Week Two Comes to a close

Here it is Friday of Week 2 already!  In Many ways it seems like we never left.  I am impressed with how much stuff the kids remembered over the summer.  Now we can start building upon that knowledge and learning more stuff.

1st Grade has been working very hard on keeping a beat while singing, saying poems, and listening to music.  They also have started learning about elemental form (patterns in music) and splitting things in half (both of which are math concepts taught in their classroom). 

2nd Grade has been reviewing the new concepts they learned last year such as quarter note and 2-8th notes and Sol & mi.  Next week we will be extending this learning to include writing, reading and improvising with these things

3rd Grade has been exploring movement with props in preparation for improvisation later on in the year.  They also have been taking rhythmic dictation of 8 beats and writing the rhythm of known poems on their own.

4th Grade has been extending their vocabulary of movement/dance terminology and created dance sentances which were performed in class.  In addition to that, they also reviewed rhythms and took 8 beat dictation and wrote down known poems. 

5th Grade reviewed a song from last year and played it on the barred instruments as well as writing down rhythms from last year.  Next week they will be improvising with the song "who has seen the wind" on the recorders. 

First day of School!

Today is the first day of school, and as I sit here waiting for the first class to arrive, I am energized and excited about the prospects of a new year.  This summer I finished Level 2 (out of 3) of my Orff-Schulwerk training and I am now trying to process all the new information and put it into my classroom this year.  It is a daunting task!  But the ultimate benefit will be the students as they become more creative this year and hopefully more knowledgable.

Don't forget to bookmark this site so you can return to it often.  I will try and update it once a week to let you know what is going on in the music room.  it's s fun place!  Happy First day of school!