Our First Week of Music!

Can you hear it?  
    Can you feel it?  
       Music classes have begun at Royal Oak School!

Kindergarten students have begun the year with their first musical story, Tic and Toc.  The students all worked together to tell the tale of two friends who had to travel "up the hill and down the hill" for a play date.  It was an opportunity to explore the wide variety of sounds we can make, especially with high and low voices.

Grade One students have begun developing their sense of beat, that steady pulse that underlies most music.  Whether singing about bees or preparing a salad together, we noticed how exciting it was to perform as a team, keeping the beat together.  We've also begun learning a song about Terry Fox, the Canadian hero who raised awareness and funds to support cancer research, and we are hoping to sing it at the upcoming Terry Fox Assembly!

Grade Two students have begun to differentiate between the beat and rhythm (sub-divisions of the beat) this fall.  We have reinforced our sense of steady beat by moving with poetry and recorded music, noticing that the "beat is always the same, never faster, never slower."  In contrast, students have also begun to learn a rhythmic pattern to accompany our song about Liza Briggs, which is "slow, slow, fast, fast, slow."  It has been exciting to watch the students begin to notice and think about the sounds they are creating!

Grade Three students have begun with a spooky song about the teeth of sharks.  Each class composed their own unique movements to illustrate the lyrics as they sang, relying on each other (not the teacher!) for support. We then added a piano accompaniment and the mysterious sound of the Ocean Drum to create the illusion of waves in the background.  

I encourage you to ask your student(s) to teach you what they've learned.  After all, music is for sharing!