Weekly Review 3/9- 3/13

The first graders were super excited to receive their violins this week. For some students, this will be their first instrument. With an exception of a few students, each student was paired up with another student and was assigned to a violin. We learned how to care for the instrument such as how to properly open the violin case, how to carefully take the violin out with two hands, and how to properly put back the violin into it's case. We also reviewed the violin parts from last week. Incase you forgot what some of the parts were, here is a list of the parts to help you. Ask your first grade student if they can name these parts on the violin.

• Scroll
• Pegs
• Peg Box
• Strings
• Nut
• Fingerboard
• Neck
• Body
• Ribs
• Bridge
• Sound Post
• F Holes
• Tailpiece
• Chin Rest
• Button
• Parts of the bow: frog, stick, tip, grip, screw, hair

In second grade, students were very excited to play the violin again and many can't wait to put their fingers down on the fingerboard to learn and play more notes! We reviewed the parts of the violin and bow. We were so happy that many students remembered the various parts of the violin! We reviewed two positions- rest position (also known as guitar position) and playing position

REST POSITION

PLAYING POSITION

Some classes even got the chance to play two open strings- G and D. We will continue to review all the open strings next week.

In third grade, we started 6 different activity centers for students to rotate to as Mrs. Rzasa and I test students for their recorder belts. Here are the following 6 centers:
   1.  Testing
   2.  Practicing
   3.  Rhythm Stick Game (making 4 beat rhythms with popsicle sticks)
   4.  Musical Game- Game of the week was, "*Classical 8."
   5.  Composer's Corner- student compose their own music using B,A and G or working on a music
        worksheet called, "Busiest Day of the Week!"
   6.  Book Nook- Students silently read music books

Here are some pictures of our 3rd grade students working hard in their assigned centers:

Our fourth and fifth grade students continued to perform their music compositions this week.  Feel free to scroll down and view your child's performance! They can be found under the name of their home room teacher. We also went over the parts of the violin and the bow. So many students remembered all the parts! Next week will be playing pizzicato on the violins and shortly after, we will be using the bow!

In chorus, we worked on the ending of "Land that We Love" and "It's Don't Mean a Thing." Fourth Grade finished, "Sourwood Mountain!" We can't wait to add the dance moves to this song! The fifth graders finished learning the last verse of, "Johnny B. Goode." Don't forget to practice singing with the recordings that are found on the, "Chorus Lyrics and Recordings" page.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the warm sun!