This Week in Music (12/7-12/11)

This week in music (December 7-11)

Please don’t forget that we have our 4th and 5th grade concert tonight (Dec. 7) at 6:30pm! Come on out and see what the 4th and 5th graders have been working on!

Kindergarten:

This week we will be discussing the first act of the Nutcracker- specifically the March and the epic battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King! We will be reading the first half of the book and watching excerpts from the ballet. Students will be coloring a glyph of a Nutcracker based on the things they hear in the March.

1st Grade:

Because some of our instruments are being borrowed for the concert, some of our first grade classes will be getting a quick overview of the Nutcracker and watching highlights. The rest of the classes will be continuing playing in our instrumentarium (the other classes will catch up next week!). We will be learning about the “home” note of C and how to go “up” and “down” on the keyboards.

2nd and 3rd grade:

We will be reviewing our concert music and learning more about the cultures of the songs they learned last week. We will also be organizing our passports (where we have been documenting our “travels”) and hopefully learning some choreography if we have time.

4th and 5th grade:

We have been rehearsing for our performance tonight, and starting tomorrow we will be self-evaluating our performance. Even students who are not able to attend the concert have contributed to our performance in many ways, so we want to be sure we understand how and why our efforts either succeeded or had trouble!

Lion King Kids:

We announced cast last week, so Thursday we will have our first read-through of the show and start working on “One by One”, “Circle of Life”, and “I Just Can’t Wait to be King”.

This Week in Music! 11/30-12/4

Hello everyone!  In an effort to keep everyone more informed I’ve decided to have weekly updates about what is going on in Music class!

 

November 30-December 4:

Kindergarten:

By now our Kindergarteners know an impressive amount of songs including:

Hello (How do you do?)

Three Little Muffins

ABCs (a funky variation)

Hello, there!

CopyCat

Walk to School

Chop, Chop

Five Little Ladies

Apple Tree

Fruits and Vegetables

Autumn Leaves

The Pumpkin Song

Things I’m Thankful For

These songs cover a variety of items in the Kindergarten Music Curriculum including: knowing the different timbres our voices can use (singing, whispering, yelling, talking), echoing, following directions, moving to express themselves musically, showing fast and slow sounds, and keeping the steady beat.  The kindergarteners also sing to “Fred” the cat each week (which is really improvisation!)

This week our Kindergarteners will be discussing “What is Ballet?”  in preparation for our Nutcracker unit.

1st grade:

Over the last couple of weeks most of our 1st grade classes got an introduction to our Instrumentarium.  This is a collection of percussion instruments including glockenspiels, metallophones, xylophones, and drums.  This week we will be reviewing the instrument names, practicing our procedures (rest, ready, and playing position) and learning about how to play the instruments “hands together” and “alternating hands”.  Students will rotate through all the instruments throughout the course of this unit and also will take turns conducting the group.

2nd and 3rd grades:

We have begun learning songs for our Spring Concert (yes- this early- but I promise there’s good reason for it!).  2nd grade has learned the songs Ulili ‘E (from Hawaii), Singabahambayo (from South Africa), and A La Rueda (from Mexico) and 3rd grade has learned the songs Hambe No Uta (From Japan), Cidade Maravilhasa (from Brazil) and Holi Re (from India) and both grades have learned the songs My Country Tis of Thee and America.

This week we will be looking at our map and trying to figure out which continents we’ve missed and what we can do about it!  2nd grade will be learning the song “Funiculi, Funicula” from Italy and 3rd grade will be learning the song “Waltzing Matilda” from Australia.

4th and 5th grades:

4th and 5th grades are finishing up their concert music and will be rehearsing in the gym to get ready for their concert on December 8 (at 6:30pm in the multipurpose room).

If you have a child participating in the concert please have them to the gym no later than 6:15pm on December 8.  They will go immediately to their places on stage.  Please have students dress nicely, but comfortably- and no dresses or skirts please!  We will be playing drums, sitting on the floor, etc, so better to play it safe!

Thanks so much!

Amy Koo

 

All About Us

Over the past few weeks the 3rd and 5th grade students have been working on some presentations about the kind of music that is influential in thier lives.  I have learned so much about the kids at Root from this project!  Here are just a few of the things I have learned:

 

1.  The students at Root have sophisticated (and extremely varied)  tastes in music!  I saw names and words like Frank Sinatra, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Aerosmith, Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, Adele, One Direction, Demi Lovato, Shakira, Jazz, Country, Rock and Roll, Hip-hop, Latin music, and so much more!

2.  The students at Root are musical!  I saw so many children mention that they played piano, guitar, drums, or sang!  I even saw a few student bands listed!

3.  The students at Root have great tastes in musicians. 😉  I saw names like Mrs. Moorman-Smith, Mrs. Koo, and Mr. Ware listed as musical inspirations. 

 

One goal for this project was to make sure that we all understood that every kind of music is music, and every kind of music is valued and respected in my music classroom.  When we presented these to our classes we made sure that everyone was supportive, no matter what kind of music was mentioned.  We all have our own tastes in music (that’s what makes us unique), and that’s ok! 

Without further ado, here are some examples of our work:

 

What we are up to in class: Week of August 26

Hello!  This week we are busy building our own Tagxedo pictures.  By Friday we will be presenting them to our classes, and explaining what the words mean, what kind of music we enjoy, and who our musical influences are.  Meanwhile, we are also jamming out to the sesame street song “What I Am” by Will.I.Am and getting our music centers set up.  Keep your eyes peeled:  I will post some of our Tagxedos and some pics of our centers in the next couple of days.

 

What does your favorite music say about your personality?

Hi again!  Have you ever wondered what your favorite kind of music says about your personality?  I often have, especially since I have such a diverse interest in music.  I actually listen to almost any kind of music, depending on the mood I am in.  With that being said, let me show you my first infographic!

 

I apologize for the pictues- I’m a bit paranoid about copyright-as most music/library teachers are, so I drew them all myself!  You can see why I didn’t go into art.  🙂

Our first lesson in second, third, fourth, and fifth grade music class will be exploring the kinds of music we listen to, which is why I thought this topic might be interesting.  While we won’t be making an infographic (yet) we will be showing our musical interests and background through another visual aid:

For this I used a site called tagxedo.  For my infographic I used a site called Easel.ly

I think these are great ways to both present and receive information, especially for visual learners.  Are any of you visual learners?  Leave me a comment and let me know!  I am a kinesthetic learner, which means I learn best by doing.  I am especially good at learning through teaching.  For example; I still attribute my A in college Biology to my ex-boyfriend.  He slept through the entire class and I had to stay up all night before the final exam to reteach the information to him.  I was not happy about it at the time, but later I realized that I probably would not have understood the information as well if I had not had to teach it to him!

Less than a week until teacher workdays begin, and less than two weeks until school starts!  I can’t wait to meet everyone!  Have a great last few weeks of summer!