Student Performances!

What have we been up to????

We are so excited to share with you student performances!  Here is a brief overview of what we have been up to in the music room followed by a Padlet of Dolvin student performances of bringing stories to life through music in 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade.  We will have videos for 3rd and K next month.  Please consider leaving a message for our students on the Padlet wall of their video. Simply click on the pencil under the picture of the video and type. Be sure to leave your name so we know who left the message. Also, the posts will be approved before they post, so don't be alarmed if your message doesn't appear right away.

All students have finally begun study for our second unit, melody and pitch!

Kindergarten:

We have begun learning about our new unit, melody! Included in our unit is differentiating between voices of men, women, and children. To focus on these differences we acted out the opera of "Hansel and Gretel". The kids had a great time! Don't be surprised if they start begging to go to the opera! Students were excited to experiement with high and low sounds through movement, instrument play, and vocals.  We took the story of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and add instrumental improvisation on the barred instruments, or Orff instruments.  Each time the little Billy Goat Gruff spoke, the glockenspiels played their high notes, followed by the soprano xylophones and metallophones for the second Billy Goat Gruff, then the alto xylophones and metallophones for the third and largest Billy Goat Gruff. The bass xylophones and metallophones had a blast playing each time the Troll spoke.  Kindergartners were able to make the connection between smaller instruments making higher sounds while larger instruments made lower sounds.

First Grade:

First graders have begun learning the words for their upcoming musical, "Lemonade". You may hear them singing at home! They are sooooo excited.  In addition, we have been playing with low and high pitch and the term melodic direction by adding instrument sounds to the story "Mortimer".  As members of Mortimer's family travel up and down the stairs, we too travel up (higher) and down (lower) the barred instruments.  As winter approaches, we also spent some time talking about the Fall and what happens to the leaves and added music and melodic direction with the barred instruments and scarves and the story "Leaf Man".

Check out our performances from last month's "The Vanishing Pumpkin".  Please consider leaving our classes a personal message! Simply click on the pencil under the video you wish to comment on and leave some encouraging words for our students.  All posts will be moderated; therefore, you may not see the post right away.

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Second Grade:

After finishing up our performances of "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything", second grade students have been also playing with melodic direction and the story of "Mortimer" on the instruments.  This week we are introducing reading pitch syllables on the staff using Shelley Tomich's "Pitch Hill" and a little help from the Sound of Music to instill the reason why we learn pitch syllables.  Through Quaver's graphics and play along side tracks, students were reading and singing sol and mi as a quick review in no time!

Check out our performances from last month's "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything".  Please consider leaving our classes a personal message! Simply click on the pencil under the video you wish to comment on and leave some encouraging words for our students.  All posts will be moderated; therefore, you may not see the post right away.

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Third Grade:

Students have been playing with melodic direction with the story of "Little Bunny Foo Foo" and melodic play on the barred instruments.  Then we have been focusing on identify and truly defining the terms pitch and melody with the song "Rocky Mountain". Students added an Orff arrangement and a partner folk dance.  Be looking for the videos soon!  We also played with parachutes to demonstrate melodic direction and to serve as a quick diagnostic assessment tool.

Fourth Grade:

To kick off our unit, we focused on tonality with major and minor modes.  Taking what we knew about minor, the fourth graders actually chose their own instrumentation to bring the story of "Where the Wild Things Are" to life.  This week we plan on focusing in on melody and pitch with a quick review as to melodic direction and introduction to solfege.

Check out our performances from last month's "Where the Wild Things Are".  Please consider leaving our classes a personal message! Simply click on the pencil under the video you wish to comment on and leave some encouraging words for our students.  All posts will be moderated; therefore, you may not see the post right away.

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Fifth Grade:
We have been playing with bringing the story of "Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance" to life by layering in ostinatos to a backbeat underneath student rappers.  Each class created an 8 beat melody that was to be added to our production.  The class voted on the ostinato that they wanted to represent their classroom.  They really impressed me with their enthusiasm and ability.  This week we have switched gears and are diving in full force with our melody unit. Students will take a diagnostic assessment and experiment with melodic direction on the barred instruments with the song "We Willie Winkie".  Their favorite parts are the glissando and the gong!  

We would like to take a second to recognize and thank our inspiration for the Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance lesson and Orff activities at www.bethsmusicnotes.blogspot.com and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5RQ0hl4E-0&list=FL_ft9jSWg7TBbhJ2GQtlyFg&index=8 

Check out our performances from last month's "Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance".  Please consider leaving our classes a personal message! Simply click on the pencil under the video you wish to comment on and leave some encouraging words for our students.  All posts will be moderated; therefore, you may not see the post right away.

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We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break and look forward to picking up where we left off when we return!

Happy Thanksgiving!