November 2015 Issue # 3 Music doesn t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music. - Jimi Hendrix The Note The Phoenix Welcome Elementary to our Phoenix District Elementary newsletter School for District all things Music Music! newsletter! We are very excited to have the opportunity to share with you all of the success, events, opportunities and experiences that our students have in our district. From chorus and piano, to guitar ensembles and general music classes, your children have the chance to learn from experts in the field of music. Many of the teachers are not only teachers, but practitioners of their art as well. Through performance, reading, writing and listening, Phoenix Elementary music students are flourishing into wonderful young musicians. We thank you for your continuing support and cannot wait to see you at one of our next performances! The Note The Phoenix Elementary District newsletter for all things Music! Page 1
WELCOME BACK!!! New Information Here you will find many new pieces of information about our schools, events, classrooms, classes and music educators. From our new teachers and their transitions into their new schools, to the new traditions like singing the Phoenix Elementary School District Alma Mater, we are off to a great start for this 2015 2016 school year. In this issue of the Note, we will be shining a spotlight on Kenilworth School and its music director, Debra Brandsma. We also will have a section on our extremely successful Greater Phoenix Choral Festival. Our Wonderful Music Educators Richard (Rick) Hernandez Bethune general music Shannon Avecedo Capitol general music/choral April Pettit Dunbar general/choral/instrumental music Malgorzata Ceglinski Edison general music/choral Dianne Anderson-Nickel Emerson general music/choral Shawna Balzar Garfield general music/choral Jacob (Jake) Nurse Heard general music/choral Chris Granger Herrera general music/choral Ricardo la Paz Herrera general music/guitar Debra Brandsma Kenilworth general music/choral Erin Crawford Lowell general music/choral Michael (Mike) McDonald Magnet Traditional general music/choral Katherine (Katie) Merrill Shaw Montessori general music/choral Abdiel Bernal Whittier general music/choral Debra Brandsma Kenilworth general music/choral Page 2
Kenilworth Our Spotlight School! Director Debra Brandsma My name is Debra Brandsma and I have been teaching music at Super Cool Kenilworth for 5 years. I have been teaching music in the District for 39 years with most of my years at Whittier School. Kenilworth is a Thinking Maps School, helping students to think and learn every day. Kenilworth celebrated 95 years of Thinking and Learning on Saturday, October 24 th. Our school was built in 1920 and is the oldest existing school building in Maricopa County. It is included on the National Register of Historic Places. Kenilworth s alumni include Barry Goldwater, Paul Fannin, and Margaret T. Hance. General Music at Kenilworth involves singing, playing various percussion and keyboards. We also dance and studying the instrument families and famous composers. Many of our classroom teachers participate in the Musicfest Listening Program with their classes five minutes per day. The Musicfest Listening Program provides assemblies such as the Tetra String Quartet the Brass and Woodwind Quartet. The 52 nd Street Jazz Band will present another assembly in the spring. We also participate in the district-sponsored Symphony for Schools field trip. Kenilworth is the only school in our district that has a historical auditorium. Our beautiful Auditorium makes a perfect setting for programs and performances. Kenilworth students always love to perform for their family and friends! Music is an integral part of learning at Kenilworth School! Page 3
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School Updates In this section, you will find the updates from each of our Signature Schools in the Phoenix Elementary School District. Herrera Guitar Ensemble We had a guitar workshop with the world renowned Swedish classical guitarist Johannes Moller. It too place at Herrera school on October 6 th. Herrera was the only Elementary / Junior High School chosen by Mr. Moller to present a guitar workshop in AZ. Garfield Garfield Grizzlies are working to increase their music literacy. Grizzly cubs in kindergarten and 1 st grade are working on reading, notating, and performing rhythms. Using the solfege staff to read and notate melodic patterns have been objectives for2 nd and 3 rd graders. The choirs were asked to perform at our school s mural unveiling and are working very hard to prepare the music for the performance. Garfield has also received 10 ukuleles that will be used after school by the Music Club. The students in the Music Club will learn to perform on the ukulele and piano and increase both individual and ensemble musicianship. Emerson School Emerson Eagles have been flying high since our last newsletter. Every grade level has studied a musical element including, melody, rhythm, harmony, expressiveness, and dynamics. Learner engagement included instrument playing various classroom instruments, Boom Whackers, and Orff instruments. The Eagle Choir worked hard preparing for the Greater Phoenix Choral Festival held in Phoenix College. They also sang with the CHS choir for the last home football. What fun!! Both the World Drummers Ensemble and the Eagle Choir had a wonderful afternoon performing at the AZ state fair and then enjoying all the activities. Currently, we are preparing for our holiday programs. World Drummers and Choir have a concert, the choir will sing at the Capitol, and 4-5 th graders will present a musical. After school piano students will also perform. Page 5
Edison students started anew 2015-16 school year learning, practicing Seven Habits Songs which they will In September and October Edison students studied tempo and dynamics markings. While practicing singing Halloween songs with good posture and diction students observed how changes in tempo and dynamics changes the mood of the songs. Grades 3 rd and up learned Italian names like pianissimo for very soft, crescendo for gradually louder or largo for very slow. Upper grades students also composed a Halloween song using repeat sign, DS al Coda, segno and coda. Everybody enjoyed playing spooky high and low organ sounds on MIE keyboards. Malgorzata Ceglinska Edison School Heard School Students at Heard Elementary School are busy working to improve their musical literacy! Kindergarten through 3 rd grade is working on reading many musical examples using solfedge. The 4 th grade students are applying their music reading to piano performances. Our 5 th and 6 th grade Musical STEAM class has finished their work in calculating the velocity of transverse waves and has moved on to learning about Pythagoras s Monochord and the first examples of a musical, diatonic scale. They have been working with ratios to learn why certain intervals sound the way that they do. Music appreciation students have been working on several projects relating music to their everyday life through a cross-curriculum design of a movie soundtrack. Choir is excited to receive new music for our winter program coming up soon. They have been working very hard on developing their musicianship through singing and are more than ever being HEARD! Our piano and guitar clubs are also well underway as the students build the fundamental techniques to become proficient guitarists and pianists. Everyone is looking forward to what the rest of this year will musically bring at Heard School! Lowell The Lowell Bucket Drummers and Junior High Choir have been diligently preparing for two upcoming performances. They are excited for their performances which will take place on Friday, Nov. 6 at 1:00 at the AZ State Fair and at the Governing Board Meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 6:00. Please check-out the attached photos of the 8th grade drumming ensemble. Page 6
Shaw Montessori Shaw Montessori is very excited about what is happening in the music classroom. First through third grade had a lot of fun practicing composing both in an improvisation style as well as actually writing down their simple compositions. They have also had the opportunity to play many Orff instruments this semester and are learning how to read the treble clef. Recently, students have been working on ear training and are practicing identifying Do and So in different key signatures. Students are putting all of their knowledge together and are learning fun winter and holiday Orff songs for their holiday concert which will take place on December 15 th at 6pm. 3 rd graders are having a wonderful time in recorder getting ready for the holiday concert as well and learning more and more about the language of music each week. Kindergarten students are working on their singing voices and learning lots of songs, some of which they will do at the holiday concert. They have also been exploring space and movement in each class. After school choir has been approved for next semester and will take place on Tuesday and Thursday each week for fourth through eighth grade students. We cannot wait to see where the rest of the year will take us. Dunbar Dunbar K-3 students are preparing to dazzle their families with a winter wonderland performance How the Penguins Saved Christmas. Students are already excited about this clever musical featuring adorable penguins and Santa s reindeer. The students can hardly wait for December to perform their play! Fourth and fifth graders are now working in the piano lab. Learning to play the piano is a lifelong joy and lead to a greater understanding of music. The beginning of second trimester means preparing for winter concerts and recitals. The Dunbar Dragons band and orchestra students aren t dragging their heels, but are preparing music for their winter recital. Choir rehearsals are sparkling with energy as learning music for the winter concert under full swing. They are looking forward to some fun performances with studentcreated choreography. Page 7
The Greater Phoenix Choral Festival On October 23 rd and 24 th, choir students from several schools throughout our district and a few others took part in a fantastic Choral event, the Greater Phoenix Choral Festival! Hosted at Phoenix College, our students had the opportunity to sing in a large group of students, attend workshops on musicianship and singing, rehearse with many high caliber music professionals from the greater phoenix area and enjoy a concert in which they not only performed, but were able to listen to some fantastic groups from across the valley. Students were able to learn breathe support, the importance of vocal health (both for singing and otherwise) and practice some of the most important skills used in singing. During the concert, students sang three pieces (wonderfully we might add!), were able to listen to honor groups from High Schools in the surrounding area and had the opportunity to experience the Phoenix College choir perform. We are all very proud of our students and are looking forward to more fantastic events to come! Page 8
Musicianship in Action Welcome Back to the Musical School Year Students at Herrera had a fantastic clinic with Master Guitarist Johannes Moller! Bucket Drumming at Lowell! Students at Heard experiment, attempting to tell the difference between coins by sound alone (dropping them into different material glasses) Page 9