Weekly Review 10/31 - 11/4

For those of you who celebrate Halloween, we hope it was safe, fun, and you didn't eat too much candy! :)

This week, the first graders completed their Halloween activities from last week.  We moved to "Looking For Dracula," sang "Ghost of John" (in unison and as a round), and heard a spooky story as we sang "Woman All Skin and Bones."  Then, the students learned how to read the rhythmic notation for du and du-de.  We have been echoing rhythmic patterns since September, and now we can read them too!  We also read a story to them - Over the River and Through the Wood - then introduced the Thanksgiving song.

The second grade students are also starting to learn music for Thanksgiving.  We sang all about "Five Fat Turkeys" and how they were scared of the cook that was looking for them!  Then we added two spoken ostinato parts.  Then, the students learned how to transfer the ostinato patterns to the Orff instruments.  

In third grade, we finished our "Pass the Broomstick" game from last week.  Students who were eliminated got to reinforce the steady beat by playing on the egg shakers.  Then, they learned a song for the autumn season called "Pumpkins are Ripe."  The song is in minor tonality, and has a beautiful melody.  Once the song was mastered, we added two different ostinato patterns on the Orff and hand percussion instruments.

The fourth graders finished their Halloween song from last week, Black and Gold.  It was so much fun to play on the instruments in minor tonality. Then, they continued to rehearse their music for next week's Veteran's Day assembly.  Fourth grade parents/families - we would love to have you join us on Wednesday, November 9th at 1:15 p.m.

The fifth grade students had a blast performing Halloween Night.  Some students played an ostinato pattern on the Orff instruments, while others played a scale-based melody.  Then, we had a group playing on hand percussion instruments.  The rest of the students pretended they were witches, skeletons, and goblins in a graveyard who came to life to spook the instrumentalists!  It was SO much fun to do each part, so we rotated to give everyone a chance to try them all.  

In chorus this week, we focused on "Jingle Bells Rock" and "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay."  Please visit this page to find lyrics so you can practice at home.  We will also add some recordings soon!

We also had our first 4th and 5th grade combined orchestra rehearsal this week. Check out their warm-up!

We hope you have a fantastic weekend!