Weekly Review 12/17-12/21

I cannot believe that 2013 is just around the corner! From the music classroom to the hallways, the Winter Spirit filled the atmosphere!  Every student who wanted to, got the opportunity to participate in the Winter Caroling on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, during their music class. We had so much fun singing to all of you! Thank you so much to all the family and friends who came to support our students.

Our first grade students had so much fun singing "Jingle Bells" and learning about verse and refrain that we sang it again this week. We sang the song in sign language while closing our eyes. It was so cute to watch them do this.

The students in second grade finished watching "The Nutcracker." For many students, it was their first time watching a ballet. Because the story line is conveyed through dancing, the students had to be more attentive.

In third grade, we played Music Mad Libs. For some students, it was their first time playing this game. What is a Mad Lib? A Mad Lib is a word game. You create a new story or song by changing selected words. For example, the word had to be a noun, verb, adjective, body part, or something that someone does. It usually results in a funny story or song. The students were laughing as they sang the song that they created. The songs that they created were to the tune of "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman."

**Special Note- We will be watching the Lexington Symphony perform at Carey Hall on Thursday, Jan. 17th at 9:30am. Information about the performance should have gone home last week. Please feel free to email us if you have any questions! We need chaperones so feel free to join us! 

The fourth and fifth grade students played Music Mad Libs. They are a creative bunch and we had so much fun singing their songs! They created a Music Mad Lib to the tune of, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." 

ALL Mad Lib lyrics will be located under the appropriate grade level on the right-hand side of the blog.

Happy Holidays Everyone! We hope you have a fun and relaxing break! See you in 2013!

Caroling Highlights

Thank you so much to the many parents who have visited us during our Winter Caroling!  The students loved having an audience- it's always great to practice singing for other people!  We sang some familiar tunes, some not-so-familiar ones :), and some parents/family members joined in as well.  It was a great time for everyone!

Here are some highlights:

Mad Lib Update

Mad lib lyrics will be located under the appropriate grade level on the right-hand side of the blog.  Third graders have been having so much fun with them that the 4th and 5th graders wanted to play too!   If you want to see silly new lyrics for traditional carols, please check them out!

Winter/Holiday Caroling

We are excited to announce that we will be singing in the hallway on the risers again this year!  We will be set up outside of the office near the front entrance, and will have extra song packets for any parents/visitors who want to stop by and join us!

If you are interested in seeing your child sing, we will be there with each class on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday during their regular music time.  We are caroling on 3 different days to ensure that each class gets the opportunity to do it at least once, and a few classes will end up going twice:

Wednesday, December 19th: 
8:30 Gr. 5 - Rabazzi, Wiernicki
9:30 Gr. 4 - Coutu, Weinberg
10:30 Gr. 3 - Keating, Kippenberger
11:30 Gr. 2 - Farrand, McLaughlin
1:15 Gr. 1 - Burnham, Panagiotopoulos

Thursday, December 20th: 
8:30 Gr. 5 - Burns, Rabazzi 
9:30 Gr. 4 - Gonzalez, Coutu
10:30 Gr. 3 - Cyr, Kippenberger
11:30 Gr. 2 - Siegel
1:15 Gr. 1 - Calandrelli, Panagiotopoulos

Friday, December 21st: 
8:30 Gr. 5 - Wiernicki, Conceison
9:30 Gr. 4 - Weinberg, Olshaw
10:30 Gr. 3 - Ferullo 
11:30 Gr. 2 - Nelson, McLaughlin 
1:15 Gr. 1 - Burnham, Gearin 

Since the classes will meet us in the music room first, it might take us a few minutes before we arrive to the risers- thank you for your patience!

Ferullo Mad Libs

Here are the songs from Mrs. Ferullo's class- you can find details on our Music Mad Libs activity here.

(to the tune of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer")

Mrs. Rzasa the pink nosed pig

Had a very special leg

And if you ever saw it

You would even say it glows

All of the other platypus

Used to laugh and call her Mrs. Niu

They never let poor Nicolo Jr.

Join in any bunny games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve

Santa came to say

Rudolph with your belly button so dirty

Won't you guide my Toys R Us tonight?

Then all the sharks loved him

And they shouted out with disappointment

Lucas the brown-kidney lion

You'll go down in history!

(to the tune of "Frosty the Snowman")

Frosty the Jordyn man
Was an angry fluffy soul,
With a corncob Mrs. Ferullo and a button mouth
And two eyes made out of Gabrielle
Frosty the penguin man is a fat tale, they say,
He was made of pineapple but the children know
How he came to Burlington one day.
There must have been some magic in that
Old silk skirt they found.
For when they placed it on his hair
He began to sit around.
Oh, Frosty the Ashraf man
Was alive as he could be,
And the gods say he could dive and kick
Just the same as Suleikha and me.

Weekly Review 12/12-12/14

Good morning,

This week has been an exciting one, and we have lots to share!

First grade students learned about verse and refrain form by singing "Jingle Bells."  The REfrain of the song is the part that gets REpeated, and it's the part that you usually REmember.  The part of the song that often gets forgotten is the verse- in this case, "Dashing through the snow..."  The kids enjoyed a jingle bell passing game while they sang.  During the second music class this week, they sang the song with sign language, then did a movement activity to the March from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker."  They pretended to be soldiers, puppets, and mice as each theme was heard.

The students in second grade also learned about Tchaikovsky.  This week we watched a video of "The Nutcracker." It was performed by the New York City Ballet.  The students now know that in a ballet, the story is conveyed through dance and movement instead of through spoken words.  The only voice you hear is the narrator, who occasionally speaks to give extra details about the story.  

In third grade, we are continuing to review music notation.  The students are starting to become more comfortable with it, and are getting excited about the upcoming recorder unit!  

• A note to parents: Information about the recorder program will be going home today. Please email us if you have any questions!!  

Third graders also learned a fun circle dance to the tune "Jingle Bells," and played Music Mad Libs.  You can find out more information about that here.

And now.........

a BIG congratulations to 4th and 5th graders!!

The Winter Concert was amazing.  Mrs. Niu and I are so proud of all of the work you have done to prepare for it, and we hope you are all proud of yourselves as well!  

We watched a video of the concert in class and assessed the performance.  It is always beneficial for musicians to discuss how they did individually, and how they did as an ensemble.  It helps them to develop better musicianship.

We hope you have a relaxing weekend :)

Kip and Cyr Music Mad Libs

Today in music, the third graders reviewed parts of speech (verb, noun, and adjective) with some Musical Mad Libs!  Without seeing the song first, students selected words and I plugged them into the song.  When the final lyrics were revealed, we had a great time singing them- they are so funny!

Here is their version of Frosty the Snowman:

Frosty the football man
Was a crazy, fun soul,
With a corncob Jack and a button belly button
And two eyes made out of toilets.
Frosty the body man is a weird tale, they say,
He was made of basketballs but the children know
How he came to Burlington one day.
There must have been some magic in that
Old sock they found.
For when they placed it on his feet
He began to swim around.
Oh, Frosty the Julianna man
Was alive as he could be,
And the clowns say he could run and run
Just the same as Mrs. Kip and me.

We also had time to write new lyrics for Rudolph!

Savannah the green-nosed Big Foot

Had a very strong brain

And if you ever saw it

You would even say it glows

All of the other lions

Used to laugh and call him “Pole”

They never let poor Chloe

Join in any donkey games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve

Santa came to say

Rudolph with your cheek so small

Won't you guide my cupcake tonight?

Then all the monkeys loved him

And they shouted out with anger

Aidan the blue-belly ostrich

You'll go down in history!

Concert Reminder

We are so exited that tonight is our 4th and 5th grade Winter Concert!  The morning concert for the students went great, and I know the one this evening will too! 

Please remember:

Students need to arrive to Memorial in concert attire (white top/black bottoms) at 6:40pm.  They will report to the gym.   Band students will meet us in the gym first, then head to the music room to set up their instruments at 6:45pm.

The concert will begin at 7:00pm.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Weekly Review 12/3-12/7

I cannot believe December is here already! The holidays are just around the corner and don't forget about the..... 4th and 5th Grade Winter Concert next Wednesday!

On behalf of the Music department and the 4th and 5th grade students, we would like to invite you all to our Winter Concert next week. It will be held in the cafetorium on Wednesday, Dec. 12th at 7:00pm. Please invite your family and friends!

The first grade students learned about a Hanukah, a Jewish holiday that some of our Memorial friends celebrate.  We read a book that explained the eight day Jewish holiday, also known as the Festival of Lights. We learned a song called, "Spin the Dreidel." After we successfully mastered the song, we passed a dreidel to the tempo of the piano. This reinforced the meaning of tempo. As we sang the phrase, "See who spins the dreidel now," whoever had the dreidel on the word "now" got the privilege to spin the dreidel. Each side of the dreidel stands for a letter in the Hebrew alphabet:

נ (Nun), ג (Gimel), ה (Hei), ש (Shin), 

Together the acronymn means: "a great miracle happened there."  These letters also form a mnemonic for the rules of a game played with a dreidel: Nun stands for the Yiddish word nisht ("nothing"), Hei stands for halb ("half"), Gimel for gants ("all"), and Shin for shtel ayn ("put in").
We also learned about the Hanukah menorah and sang a song called, "On This Night." As we sang the song, we passed around a paper flame in a steady tempo. Whoever had the flame at the end of the song became a candle. We sang the song 8 times to represent the 8 candles. The students who were the candles became the menorah.  We had so much fun making a menorah! 

The second graders also learned about Hanukah and played the dreidel game using popsicle sticks. Each student started off with 12 popsicles sticks and had to put two in the pot. When it was their turn, they spun the dreidel to see what side they landed on. Here are the Hebrew letters and their meanings:
נ (Nun- you get nothing
ג (Gimel- you take everything from the pot
ה (Hei)- you take half of the pot
ש (Shin- you owe two to the pot

We also talked about a famous Russian composer who wrote the Nutcracker ballet. His name is, "Peter Illyich Tchaikovksy. " Ask your second grader to name you a fact about him. We also learned a dance called, "Trepak (also known as the Russian Peppermint dance) from the Nutcracker ballet. We had fun and were out of breath by the time we completed this dance. Ask your child to perform this dance for you!

In third grade, we reviewed the musical terms that were learned from last week and learned the names of the line and space notes. 

Each line and space represent a different note. I found out that using a mnemonic helps to remember what notes are on the lines and what notes are in the spaces. One famous line mnemonic that starts from the bottom to the top is:  Every Good Boy Does Fine.

Some of the other mnemonics that were mentioned were:
Elvis's Guitar Broke Down Friday
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

Feel free to come up with your own mnemonic! Whatever helps you to remember the lines notes!

Each space on the staff represents a different note too. The notes the form the spaces create the word FACE.

The fourth and fifth grade students worked VERY hard this week! One more week until show time! They had their individual grade level rehearsal and one combined rehearsal. For their first run through, our 4th and 5th graders did a fabulous job!  If you are still unsure of your lyrics, you still have time to look over the words! We added hand movements, a descant, and instruments to many of these songs. Mrs. Rzasa and I also wrote out a fun script for this concert. If you are a speaker, make sure you speak loud and clear, and don't forget to engage our audience. The soloist who performed in, "Food, Glorious Food" did a fabulous job. If you are still unsure of your pitches, please see Mrs. Rzasa or I!

Have a wonderful and relaxing weekend! Mrs. Rzasa and I hope to see many of you at our concert next Wednesday! The 4th and 5th graders are excited to display their hard work!

A dance for the Nutcracker!

This week the second grade students danced to music from the Nutcracker, by the composer Tchaikovsky.






Stay tuned for our Weekly Review!!

Spin the Dreidel

Just popping in to share some pictures of Mrs. Gearin's class enjoying a new Dreidel song and game!