Weekly Review 1/20 - 1/24

This week in music, the first graders started studying Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." It is a story and musical piece by the Russian composer.  We read the book first, then started a listening map in the second class.  As the students listened to the story and orchestral music (narrated by Patrick Stewart), they completed the activities in each box.  Each part of the map included a fun activity, such as drawing the different characters and identifying different instruments. We will be finishing this activity next week. Here is a list of all the character in the fairytale. Each character in the story represents an instrument and has a musical theme:

• Bird: Flute
• Duck: Oboe
• Cat: Clarinet
• Grandfather: Bassoon
• Wolf: French Horns
• Hunters: woodwind theme, with gunshots on timpani and bass drum
• Peter: String Instruments

The second grade students continued their instrument family unit. This week they learned about the brass and woodwind families. 

Common Brass Instruments:

• Trumpet
• Trumbone
• French Horn
• Tuba

Common Woodwind Instruments:

• Piccolo
• Flute
• Clarinet
• Oboe
• Saxophone
• Bassoon

The third graders visited the amazing Cary Hall to see the Lexington Symphony perform! The student saw a few familiar faces in the orchestra - from when the symphony's quartet visited Memorial.

They were taken on a musical journey through time, starting in the year 900.  Music was primarily vocal (sung by voice) until the Renaissance, when recorders and drums were popular.  Little by little, instruments were added, such as violin, viola, cello and bass (very common in the Baroque period).

In the late Baroque and Classical periods, concertos were performed! Unfortunately, the young musician who was going to perform was sick and unable to attend. We hope he feels better soon!

In addition, more wind, brass, and percussion instruments were added to the ensemble!

Pretty soon, everyone was on stage, and the students were introduced to some lesser-known (but still important!) instruments such as as the contrabassoon, bass clarinet, and English horn.

By the end of the concert, there was a full modern symphony orchestra on stage!  As a finale, they played a medley of Star Wars, composed by John Williams.  This was certainly a favorite!

 Big thanks to the parents who volunteered to chaperone- we hope you had fun too!

The fourth and fifth graders are learning how to play ukuleles! If your child has their own ukulele, they are more than welcome to bring it to their first music class of the week (Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday). This week, they learned the parts of the ukulele and how to play a C-chord. Changing chords is very important so we practiced changing from an open strum to a C-chord. 

The fifth graders remembered some of the chords from last year, so they were also able to review A minor and F major. Then they did a ukulele play along on YouTube! 

We hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Weekly Review 1/6 - 1/10

Wow, our first full week of school in 2020!

This week, the first graders learned a silly movement chant called "Hands, Hands." We warmed up our cold bodies by moving just one body part at a time. We also sang a winter song called "I Have a Little Snowman."  It explores movement and pitch in a scale.  As the song continues, the pitch of the song rises, and when the snowman melts the pitch returns back to the starting note (do).  After we reviewed our solfege tones, we learned a fun song and game called "Doggie, Doggie." One student played the part of the dog who was sleeping in the middle of the room while another student distributed the bone to one person in the room as the class sang the song. Whoever had the bone on the phrase, "Who stole the bone?" got to sing the solo part of "I stole the bone!" It was so fun to see students guessing who they thought had the bone.

The second graders reviewed a musical term from last year: tempo. Tempo is the speed of a piece of music. We practiced listening and moving to various tempos with a song called "Freight Train." Students also had a chance to compose a "tempo story." The class chose a topic, then as each part of the story was added, students determined its tempo: adagio, andante, or allegro (slow, medium, or fast). Next week. they will "perform" the story on percussion instruments, following the changing tempos.

To prepare for their upcoming field trip, the third grade students had an exciting visit on Tuesday from four members of the Lexington Symphony Orchestra. Students got up close and personal with the violin, viola, clarinet, and tuba (or "TUUUUBAAAAA!"). The performers played beautiful music and taught us about their instruments.   We discussed the four instrument families (string, brass, woodwind, and percussion), and learned a little bit about concert etiquette.

The fourth and fifth grade students started a new unit - chords!  A chord (unlike a pitch or interval) is a group of three or more pitches played at the same time.  There are MANY different chords in the music world, but we focused on chords with three or four notes.  We explored the different tonalities that the chords can possess and a process for building a chord that will sound good every time!  Once everyone knew how to build a chord, we used the classroom floor staff to learn how to notate and label them.

The fourth graders also learned a song for the New Year, "Auld Lang Syne" (a Scottish tune that is typically heard right after the ball drops in Times Square!).  Next week, we will be adding a chordal accompaniment to the song using the tone chimes. 

The fifth grade students plaed chords along with a fun song from the 80s by a Norwegian band called A-ha...Take on Me!

Weekly Review 12/9-12/13

We can't believe 2019 is coming to an end soon. Here is what we did in music this week:

Our first grade students have been working really hard to prepare for their Winter Showcase on Wednesday, Dec. 18th at 1:30pm. Incase you have not received the invitation, here it is:

Dear Parents,

We would like to invite you and your family to our annual First Grade Winter Showcase on Wednesday, December 18th at 1:30 p.m. in the Cafetorium.  

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Niu and Mrs. Rzasa

Music Specialists

**If you would like to dismiss your child after the assembly, please send a note to the office. 

Second graders have been studying about the famous ballet, "The Nutcracker."
They watched, The Nutcracker movie featuring the New York City Ballet. The students learned that in a ballet, the story is conveyed through dance and movement instead of through spoken words.  The only voice you hear is the narrator, who occasionally speaks to give extra details about the story.

The third grade students reviewed the parts of the staff as well as the line and space notes.  Then they played a fun staff games to reinforce what they have learned. The game is played on the floor staff, and it's called, "On Your Mark, Get Set, Notate!" They can't wait to start learning the recorder in February!

Congratulations to all our 4th and 5th grade students on a wonderful Winter Concert! You all worked very hard and should be proud of yourselves!

Have a wonderful weekend and stay dry!

Weekly Review 12/2 - 12/6

We hope you had a fun and safe snow day this week!

The first graders are really excited to show you what they have been learning in music this year! They are busy rehearsing for their first music performance. It will be on Wednesday, Dec. 18th @ 1:30pm.  A letter with details went home earlier this week. They learned the musical terms verse and refrain with the song "Jingle Bells."  A verse is a section of a song that has the same music but different lyrics. The REfrain is the part of the song that we REmember because the music and lyrics get REpeated at least more than once. We also learned a fun song called "Rock and Roll Snowman" for our showcase.

The second grade students learned about our new composer for December, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He is a Russian composer who wrote The Nutcracker.   We reviewed the March (a song from The Nutcracker that they danced to in first grade).  Each student listened carefully to the different themes in the song and moved like soldiers, puppets, and mice!  Then, they learned a brand new dance for the Trepak.  The students even danced with scarves!



The third graders have started their music notation unit to help prepare them for the recorder.  First, they learned about the staff, and then we added the treble clef, time signature, bar lines, double bar line, repeat sign, and labeled the measures. The students did a wonderful job drawing and labeling these musical items. Here are some pictures:

The fourth and fifth graders had their first two rehearsals on stage, and did such an amazing job! We can't wait for you to hear them perform on Wednesday, December 11th at 6 pm!

Weekly Review 11/18-11/22

First grade students are beginning to prepare for their Winter Showcase on Wednesday, December 18th at 1:30pm. Mark your calendars! Students reviewed various rhythm notations- du, du-de, and rest. We played a Turkey Tango game which reinforced rhythm reading.

The second grade students learned a song called, "Five Fat Turkeys." This song reinforced the musical terms- melody and ostinato.  A melody is a "sweet succession of arrangement of sounds" and an ostinato is a repeated musical phrase.  We used Boomwhackers as a percussion accompaniment. 
Students also performed the Tango.

Third grade students learned about verse and refrain form while singing a hilarious song called "The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven"(to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean").  There are 5 verses in this song, and each was assigned to a different group of students. Here are performances from Mrs. Kip and Mrs. Ferullo's class:




Our fourth and fifth grade students are in full concert rehearsal mode now. We took a little break and performed songs on the Boomwhacker. The students had so much fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly Review 11/14 - 11/15

Well, this was a short week, wasn't it? That doesn't mean we weren't busy in the music room!

The first grade students continued the fun "Bluebird, Bluebird" game from last week!  Different students had the opportunity to pretend they were bluebirds while the class sang.  We reinforced high voice and low voice during "oh, Johnny aren't you tired?" Next, we read Over the River and Through the Woods, then sang the song.  As an added treat, next week the students will learn some sign language to perform on the words "over," "through," "grandfather," "horse," "sleigh," "white," "snow," "wind," "stings," "bites," and "go."

The second graders played a new-to-them instrument, the Boomwhackers! Boomwhackers are a set of colorful plastic tubes that produce a different pitch when struck.

The longest tube (with the lowest pitch) is C, and then the pitches ascend through the musical diatonic scale up to the smallest tube, high C.  We took turns playing the Boomwhackers, then even played some familiar songs such as "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star!"

The third graders also had some Boomwhacker fun this week! They performed slightly more advanced music than the second graders, and it was so much fun! They even did a few Boomwhacker Playalongs, which are videos that can be found on YouTube. Each one has a different accompaniment, and the students provide the melody on the Boomwhackers when prompted!

The fourth and fifth graders did a wonderful job in their chorus rehearsals. Some even auditioned for spoken and singing solos! We are so proud of how far they have come, and cannot wait for our winter concert next month!

We hope you have a great weekend!

Weekly Review 10/28 - 11/1

We had an amazing week in music!

The first graders learned a song and played a game called "Flap and Fly." Bats are nocturnal mammals, which means they sleep in the daytime and are awake at night. The students decorated bats while listening to music, then played the game! The bats were asleep while the lights were on, then a student (the Sun) turned off the lights so the bats could dance and sing!  When the sun came up, the lights were turned back on and the bats fell asleep.

The second graders had a D.A.R.E presentation with Officer Shepard for their first music class. In their send class this week, they learned a fun song called "Witches' Brew!" The song features a fun refrain with silly dance moves, and they loved singing it over and over during the song! The verses included lyrics with gross "ingredients" to put into the witches' brew!

The third grade students read a story called The 13 Days of Halloween...suspiciously similar to the 12 Days of Christmas - only spooky!  We sang the song in minor tonality, and some students helped us out by holding up posters for each day.  Our favorite parts: 5 cooked worms, and the evil laugh at the end!

The fourth graders continued to rehearse for their Veterans Day Assembly. We hope to see the family and friends of the fourth grade students on Thursday, November 7th at 1:30! They also sang the partner songs "Black and Gold" and "Trick or Treat."  They sounded SO cool when sung at the same time! Then, they played a short ostinato to accompany the songs on the metallophones and xylophones.

The fifth graders completed the fun song, "Halloween Night," which they started last week. Everyone had a chance to play the Orff instruments, the hand percussion instruments, and act out a graveyard scene. They also listened to an interesting piece of music by a composer named Henry Cowell. It is called "The Banshee," and the students tried to guess what instrument/s was/were featured. Ask your child to teach you about this piece...it has a surprising answer!

We hope you had a fantastic weekend!