Weekly Review 9/30 - 10/4

Good afternoon!  Here's what Memorial students were doing in music class this week...

The first graders continued to learn about Bach. You can read more about him and his amazing music here.  It has been fun to listen to the organ- it is such a cool (and complicated!) instrument!  They also continued to work on their dynamics- piano and forte.  They learned about a musical beat, and how it differs from a rhythm.  We played a great game using a drum called "Put the Beat in Your Feet."  The poem, "I Think Music's Neat" has helped the students realize that the number of beats in a song or chant stays the same- even if you perform it with a different tempo!  Some classes started a spooky song called the "Ghost of John."

The second grade students sang "Alligator Pie," then added a new verse.  You can read the one that Mrs. Siegel's class came up with by clicking here!  The students added instrumental parts to "I'm a Nut," and some students wrote new lyrics for other verses in that song too.  The second graders also watched a neat video that is set to Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in G Minor."  Check it out:



The third graders finished their "Four White Horses" activity, and Mrs. Ferullo's class wanted to share their performance with you!


They also watched the "Toccata and Fugue" video, and some students watched a video for Bach's "Little Fugue." (Bach loved writing fugues!)  The students learned a silly song about a cat called "Ding Dong, Diggidiggi Dong," and it helped them to work on their quarter note, eighth note, and sixteenth note rhythms.

The fourth graders learned about partner songs (you can read about them here), and how they differ from rounds. They sang "Black and Gold" while I sang "Trick or Treat" - it sounded really cool!  They also worked on their Veteran's Day music.

The fifth graders sang a funny song called "I Love the Mountains."  We discovered that the melody is raised by one scale tone for each new phrase, and that the song can be sung as a round, or with an ostinato.  Once we learned each part, a student played from "do" to "la" on the bass metallophone, and another played the tricky ostinato on a bass xylophone while the class sang the round.

In chorus this week, we continued to work on the "Grinch" medley and "All I Want for Christmas is You."  Next week, the students will be getting their iPads set up with PiaScore- an app that will allow us to use digital music instead of paper copies!  It should be awesome!

We hope you have an incredible weekend!