Winter Choir Practice Videos

Our Grade Three Winter Choir's Community Tour is just one week away!  

On Tuesday, December 13th, we will be visiting Robert Thirsk High School, the Crowfoot Library and the Rocky Ridge Retirement Community to sing some festive holiday music.  We want to share our best work with our neighbours, so I've posted videos of each of our songs so you can practice, practice, practice!  

Sing along to "Gonna Catch That Santa"!

Bust a move with "Holiday Rock"!

Boogey down with "He'll Be Comin' Down the Chimney"!

Celebrate with "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"!

Frolic with "Frosty the Snowman"!

And finally . . . "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"!

Winter Choir for Grade Three Students

Royal Oak School is excited to offer our Grade Three Students an opportunity to participate in our Winter Choir!  We will meet over the lunch hour (12:15 – 12:45) on Mondays and Wednesdays from November 14^th – December 12^th.

During this time, we will prepare seasonal music to perform in the community on December 13^th.  We will be singing in three venues:

Permission Form 

            - Robert Thirsk High School,

            - Crowfoot Branch of the Calgary Public Library, and

            - Rocky Ridge Retirement Community.

To ensure our final performance is as strong as possible, students are required to attend all rehearsals. If your child would like to commit to this club, please sign and return the form that was distributed today by Thursday, November 10^th.  If you would like a digital version (in jpeg format), please click on the image to the right: 

I look forward to sharing this experience with your child!  If you have any questions, please contact me through the school.

Mrs. Mann

Grade Three Remembrance Day Song

The Grade Three students have been working on our Remembrance Day song for the last few weeks, memorising the lyrics and learning how to make their voices blend together into one sound.  It's an important responsibility, and the students should feel proud of themselves for taking their preparation so seriously.  

Please play the video below to practice the song in your classroom or at home. 

Last night I had the strangest dream,

   I ever dreamed before.

I dreamed the world had all agreed

   to put an end to war.

I dreamed I saw a mighty room.

   The room was filled with men.

The papers they were signing said

   they'd never fight again.

And when the papers all were signed,

   and a million copies made,

They all joined hands and bowed their heads

   and grateful prayers were prayed.

Last night I had the strangest dream,

   I ever dreamed before.

I dreamed the world had all agreed

   to put an end to war.

A Musical Joke

Grade Two and Three students have been working hard on rhythms for the last couple of weeks.  Students have been reading, speaking and clapping notation, including:

Ta                             Ti Ti                                          Rest

Ta - one sound on a beat

Ti Ti - two sounds on a beat

Rest - zero sounds on a beat.




In our Rhythm Erase Game, some notation disappears after every performance until students finally clap the whole piece from memory!  It's nerve-wracking, but so much fun!

The police officer says, "Stop! You're under a rest!"

Speaking of fun . . . 

Today one of our students in Ms. Rutland's Grade Three class brought this musical joke to class.  Warning:  It's only funny if you understand rhythmic notation, so ask your child(ren) for help if you need to!

Our Musical Pumpkin!

As part of the Sobey's Pumpkin Challenge, students in Grades 1 - 3 were challenged by Royal Oak Sobey's to creatively design a pumpkin to display in their store as part of their Halloween Challenge.  Each class took up this collaborative task with their students based on interests, student designs, or things they are learning about in the classroom. 

In the Music Room, our pumpkin was "composed" with the rhythmic and melodic notation that the students have been exploring.  The mouth is a melody that sings "so mi mi so" and the eyes, ears and nose are formed with the rhythm notes ta, ti ti, and rest.

We've spent the week reading and performing our pumpkin's face, and we invite you to visit him at Sobey's.  Although he may be a bit shrivelled by now, we hope you can still see the melody and rhythm in our Musical Pumpkin!

What is a Melody?

All students  in Royal Oak School have been learning about melody, which is a sequence of pitches (or high and low notes).  

Kindergarten students are learning to distinguish between the extremes of high and low pitches by moving their body.  As we swoop up or down with our voices, we move our arms to match the contour of the sound that we make.  As well, students vibrate as tall as they can or shiver down low on the floor in response to very high or low sounds on the piano.  

Students in Grade One began their exploration of melody by distinguishing between four different ways to use our voice:

Singing Voice, Whisper Voice, Shouting Voice and Singing Voice.

We learned that our Singing Voice has high and low sounds, and that we can record those sounds using black dots called "notes" above or below a line.  

Then we used these high and low sounds to manipulate "Teddy Bear", a very special stuffy who loves to do tricks, but unfortunately only understands us when we use a singing voice.  Every student has also had a chance to use the Singing Puppies, puppets who love to sing about what we're wearing or what foods we like to eat.

 


Students in Grades Two and Three have learned that these notes are called So and Mi, and have been using these pitches to identify mystery melodies that they hear.  This week, students also began transcribing those pitches on a one-line staff, and will soon be ready to compose their own melodies and play them on the xylophone.

As we develop our understanding of this new melodic language, students are challenged to master different ways of communicating their understanding:

  Can you hear it?

     Can you write it?

        Can you show it with movement or hand signs?

           Can you sing it?

              Can you play it on an instrument?

As students expand their toolbox to include different ways of representing melody, they develop a deeper and richer understanding of this fundamental element of music, setting them on the path of being an independent and successful musician!

What do you hear? How do you feel?

One of the ways that we learn is by analysing the work of experts, and figuring out how they build that skyscraper or make that light bulb glow.  In music class, we listen to recordings of professional musicians everyday.  We explore ways of moving to the music, noticing how each person can represent the beat in their own unique way.  We also learn the names of instruments that we see, and discuss how each one generates sound.

Then we ask the big questions,

“How does this music make me feel?”  

“What is happening in the music that makes me feel this way?”  

The composer, Joseph Haydn

Students talk about the different emotions that a piece can inspire, and then consider the elements of music that can inspire those feelings.  Is the music fast or slow, loud or quiet, bouncy or smooth?  

These ideas are the basic elements of the musical concepts of tempo (speed), dynamics (volume), and articulation (how the sounds are shaped).  As they grow more confident in using these terms, students will learn the musical vocabulary to describe what they hear, and refine their ability to hear the more subtle distinctions between the extremes of fast/slow and loud/soft.

Our most recent listening sample was the first section of the “Surprise Symphony” by J. Haydn. CLICK HERE  to listen to the music, and discover how this music got this nickname!

The Many Layers of a Song

Learning is a complicated business.  Each element of the music curriculum can be studied on it's own, but in real life all of these elements are interconnected and work together to create the magic of music.  We honour this reality in the music classroom.  Every song, poem, dance or instrumental piece is full of different things to learn!

This week, the Grade One students are working on a song called "Tick Tock".  It may sound simple, but there is so much hidden inside!  First, students are working on matching pitch so that each voice sounds the same.  But as they learn the melody of the song, they also notice that the first and third phrases are the same.  This helps us understand musical form, or how a piece is organised into similar and contrasting sections.  As students sing, they are also learning how to clap on the beat, a skill which will soon be transferred to playing the wood block.  Finally, we are learning how to handle our first instrument, the "boomwhacker".  As we hit these plastic tubes on the floor, each child can hear that their instrument sings better when it bounces, which is foundational to effective percussion technique.  

The Grade Two and Three students are learning a song about Liza Briggs.  This piece is centred around our first two melody notes "so" and "mi", and offers a chance to practice showing these pitches with our voice, hand and notation.  We not only learned how to match pitch with those around us, we have also started working on using deliberate expression to portray the mood of the music.  We have also noticed that his song also has repeating sections, which helps us to understand the form of this piece.  Now that we know the song well, we have also added a repeated spoken pattern to perform at the same time, which teaches us how to perform our own part, while listening how it fits with a contrasting part that someone else is performing.  This spoken pattern will soon be transferred to instruments that will accompany our voice.  

"Mi" is a low sound.

"So" is a high sound. 

These pieces are short and simple, but they pack a punch!  When we are deliberate about our teaching and learning, one little song can teach us so very much!  

Keep the BEAT!

Students from Grades One to Three have all been keeping the beat!  Have you ever found yourself tapping your toe while listening to your favourite song?  Well, that’s the beat, and it’s the most fundamental element of music.  

We show the beat with a heart shape.  We use this symbol because our heartbeat is steady throughout our lives, just like the beat is steady through a song.  Sometimes it’s a fast beat when we are exercising, and sometimes it’s a slow beat when we are resting, but it is always, always steady.

In our first week, we have been keeping the beat by mirroring the movements of the teacher while listening to a piece called “The Royal March of the Lions” (from the suite “The Carnival of the Animals” by C. Saint-Saens).  We have noticed that some of our movements show the steady beat, and some of our movements do not.  

Click HERE and ask your child(ren) to share the actions we have learned.  Which actions show the steady pulse of the beat, and which actions are much slower than the beat?  Then turn on your favourite tune and find your own actions to keep that beat!

School Council and Volunteering at ROS!

1.  Hug & Go volunteers needed.  Hug & Go was officially up and running this week.  We in are need of volunteers who could help with Hug & Go from 8:30 a.m. to 8:50 a.m.  Ms. Dalton is currently coordinating the September schedule. The commitment could be as little as one day month or more depending on your availability.  If you already have your Police Clearance you can start volunteering right away.  If anyone is interested please contact Ms. Dalton at bfdalton@cbe.ab.ca. 

2. All parents please ensure you have filled out your volunteer survey for the 2016 – 2017 school year.  This needs to be completed annually so the volunteer coordinator can update the system.  Click on the link below to complete the survey.  

https://docs.google.com/a/educbe.ca/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVzeqXUMawWTi6LjB2yXsEZrehEVS4---nR4bXj1XSW7Wh3g/viewform?c=0&w=1

3.  School Council Meeting is on Monday, September 12 @ 7p.m. In the Royal Oak School staffroom.  We welcome all parents to attend.

Sing a New Song!

 A new school year has begun, full of excitement and opportunity!  We will learn about language and math, how the world works and how each of us fits into the community around us - and our work in the music room will enrich our learning in all of these areas.  
We will explore language by analysing the meaning and natural rhythms of speech and song, we will explore pattern and number by playing instruments and moving, and we will build meaningful connections with each other as we make music together.  More than that, each student will deepen their own understanding of what they think is beautiful, or interesting, or funny, and will have the opportunity to feel the pride and satisfaction of being a musician.

I am looking forward to working with the community of Royal Oak, and invite you to be a part of our musical adventures!  Watch this space for both classroom and extracurricular updates, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns throughout the year.