Fifth Grade Notes
Everyone is TUNEFUL, BEATFUL, and ARTFUL!
Welcome!
Welcome to the first music newsletter of the year. I'm very happy with our fifth grade musicians and how easily they have gotten back into the swing of things. This year our goals are to become thoughtful musicians. By the end of the year, the fifth graders should be applying all they have learned from previous years to make beautiful music choices. I can't wait to see how these students grow and change this year.
-Miss Granzow
Recorder Karate Dojo
We have started recorders yet again this year. Students should be bringing home music to practice. These pieces need to come back to school by the next music time. Practicing at home does not necessarily have to involve the recorder making a sound. Here are some ways they students can practice at home.
1. Decode the letter names of the music.
2. Say the letters and place their fingers.
3. Work with the Interactive fingering chart
4. Play on of the following music games
Remind your students that the expectation is that they will have their music and instrument at school every music class!
Conversational Solfege
Music vs. Notation
Ever try to learn a foreign language? You repeated lots of words aurally before the teacher had you look at the word or write it down. Same happens when students are younger. We talk to them, help them learn words and then one day we tell them that you can actually see words and that is called the alphabet.
That is the approach we are taking in music. We do a lot of listening, echoing, and decoding with our ears before we look at the notation. This is secretly showing the students that music is something you hear and notation is something you read. This is probably most difficult for me since I have been bound to notation since I started piano lessons in the second grade.
I've already seen so much growth with the students in using this approach. They have seen me jump up and down with joy when they have decoded rhythms and rhymes. They have really been amazing.
So ask your students about du and dude (pronounced du day) and Miss White Had a Fright. Ask them to create a 4 beat pattern using du and dude. Have them rock your world as much as they rock mine! (Can you tell I'm excited about this? You should be too!)