Weekly Review 2/12-2/16

First grade students celebrated Valentine's Day by singing, "Heel, Toe, on the Line."  There were two words that the students did not recognize- "Ja" and "Nein." These words mean "Yes" and "No" in German. Each student dances with a partner in a circle and on the word "Nein," the partners turns their back against each other and ends up with a new partner. It was so much fun to see who our new partner was going to be! 

Chinese New Year was celebrated on Friday, Feb. 16th so our students learned a Chinese song and the traditions of this holiday. The Chinese New Year is based on the traditional lunar calendar and this year is the year of the dog! 

The second graders continued their fun instrument family activity: the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra interactive game!  They finished the game with the percussion family! 

This was a BIG week for our third grader friends! They all took their notation test, then finally received their recorders!  If your child is in third grade, here are a few important things to keep in mind:

• The students need to bring their recorders to class for each music day.  
• Mrs. Rzasa and I will be taking "recorder attendance," and three or more unprepared days will result in a call home.  The students will learn best when they have their instrument in school!
• Recorders are only allowed to be played in music and outside of school.  Please remind your child not to play on the bus or in their regular classroom.
• To help students succeed, home practice is necessary.  Please have your child aim for 5 minutes each day.  Of course, more is always good too!  Since the recorders are new, they will likely practice a lot- but this may fade in the coming weeks.  Ask your child to play for you to help encourage them!
• To clean the recorders, you may wash them with warm soapy water, or place them in the TOP RACK of the dishwasher. 
• Thank you- we appreciate your patience and support as your child learns a new instrument!

The fourth and fifth graders started working on rhythm compositions with different musical forms.  The fourth graders are composing in ABA form, where the beginning of the song is the same as the end.  A good example of a song in ABA form is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."  The fifth graders are composing in rondo form, or ABACABA.  The students are using half notes, half rests, quarter notes, quarter rests, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes.  

We did a fun ABA form activity where students froze in different positions to indicate the two parts. Here are some videos:

We hope you have a fabulous and relaxing February vacation!

Weekly Review 2/5-2/9

This week, the first graders did patterns in triple meter. This means that each beat gets divided in to 3 equal parts. We challenged them by making each pattern more difficult than the last. The students did so great with this challenge!  They also finished watching Peter and the Wolf - it was so great to get to hear the beautiful music that Prokofiev composed while watching the movie.

The second grade students continued the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.  Most classes completed the activities for the woodwind family and the string family.  Next week we will be finishing things up with the brass and percussion families.

The third graders learned their first song on the recorder! They used the notes B, A, and G to play Hot Cross Buns.  This happens to be the white belt song for our Recorder Karate program.  If you have a child in third grade, please encourage them to practice at home.  Next week we will start belt testing, and we will be available for extra help in the mornings beginning after break.




The fourth and fifth graders continued to focus on rhythm this week in preparation for their composing unit - ABA form for 4th and rondo form for 5th.  They also reviewed all of the hand percussion instruments.  Here are some 5th graders introducing you to some of the instruments!



In chorus, the students started to learn new languages! The fourth graders were singing "J'entends le Moulin," which means "I hear the mill." It is a traditional French Canadian folk song. Fifth graders worked on a Columbian dance song, "Cumbia del Sol."  It was so much fun!

We hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Weekly Review 1/29-2/2

This week, the first grade students have continued their Peter and the Wolf unit by watching the movie! We don't watch movies often in music class, but this one is a great way for the students to connect the story with the music.  Next week, they will be finishing this unit with a fun and exciting activity! Students also added another hand clapping routine to, "A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea."





The second grade students have been learning about the four main instrument families, and this week they started to learn about the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.  The piece was composed by Benjamin Britten, a famous English composer, in 1946.   It was written to help teach children about the instruments of the orchestra.  The second graders played an interactive Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra game in class- it is a listening activity that takes you on a safari adventure as you visit the four instrument families and unlock each of their games.

Third grade students received a very special instrument this week- A RECORDER!! Students were very excited about this. Here is some information to help your students succeed with the recorder:

• The students need to bring their recorders to class for each music day.  
• Mrs. Rzasa and I will be taking "recorder attendance," and three or more unprepared days will result in a call home.  The students will learn best when they have their instrument in school!
• Recorders are only allowed to be played in music and outside of school.  Please remind your child not to play on the bus or in their regular classroom.
• To help students succeed, home practice is necessary.  Please have your child aim for 5 minutes each day.  Of course, more is always good too!  Since the recorders are new, they will likely practice a lot- but this may fade in the coming weeks.  Ask your child to play for you to help encourage them!
• To clean the recorders, you may wash them with warm soapy water, or place them in the TOP RACK of the dishwasher. 
• Thank you- we appreciate your patience and support as your child learns a new instrument!

Our fourth and fifth graders are beginning their composition unit!  We reviewed all the different note values from our recorder unit in third grade- quarter note, quarter rest, half note, and an eighth note pair.  For our fifth graders, we added a half rest. Next week, they will be choosing their partners  and writing their compositions. Fourth grade students will compose an "ABA" form and fifth grade students will compose a Rondo form, also known as "ABABA."

Here is a picture of a 5th grade student helping out a 4th grade student on the cello during recess time.