Music Newsletter
April 26th, 2024
3-5 Music Showcase
Everyone did an amazing job at the 3-5 Music Showcase! I hope you enjoyed listening to all of the songs that the students have been working so hard on!
I know that many of you took videos of the performance, but I wanted to share a video of the K-2 Sing with all of you. Please feel free to pass this video along to family who may have not been able to attend. The video is posted as "unlisted" on YouTube, so it cannot be searched and can only be accessed through this link.
Kindergarten
Last week, the students finished their dynamics unit. The students finished playing their dynamics hide and seek game. During this game, one student is the "hider," and they need to hide something around my classroom. Another student is the "finder." This student is tasked with finding the hidden object. The rest of the class helps the "finder" by singing softly when the "finder" is far away and singing loudly when they are getting close to the hidden object. It's kind of like musical hot and cold! Both classes had a great time playing this game! Students also completed a coloring sheet using dynamic symbols. For these coloring sheets, the students had to discover the mystery monster that each picture created. Between units, the students had the opportunity to play music symbol bingo! All of the students had a blast playing this, and the winners left with some fun mini erasers. We then started their next unit: tempo. Students watched a Quaver episode all about how music can be fast or slow. They then participated in some listening activities where they had to figure out if the music was fast or slow.
1st Grade
Last week, the students finished their instrument families unit. They participated on the end of unit quiz challenge, and both classes passed the quiz with 100%! Since both the classes did such a good job, the students were able to play instrument family 4 corners. The students also completed a musical instrument color by numbers. This was just a standard color by numbers that revealed different types of musical instruments. Between units, the students had the opportunity to play music symbol bingo! All of the students had a blast playing this, and the winners left with some fun mini erasers. We then started their next unit: form. Form describes how music is broken up into different sections. The students watched a short Quaver episode that described some of the important aspects of form and then they were introduced to some different types of form. They learned about AA form, AB (binary) form, and ABA form. The students did a listening activity for each of these types of forms. They also played a couple of listening games to help them practice hearing different sections of music.
3rd Grade
The 3rd graders did a fantastic job at the 3-5 Music Showcase last week! Following the 3-5 Music Showcase, the students took a little break from recorder karate. During their little break, the students had the chance to play music symbol bingo! All of the students had a blast playing this, and the winners left with some fun mini erasers. The students also used musical code to unveil some secret messages. The students had to identify which letter was associated with each musical symbol to figure out what the secret messages were. If the students finished early, they worked on cryptograms with quotes from famous composers. The students then started back up with recorder karate in the hopes of earning their black recorder belts. Students who earned their black belts were able to bring home their recorder and their recorder karate packet. We will be wrapping up with the recorders soon and moving on to some other musical topics.
4th Grade
The 4th graders did an amazing job at the 3-5 Music Showcase last week! Since these students worked so hard preparing for their concert, they had the opportunity to play music symbol bingo! All of the students had a blast playing this, and the winners left with some fun mini erasers. Beginning next week, the students will resume their instrument unit and begin learning about guitars and fretted instruments.
5th Grade
The 5th graders did a wonderful job at the 3-5 Music Showcase last week! Since these students worked so hard preparing for their concert, they had the opportunity to play music symbol bingo! All of the students had a blast playing this, and the winners left with some fun mini erasers. The students then started their Impressionist period music. This unit builds on the musical history knowledge that the students have been gaining since 2nd grade. The students learned about what musical aspects made the Impressionist period unique and listened to some music from this period.