Weekly Review 10/8-10/12

This week might have been short with the holiday on Monday, but it was a good one!

The first grade students learned some very important music words:  piano (quiet), forte (loud), crescendo (gradually getting louder), and decrescendo (gradually getting quieter).  We put these concepts to the test with a fun call and response song called "The Bats Are All Asleep."  The first graders enjoyed pretending to be spooky for a movement game while singing "Ghost of John."  We also looked for Dracula, exploring beat and mood with this fun chant.

Second grade students continued Conversational Solfege, with a focus on our new rhythm syllables.  We learned a great song called "Bony Legs" and sang it at special times during the Bony Legs story.  When the story was over, we added the guiro and xylophone to the song!  Each instrument played an ostinato (a part that gets repeated over and over).

This is a guiro

In third grade this week we finished our Ding Dong Diggidiggi Dong song, playing the guiro (see above) on the sixteenth notes, the drum on the eighth notes, and the triangle on the quarter notes.  We also talked about minor, and practiced our scales starting on la:

La Ti Do Re Mi Fa So La

We also sang our solos in minor!  The song "9 Lives" is sung in minor- we used our solfege to sing it, then added the words.  We also played the xylophone, glockenspiel, and metallophone to accompany the singing!

In fourth grade, the students sang the partner songs "Black and Gold" and "Trick or Treat."  They sounded SO cool when sung at the same time!  We also started to learn "America the Beautiful," which will be sung at the Veteran's Day Assembly!  In chorus on Friday we had a special guest- our piano accompanist, Mrs. Parry, played piano while we sang!  We worked on finishing "Food Glorious Food" and continued to work on "The Christmas Song."  It was beautiful!

The fifth graders learned a song called "Halloween Night," which reinforced minor singing.  This song includes xylophone accompaniment, and we will be finishing the activity next week!  n chorus on Friday we had a special guest- our piano accompanist, Mrs. Parry, played piano while we sang!  We worked on finishing "Food Glorious Food" and continued to work on "The Christmas Song."  It was beautiful!

Have a lovely weekend! :)