Sing about Martin.....

This week we have all sung songs about Martin Luther King.  Our song of the day was Sing About Martin, which is a call/response song.

Kindergarten did a speech piece called Martin Luther King in ABA form. The A part was loud and we used drums and triangles. The B part was soft and we used sticks.

First grade used their Big Book and read about Martin and sang 2 songs called Martin Luther King and Everybody Oughta Know.  Both songs use an AABA form.

We have also been learning about loud and soft. We played a singing game in PK and K called Grizzly Bear.  When the bear gets woke up, he is very LOUD AND MAD!!!

PK has enjoyed their loud and soft Quaver stories.  This week we did "The Cowboy Cavelier Comes Home". He sings softly when he is in the hot desert and loud when he is close to home.  We also listened to the story "The Rain, The Wind, and the Cloud".  The 3 characters are fighting over who is louder and who is softer. The sun comes and helps them solve their problem by teaching us that it really doesn't matter b/c we all need to work together and be friends.

It has been a fun week in music class! Enjoy your 3 day weekend!

New Year, New Start!

First of all, December was a blast in music class. Our Christmas programs were fabulous! I'm very proud of our students.

This week has been a great week in music class.  Here is what we have done this week.

PK completed 2 lessons this week. The first one had a "New Year, New Start" theme.  We talked about how making a fresh or new start can feel good. We watched a Quaver story called JJ's Big List. JJ had a list of new, different, and exciting things he wanted to do in the new year.  After our story, we sang the song "This Little Light of Mine". We talked about how we could let our light shine in 2019.  We listened to Handel's Music for Royal Fireworks and jumped to the beat.

The 2nd lesson PK did was about the ocean and loud and soft sounds. We sang two songs: "At the bottom of the sea" and "Charlie Over the Ocean".  Our Quaver story was about Charlie and how he caught his big fish.  Ask your child, how Charlie caught his fish? Also, ask them if Charlie's dad snores loudly or softly?
We sang the song Charlie Over the Ocean loud and soft. Then we listened to Camille St. Saen's Aquarium music and pretended to be a fish.

K-1 have had a great week too! We read or well sang the book Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See.  Then we played the singing game with our music friends(puppets and beanie babies).  Every child sang a solo with this activity.
We also read the book Polar Bear Polar Bear What do you Hear.  In this book, the students created the animal sounds.  We used zoo pal plates to create an animal song on our carpet.  It was very fun to perform our song as a class!
We also talked about loud and soft sounds.  We really like Haydn's Surprise Symphony.

It has been a fabulous week in music class!

November fun in music class

November is a short but busy month in music. There is a lot of days off due to holidays, such as election day and veterans day.  We also had a PD day for teachers. Then throw in Thanksgiving Break and we really don't have much school left; however, we have made lots of music. 

First, we celebrated Veterans Day by singing patriotic songs. We had our program and I am very proud of our students. The veterans loved our program.  

Second, we did manage to squeeze in some Thanksgiving fun in music class.  We did an ABA form version of the song Five Fat Turkeys.  Those silly turkeys are hiding from the cook so they won't be cooked on Thanksgiving Day.  We also did the pumpkin song/game.  The kids really like this activity. When they get out, they get to play pumpkin shakers.  

We also squeezed in a little Thanksgiving Freeze Dance fun before break! 

After Thanksgiving break we will begin the process of learning songs for our Christmas program.  

Tiny Awards

This week we started using tiny awards. These little slips of paper are given out to 1-2 students each class.

They may be given out for the following:
1. super singer
2. awesome listener
3. Caught you being awesome
4. Dancing Machine
5. Musician of the Day

Watch your child's folder to see when they receive one.

Patriotic and Halloween fun in music class

We have learned 2 more patriotic songs in music class. We sang God Bless America and God Bless the USA. We learned that God Bless the USA had a pattern to it: verse, chorus, verse, chorus.

We added 2 letters to our music alphabet wall. We learned H for Harp and I for Igil.  The harp is a string instrument and we watched a video of a lady playing JS Bach's Toccata and Fugue on the harp. The Igil is a string instrument from central Asia. We also watched a video of a man playing the igil.

We had some fun with the witches pot this week. All classes did the spooky rhythm brew and read rhythmic patterns that included quarter, 2 eighths, and quarter rests.  We also did the Witches Brew.

K-1 classes had some fun doing the Pumpkin Pumpkin partner game this week.

We also used the book Dem Bones and learned the song and skeleton dance.

Overall, it was another fantastic week in the music classroom.  We ended our week by celebrating Halloween at the school. Our Halloween parade and trunk or treat event was very fun. The high school band provided entertainment for this event. They did a fabulous job!

Spiders in music class

It has been a few weeks since I've updated. Last week, my daughter had strep so we missed a few days of school.  We have started working on patriotic songs to prepare for our annual Veterans Day performance. 
We have been using the "work first, then play" habit in music. We practice our patriotic songs, then we have some Halloween fun. 

Here are some of the fun Halloween activities we have done:
1. There's a Spider on the Floor (we loved playing with the spiders)

2. Songs: Skin and Bones, Pumpkin Bones

3. We read the book "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything" and added instruments to the book to make the sound affects.

4. PK and K learned 5 Little Pumpkins.

We also had 2 instruments added to our music alphabet wall.  We added the Flute and the Gong this week. 

We also added several words to our word wall.  We got to walk to the high school this week for a theatre performance.  We talked about the words audience, applause, and characters.  We really enjoyed the performance and the students were an awesome audience!

It has been a crazy but fun few weeks for sure. Stay tuned for more updates!

Frogs, scarves, and beanbags and more.......

Well it's Wednesday and there is 1 more day in this school week. No school for kiddos on Friday! Teachers have Professional Development training. 

We have had a super week in music class!

PK has done 2 Quaver lessons. The first one was about 5 green frogs who were sitting on a log and couldn't count backwards from 5-1.  They asked a dragonfly for help.  After learning this story, we sang the song "5 green and speckled frogs".  The second lesson was about high and low and magic words.  Our friends Boobam and Songbird never got a sucker from their bird friend because they didn't say the word "Please".  After learning this story, we sang a song called "High Low Wherever You Go(please say please and thank you). 
We used scarves to move to high and low sounds in Tchaikovsky's Chinese Dance from the Nutcracker. 

Kindergarten has had a super fun week. We had an introduction to rhythm this week.  We used rhythm sticks, scarves, and beanbags to help us with this lesson.  We sang a few songs we have learned in the past few weeks also with this lesson.  Kindergarten also played a fun game called "ABC Sing With Me" and we learned about rest (silent beats) in this game. 

1st grade used rhythm sticks to echo some rhythmic patterns that I played for them.  We watched a Quaver video about rhythm.  We learned that bar lines help make measures. 

Overall, it's been another fantastic week in the music classroom at Chapmanville Primary!!