Two Little Blackbirds

While the rest of our students are preparing for their holiday programs, preschoolers are continuing their work on becoming "Tuneful, Beatful, and Artful."  They have been learning a fingerplay called Two Little Blackbirds.  Ask them to perform it for you.  

Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill.

One named Jack, the other named Jill.

Fly away Jack, fly away Jill.

Come back Jack, come back Jill.

Hear Mrs. Mueller's preschool class performing this fingerplay below.

Holiday Program Preparation

I hope you have been enjoying our music class blog as a way to see and hear what your students have been working on in music.  We are getting started on music for our Holiday Programs today, so I won't be posting any singing samples for the next month so I don't ruin the surprise.  Please join us at our in-school programs to find out what your students have been working on!

A Grateful Nation

Chorus students are preparing a song to sing at our Veteran's Day assembly next week.  This song is called "A Grateful Nation."  Though their performance on Veteran's Day is just for Memorial students, we will be performing this song again for family and friends at our Winter Concert in December.

 

Fall Concert

Congratulations to our Maroon Band members on their first Middle School concert!

Students performed two songs: "Creature Feature" and "Freedom Finale" with the Middle School Band.  They did a fantastic job!  If you missed the concert, see their performance below:





Their next concert with the Middle School Band will be Thursday, December 15.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin

Second and third graders have been exploring some harmony using the song "Pumpkin, Pumpkin" (or "Leaves are Falling").

Ask your child to sing the song for you:

Pumpkin, pumpkin
Round and fat.
Turn into a jack 'o lantern
Just like that.

Or a fall variation:

Leaves are falling
All around.
Rake them in a big leaf pile
On the ground.

After learning this song, we added a rhythmic ostinato (repeating pattern).  This help students develop independence between parts of music.  It is difficult to sing and clap a rhythm at the same time!

Third graders moved on to singing this song as a round (singing in two groups and starting at different times).  This added an extra challenge!

Then, both grades added some movement to the song with a partner switching, clapping game!

Musical Form

Fifth graders just completed a unit about form in music.  They learned that the form of a song is determined by the sections that are the same or similar, and the sections that are different.  We used two songs that the students are familiar with: "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake and "I'm on Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons.

Students listened to the songs and used shapes to show where they heard similar and different sections.

Then, we added rhythms to the form.  Each shape was assigned a different rhythm.  We were able to play our rhythm patterns along with the songs on rhythm sticks, which really helped us to feel the different sections.  This was also a great way to practice the rhythms we learned in fourth grade!

White Belts!

Fourth grade students earned their white belts!

Students have been using a new recorder book this year, so we started our Recorder Karate program over.  For each concept that students learn, their class has a chance to earn a karate belt (yarn) for their recorder by showing mastery on the topic.

The white belt topics were notes E and G and rhythms "ta" and "ti-ti."  Students showed mastery by performing "Lemonade," "No Robbers Out Today," and "Quaker, Quaker."  All classes did a fantastic job!

Students will also have the chance to test individually and earn beads to add to their belts.  For white belt, students could earn beads on the songs "See Saw" and "Starlight Star Bright."