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!!

Pirates and Apples in Music Class

Last week we celebrated Talk Like a Pirate day in music class. We sang the song "Talk Like A Pirate day" and a Quaver song called "Stinky Pirates".  It was a fun week.

We also started our music alphabet. We did A is for autoharp. We got to see an autoharp and we sang a song while I accompanied them on the instrument.

1st grade had a blast learning the song gilly gilly gilly good morning and Miss Mary Mack.  We played a partner game with Miss Mary Mack.

Kindergarten and 1st grade played a partner game with the song Bow Wow Wow.

PK did a Quaver lesson and we learned that "if we listen we can learn".  Our musical story of the week was called "Tortoise and the Hare: The Rematch".  Hare lost the race b/c he did not listen to his family members when they told him to look at the map and he got lost. 

This week we had some apple fun! We sang the songs "Do You Know the Apple Man?(Johnny Appleseed), Apples and Bananas(using our vowel sounds), and Apple Tree(passing game).  We also did a speech piece called 5 Rosy Apples and used mallets to play on the bells on the word of the day "apple". 

We learned a new instrument of the day with the letter B for Banjo.  We learned that the autoharp and banjo are both string instruments.  We got to see a short video of Kermit the Frog playing the banjo with Steve Martin. 

Overall it's been a great couple weeks in the music room!

Another week of music fun!

We have had a very good week in music class this week!

Our somg of the day was the Star Spangled Banner. We learned that Francis Scott Key wrote the words on September 14, 1814 on a British ship. We also learned some etiquette for the song.

PK students learned about fast and slow. We had a lot of fun learning the Old Gray Cat song/game.

Kindergarten students finished up our lessons on the 4 voices.  We really enjoyed playing 4 corners. Ask your child about the 4 voices: whisper, talk, shout, and sing.  While playing 4 corners, we learned what a choir does.  We also had a big discussion on which voice a rock band would fit under: shouting or singing. (that's a tough one, isn't it?)

1st grade students had a week of patriotic fun. We learned the history of the Star Spangled Banner. We know that Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the song and we even know where he was when he wrote it.  We also sang the song "America-My Country Tis of Thee".

It has been a fabulous week in music class!! Stay tuned for some exciting things coming up in music class.