Weekly Review 2/24 - 2/28

Good afternoon!  Here is what we did in music this week:

The first grade students reviewed their solfege and rhythm syllables, and learned a new song called "Lucy Locket."  Once they knew the whole song, we played the fun Lucy Locket game!  One child ("Lucy") hid the pocket in the classroom for "Kitty Fisher" to find.  The rest of the class helped Kitty by varying their dynamics- singing louder as s/he was closer to the pocket, and more quietly if s/he was farther away.  They also started their unit on "Peter and the Wolf!"

The second graders have started their instrument family unit this week, starting with the percussion family. Last year, in first grade, the students learned about all of the hand percussion and melodic percussion instruments we have in the classroom.  This year, we are building upon it to include orchestral percussion instruments such as the snare drum, bass drum, gong, and crash cymbals!  We also started to learn about the brass family!

The third graders had a very exciting visitor this week.  You'll have to click on THIS link to find out who it was! (You'll also get to watch some videos!)  Almost all of the third grade students have passed the white belt- Mrs. Niu and I are so proud of them!  Some students are still working on the yellow belt song ("Merrily We Roll Along"), and others are up to the orange ("Gently Sleep")!  

The fourth graders had a very fun Garage Band lesson this week.  We used the iPads to compose music using loops and the digital instruments included on the app.  We will continue this lesson next week, and allow the students to share their creations with each other!  I cannot wait to hear each composition.

The fifth grade students have started a new composing unit as well.  We read "Where the Wild Things Are" to the classes, and we discussed how adding music would make the story more interesting.  What kind of music would work for each part of the story?  Which instruments would be most appropriate to get the perfect sound?  Next week, they will experiment in small groups and compose a short piece to ago along with their assigned part of the story.

In chorus, we continued our "Songs of the Sea" - we are almost ready to start learning the last song!!  We are all looking forward to the Spring concert. Please mark your calendars for May 15th! :)