, Hop Up My Ladies, and Step it Down. The boys and girls are skilled at dancing together as well as improvising dance steps to free dance. We have played all the classroom instruments. The drum seems to be a favorite. Through playing the instruments, the kids explore songs with varied expressive qualities such as tempo/soft and loud and dynamics/fast and slow. Making music together is our theme and the joy of this class. The students and I are fortunate to be supported by a talented and devoted team of para-professionals whom I cherish. Thank you! Musician of the Month: Pete Seeger, Great American Folk Singer

3 All grades will be singing folk songs, performing folk dances and learning about the life and times of the great Pete Seeger. Kindergarten Kindergarten students will continue having voice lessons using animal sounds to practice using their singing voices. We love to sing, Alligator in the Elevator, You are my Sunshine, and All Night, All Day. We are experts at keeping the beat. Clapping games like Miss Mary Mack and Green Sally Up are a few of our favorites. I ve been using The Carnegie Hall Music Educators Toolbox which provides in-depth music lessons for elementary students. Kindergarten is exploring expressive qualities such as loud and soft, smooth and choppy and fast and slow. Through movement, the students demonstrate their listening and analytical skills with classical selections by Chopin, Beethoven and Strauss. Finally, our favorite moving game is Magic Shoes. We have shoes like you can t imagine!! The partner singing game, Rig a Jig is a 2-part dance coming soon. Grade One These young singers are continuing to learn vocal technique: breathing, tone production and phrasing. Our favorite songs are This Little Light of Mine, Alligator in the Elevator and Old Dan Tucker. These first-grade musicians are learning music notation and know how to write Rain, Rain, Go Away using quarter and eighth notes. Using the lessons from The Carnegie Hall Music Educators Toolbox, we will be exploring expressive qualities in music such as articulation (legato/staccato) and tempo (largo/presto.) The students will demonstrate their listening skills through movement to musical selections by Beethoven, Dvorak and Vivaldi.

Shadow dancing is a favorite and a fun way to explore many kinds of music. We played this game with different types of Jazz music as we studied the life of Ella Fitzgerald.

4 Shadow dancing is a favorite and a fun way to explore many kinds of music. We played this game with different types of Jazz music as we studied the life of Ella Fitzgerald. We re on to folk music and our next featured musician, Pete Seeger. Second Grade As in all grades, these students learn vocal technique and the best way to sing. We re learning songs from the Cove School song book I created. Our favorites are You ve Got a Friend in Me, Make New Friends, and Free at Last. Folk dances are a favorite for the second grade. Step it Down, an American folk dance, is full of surprises because of constantly changing partners. More dances to come this month. From our jazz unit, students practiced scat singing (improvisation using voacables) made famous by our Musician of the Month for February, Ella Fitzgerald. We made conversation using improvisation good times! These young musicians will begin a unit on composition. Working in groups, the students will compose an original song using classroom instruments. Stay tuned for these inspiring creations!

Third Grade Our third graders are working hard to learn to play recorder. It is not easy!! The students have mastered Hot Cross Buns and are beginning Merrily We Roll Along and Au Clair de la Lune.

5 Third Grade Our third graders are working hard to learn to play recorder. It is not easy!! The students have mastered Hot Cross Buns and are beginning Merrily We Roll Along and Au Clair de la Lune. The note reading is coming along. Ask your child to tell you the names of the line notes and the space notes on the treble staff. Can she/he name them? In the spirit of our Jazz unit, these students improvised on their recorders. I used the tune, Hot Cross Buns and the young musicians took it from there! We heard all sorts of interesting sounds, rhythms and tempos. There is little as exciting as live jazz and these third graders did not disappoint. Finally, a note about a January project integrating art, music and gym. In conjunction with Mr. Wiley s hockey unit, the third- grade students wrote their own theme song. Using the Notre Dame Victory Song for the tune, the kids composed lyrics and sung their song to open the hockey games in the gym. Move over, Bruins! Fourth Grade The fourth graders are quite proficient singers. Their favorite song is Day-O made famous by the great singer, Harry Belafonte. These musicians learned several spirituals including Free at Last and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. They are experts at call and response form, the foundation for jazz, blues, rap and so many of our American music styles. We did some scat singing in our classes as shown to us by the great Ella Fitzgerald. The students know what improvisation is and took risks in their jazz singing exploration. Mirror dances gave us an opportunity to hear and move to many types of jazz. The kids showed their sensitivity and listening skills in their response to Dixieland, Swing and Bebop jazz styles.

Now the fourth graders themselves will become the composers of the month! Working in groups, the students will compose an original song using classroom instruments.

6 Now the fourth graders themselves will become the composers of the month! Working in groups, the students will compose an original song using classroom instruments. The compositions will be varied in tempo, theme and form. I m looking forward to the finished pieces! Stay tuned Fifth Grade Fifth Grade students have had a busy year in the music room. From choreographing The Russian Dance from the Nutcracker Suite to writing original arias to scat singing with Ella Fitzgerald, these students have explored music from the inside out. Inspired by our featured composers/musicians (Rossini, Tchaikovsky and Ella Fitzgerald), the students have traveled to 3 continents to study music. These young musicians enjoy singing although some of our fifth graders are a bit shy. The students have learned many songs from the Cove School song book I created. Their favorite is Day-O made famous by the great singer, Harry Belafonte. Fifth Graders are becoming skilled in writing notation using quarter, eighth and half notes to create measures and rhythm pieces. We ll be practicing these rhythm compositions using classroom instruments. In our upcoming exploration of folk music, this group will learn a well-known and well-loved Korean folk song. In keeping with the saying, Music is the universal language, we will learn of the power of this folk song as the NY Philharmonic Orchestra performed an historic concert in North Korea. All can t help but be moved by this event which took place in We will watch the performance and experience the power of music to break through cultural barriers and bring people together.

MUSIC COURSE OF STUDY GRADE

MUSIC COURSE OF STUDY GRADE 1 2008 COURSE DESCRIPTION: Throughout the school year, the first grade students will acquire an appreciation for music as well as grasp primary skills, concepts and knowledge