Happy end of January everyone! Between starting on the 6th, snow days and no-student days the month has just flown by. Here are some highlights from the music room this month:
Kindergarten: we finished our farm game with 7 different percussion instruments. Now, we are working on our songs for Multicultural Night (March 19th). The first song we're learning is "Ni hao Jambo Hola". It teaches us how to say "Hello" in 9 different languages :)
1st grade: we finished composing our rhythm compositions and performed them in a Rondo. We are currently learning our first song on our 2-line staff ("Bump Up Tomato"). There is great game that goes with it that we get to play at the end of class after doing notation work.
2nd grade: We jumped right in to composing melodies and playing them on pianos! We got a class set of portable roll-up pianos for our classroom and the kids are seriously enjoying using them :) Next month we will learn more rhythms and then have a 2nd chance to compose and play our melodies on the pianos again.
3rd grade: We had a great performance at the Winter Assembly with the choir, and now we're working on reading notes on the Treble Clef staff. This will help us learn to play our next instrument: Boom Whackers! Those start next week, get excited :)
4th grade: We made our first sounds on recorder and are working to remember all of the notation skills we've already developed. We are also working on learning to read music, internalize it, and then create the correct sounds on our recorders. This is a VERY DIFFICULT process, and we are working hard to meet the challenge. We'll start learning the first song (Hot Cross Buns) in our Recorder Karate program next week.
5th grade: we finished reviewing our pitch notation, and are about to start on our work in FLAT (the composition software). All students have access to this program via their Edmonds email, and it's totally free! Check it out: https://flat.io/
6th grade: we performed at the Martin Luther King, Jr. assembly and achieved two MTE firsts. 1. We were able to perform the song without the choir joining us to make us sound louder. 2. We were able to perform through a mistake and finish the song! #1 is impressive, and #2 is even more impressive. The ability to communicate non-verbally with other performers in the moment when you've made a mistake in order to recover is a very difficult skill to develop. And, our students have done it! I'm super impressed with their progress. Now, we're working on our next song "A Million Dreams" which we'll perform at the end of the year. This song has bells, xylophone, cajon, ukulele, choir singing, and solo singing (volunteers only of course). It's the most ambitious song and arrangement we've ever tried at MTE and I'm really excited to see how the students rise to meet the challenge :)
Kindergarten: we finished our farm game with 7 different percussion instruments. Now, we are working on our songs for Multicultural Night (March 19th). The first song we're learning is "Ni hao Jambo Hola". It teaches us how to say "Hello" in 9 different languages :)
1st grade: we finished composing our rhythm compositions and performed them in a Rondo. We are currently learning our first song on our 2-line staff ("Bump Up Tomato"). There is great game that goes with it that we get to play at the end of class after doing notation work.
2nd grade: We jumped right in to composing melodies and playing them on pianos! We got a class set of portable roll-up pianos for our classroom and the kids are seriously enjoying using them :) Next month we will learn more rhythms and then have a 2nd chance to compose and play our melodies on the pianos again.
3rd grade: We had a great performance at the Winter Assembly with the choir, and now we're working on reading notes on the Treble Clef staff. This will help us learn to play our next instrument: Boom Whackers! Those start next week, get excited :)
4th grade: We made our first sounds on recorder and are working to remember all of the notation skills we've already developed. We are also working on learning to read music, internalize it, and then create the correct sounds on our recorders. This is a VERY DIFFICULT process, and we are working hard to meet the challenge. We'll start learning the first song (Hot Cross Buns) in our Recorder Karate program next week.
5th grade: we finished reviewing our pitch notation, and are about to start on our work in FLAT (the composition software). All students have access to this program via their Edmonds email, and it's totally free! Check it out: https://flat.io/
6th grade: we performed at the Martin Luther King, Jr. assembly and achieved two MTE firsts. 1. We were able to perform the song without the choir joining us to make us sound louder. 2. We were able to perform through a mistake and finish the song! #1 is impressive, and #2 is even more impressive. The ability to communicate non-verbally with other performers in the moment when you've made a mistake in order to recover is a very difficult skill to develop. And, our students have done it! I'm super impressed with their progress. Now, we're working on our next song "A Million Dreams" which we'll perform at the end of the year. This song has bells, xylophone, cajon, ukulele, choir singing, and solo singing (volunteers only of course). It's the most ambitious song and arrangement we've ever tried at MTE and I'm really excited to see how the students rise to meet the challenge :)
