Weekly Review 3/27-3/31

The first grade students discussed the instruments of the orchestra and talked about the song, Carnival of the Animals. This hilarious musical suite which consists of fourteen movements is composed by a French composer, Camille Saint-Saëns.  Each movement is about a different animal (except for the little joke) and features different instruments of the orchestra. The animals are having a carnival and everyone is invited to participate, even our own students! After discussing each part, the students had a lot of fun moving around to the music of the various animals. Next week we will watch a movie about the Carnival of the Animals. 

The second graders worked on a class composition.  They will be learning to read music notation next year, so this week we gave them a brief introduction to the staff.  Then, we reviewed rhythmic values and the musical alphabet - there are only 7 letters!   To compose, students took turns with selecting a rhythm (quarter note, eighth note pair, or quarter rest), then choosing a pitch (A, B, C, D, E, F or G).  Students continued until each class had their own song!  During their second music class, students got to pick their partners and added lyrics.  They wrote words to accompany the tune, making sure to match up the correct number of syllables to each rhythm. Next week, they will be performing them.

We are so proud of our third grade students who are making great progress in learning the recorder. The students played Musical Jenga and Old Maid during their centers day.  In their second music class, we reviewed "Lucy Locket" (the green belt song), and learned "Old MacDonald."  Our new note, D, can be a little tricky! The students had to make sure they were covering the holes all the way! We also learned a new song for the recorder concert, "Rock Boom BAG." Here is a picture of one of our students diligently practicing their recorder at home:

Our fourth and fifth grade students designed their own t-shirts for the spring concert. Each student got to pick out a musical element to paint on the front side of the shirt and decorated the back of their shirt with their name, nick name, and their favorite number. Here is a sneak peak at some of their creativity:

In chorus, we finished learning "The Galop" and 5th grade's featured song, "I Have a Shadow. "
All lyrics are now on the blog so please start memorizing your songs! 2017 Spring Concert Lyrics.

As we approach April, we hope this will be the last few days of snow! Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!