Musical Learning in September

The new school year is off to an exciting start with a whole new cohort of kindergarten students!  We began our work together by visiting an imaginary farm.  Of course, we’re always singing as we travel, moving our bodies to show the meaning of the words, as well as keeping a steady beat.  So far, we have met some hens and ducks who each have their own special songs – and instruments.  Students have been working on playing rhythm sticks and drums like a team to represent the rhythm of language.   

Grade One students have been exploring the question of “What is beat?”  After moving, singing songs, speaking poems and playing instruments, students have discovered that there are many ways to keep the beat.  But wherever it is, the beat is always that steady pulse that makes you want to tap your toe.  Sometimes it is a slow beat, sometimes it is a fast beat, but it is always steady, just like the healthy heart beat in our bodies.  Students have also been singing, moving, and playing instruments to create high and low sounds to prepare for their first taste of melodic notation.

Click HERE to keep the beat to J.P. Sousa's Semper Fidelis.

Grade Two students began our year with the classic poem Hello, My Name is Joe, in which we pushed buttons with our hands, feet, and even our tongue - all while keeping the beat!  Partners then used that sense of steady beat to create a movement pattern for the march Semper Fidelis by J.P Sousa.  Grade Twos also reviewed So and Mi, and used those melodic notes to learn a song about Liza Briggs and her naughty, naughty pets.  Then we added a repeating pattern (called an ostinato) to accompany our song, as well as some movement and percussion instruments before and after to finish telling the whole story.

Grade Three students also strengthened their sense of steady beat by transforming the old skipping rhyme Down, Down, Buddy into a movement piece, passing the beat from shoulder to shoulder and emphasizing important words with dramatic actions.  The drama continued as students created movements to illustrate the spooky song Sharks’ Teeth, which they then used to learn their newest rhythmic note “tika tika”.  Finally, we took a break from all that moving with our Garbage Song, which will eventually offer students a chance to sing three different parts at the same time!  

On a different note,  here's this week's joke: