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:

Musical Jokes

Students have worked on the beat this week, and they worked hard! 

Grade One classes played the beat while playing Bee, Bee, Bumble Bee, Grade Two classes moved to the beat as they listened to Semper Fidelis, and the Grade Threes transformed the old skipping poem Down, Down Buddy into a cooperative beat activity accompanied by a rockin' drum track. 

After all this work, though, we shared a bit of a laugh together - or maybe I should say a groan.  Here's a couple of jokes students found in the music room this week:

Our First Week in Music Class

This Aiken Drum has:
noodle hair, apple eyes, a carrot nose, a banana
mouth, pear ears, a sea weed moustache
and a cotton candy beard!

What a busy first week of school!  It has been a time for building relationships with new classmates, settling into a new classroom, and of course visiting the Music Room for the first time this year.  We had to spend some time talking about routines and safety information, but we had a bit of time left over to make some music together!




Grade One students enjoyed moving to the familiar song, "Happy" by Pherrell Williams.  When the music paused, we found different ways to freeze our body: high and low, big and small, even making our own unique super hero pose.  Then we settled into the circle to build "Aiken Drum", a mysterious creature whose face is made of food!  Click HERE to sing along to the song and create your own Aiken Drum!




Grade Two and Three students spent some time exploring some of our more unusual percussion instruments.  Some sounds were beautiful, some were surprising, and some were downright unpleasant!  After listening to each, we started to make some connections between these musical instruments and the world around us.  

The Tone Tank

The Rachet

The Thunder Tube!

Welcome to Music!

+





The first day of school is just around the corner, and I am looking forward to a new year of musical learning and sharing in our community!  This year students will continue to learn in an active way, exploring the elements of beat, rhythm, melody, harmony, form and timbre through speech, song, movement and instruments.  Through these activities, each student will also 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. 

As I have followed my own personal journey both as a professional musician and as a teacher, I have become more and more convinced of the essential role that music plays in our personal and communal lives.  It is an inherent element of our humanity, and a fundamental part of our nature.   I am passionate about empowering children as authentic musicians, affirming their voice and their ideas.  But when the work of the day is done, I also enjoy cycling, kayaking and gardening in the summer, and curling up with a good book in the winter. 

I invite you and your family to follow our musical adventures by following this Royal Oak School Music Blog.  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.  

Musically yours,

Mrs. Mann

Farewell Song for Grade Three Students

How exciting!  Our Grade Three Students have finished their work here at Royal Oak School and will be moving on the William D. Pratt next fall.  To celebrate their history here and the adventures to come, students will be singing this song at their Farewell Assembly.

Best of luck Grade Threes!

Click HERE to practice "We Will Rock it!"

Musical learning in May

Kindergarten students have been traveling this month!  First, we went to London to play the traditional singing game London Bridge – but with a twist!  As well as singing and moving co-operatively, students who were “out” played the steady beat on percussion instruments to accompany their peers.  It is great to see the development of their instrumental technique, their sense of steady beat, as well as their sense of ensemble (working as a musical team).  Then it was off to the moon to sing Five Space Men.  Originally just a counting song, students expanded this piece into a work of art, improvising melodies on the xylophone to create “star music” while their peers improvised creative movement with their “alien skins” (colored scarves) floating high and low through the vast expanse of space.

Grade One students have been celebrating their newly acquired musical notation skills by creating their own music.  Partners began by using the rhythm notes of “ta (one sound on a beat), “ti ti” (two sounds son a beat) and “rest (zero sounds on a beat) to create a short phrase.  They then performed their composition for their classmates, who worked hard to demonstrate effective audience skills.  First, students clapped their piece, then played it on sticks, and finally used their written rhythm to improvise a melody on the xylophone. But then we went one step further by reading and playing someone else’s music – what an amazing thing to hear your idea played by another person! 

Grade Two students have also been using their musical notation, but this time for transcribing a piece of music that they have performed.  After singing Alligator Pie with a djembe accompaniment, students took some time to consider and write down the melody of the song, as well as labeling the beat and rhythm.  After adding a treble clef at the beginning, they were surprised to realize that their own written work was exactly the same as published music that you might buy in a store or on-line.  Then partners used their melodic notation to compose their own music.  Then their peers listened to them play it on the xylophone and wrote down what they heard.  Once the music was transcribed correctly, the group celebrated by singing the melody together. 

Grade Three students spent this month creating and perfecting a large piece of music inspired by Mem Fox’s book Whoever You Are and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.  We learned a song that affirmed common humanity of peoples around the world, acknowledging that joy, pain and love are the same wherever you live.  Students learned to play the “melodic chimes”, and then worked together to use this instrument to accompany the song.  As an alternating section, students performed a three-part xylophone piece, over which they spoke some of their most important thoughts about every child’s right to healthy food and water, a high quality education and the right to live with a family who loves you.  What a wonderful moment when all the students brought their individual parts together to perform the piece as a group! 

Musical Learning in April

Monkeys, Polar Bears – and Building Community!

Click HERE to watch
The Royal March of the Lions.

This month, our Kindergarten students have transformed into the most musical monkeys I have ever   Singing and moving, they have searched the jungle for percussion instruments, testing and exploring each one.  Then, when they found a good one, they celebrated by dancing and playing their instrument around the circle while their peers enjoyed their performance.  Students have also enjoyed acting out the famous piece, The Royal March of the Lions (by Camille Saint-Saens).  We marched and roared and even captured our prey as we listened to the music, before discussing the instruments that were used to create this wonderful soundscape.  If you’d like to experience the magic at home, please click the link to the right   to watch the video.

seen!

The Djembe, a West African drum

Grade Three classes have spent the last few weeks exploring rhythm from many different perspectives.  Students have once again picked up the West African drums, called djembes, which they first encountered in our One World Drum Residency in the fall.  After a quick review of the techniques they learned in September, students have learned several new rhythmic patterns and have now begun to mix and matc  As well, they have been practicing their musical literacy skills, composing, reading and performing rhythmic notation in increasingly complex pieces.  Students have even begun improvising (making up music in the moment) using the notes they have learned!

h them to perform pieces in multiple parts.

Grade One students were excited to share their “Community Song” at their Celebration of Learning this month!  Each class wrote a different part of our piece, composing the lyrics of the verses, the words of the poems and the actions that emphasized their ideas.  Students also learned how to accompany their song on the xylophone and the wooden spoons, carefully playing as a team with the musicians around them and using effective technique so that the instruments would sing as beautifully as possible. It was exciting to watch them put their new understanding to music, but even more wonderful to hear their confident and exuberant performance.  It was true demonstration of how powerful and positive we can be when we work as a community towards a common goal.

The Viola and the Piano.

Grade Two students also had a chance to learn music through the lens of their inquiry around polar   After several passionate discussions, each class composed a short poem around what was important about these creatures and their habitat.  They then performed this text on the xylophone, overlapping the words until they were playing in three parts at the same time!  After this very challenging work, the students were treated to a performance by two parents in our community, Mr. Park and Ms. Cheon, who have both trained and worked as professional musicians.  The students very much enjoyed hearing music played on the viola and the piano, as well as a song sung by Ms. Cheon.  After the performance, one student commented, “The music was beautiful!  It made my heart so big!”

And finally, students from all grades have been enthralled by the contemporary violinist Lindsey Stirling, who was recommended by one of our very own students!  Not only is she a talented dancer and a wonderful musician, but she has a knack for creating fascinating videos.  Click on one of the links below to watch her in action!

Click HERE to watch
Something Wild.

Click HERE to watch
Shadows.