Musical Learning in March

Through March, Kindergarten students have been cooking up a storm with the classic song, “Purple Stew”.  We sang in a circle to create the pot and then took turns jumping in to get cooked up!  The students within the pot accompanied our singing by keeping the beat on the maracas while the others stirred up the stew with giant spoons.  After all that effort, we each took a taste and everyone agreed that we were delicious!

Grade One students have continued to refine their ability to play the rhythm of language this month.  Using the words “chicken” and “egg”, they learned to distinguish between one sound on a beat (egg) and two sounds on a beat (chicken).  Classes recorded the number of sounds on a beat using stick notation, and then learned that musicians say “ta” to represent one sound, and “ti ti” to represent two sounds.  How exciting to watch our young students using the same notation and terminology that is used by musicians around the world!

Grade Two and Three students have finished their final rondo projects (Rico’s Pizza Restaurant”, "Grandma Grunts" and "Backwards Town"), in which they worked in groups to compose contrasting verses to perform between a common chorus.  After sharing their compositions with their voices, movements and instruments, students used the feedback they received from the teacher and their peers to refine their work.  After a bit more practice and discussion, classes recorded their final projects to share with their families during our upcoming student-led conferences. 

 

And finally, I wanted to extend a big thank you to one of our Grade Two parents, Ms. Anderson, for sharing her saxophones with us!  She brought in the very large baritone saxophone as well as the more familiar alto saxophone, and talked a bit about how the instruments worked and her own experiences as a musician.  But most of all, the students loved listening to music from the movies “Lion King” and “Star Wars”.  What a great opportunity for our students to get up close and personal with a musician in our community!