Recorder Exploration

At the tail end of the fall semester 4th grade kicked off their recorder study and got to know B, A, and G. 5th grade jumped back in with a review of Low E and Low D. Fast forward a few weeks of break (with hopefully a lot of at-home practice!), and we join back together to keep exploring! I have my students work on two different types of repertoire: practice songs, and belt tests.
          
Back during my first year of teaching, another teacher introduced me to Recorder Repast (published by Sweet Pipes). This collection of songs is a wonderful resource for selecting our practice songs. We spend about 10-15 minutes dissecting the music and identifying parts to watch out for. This past week, I shared the biggest secret of analyzing music with my 5th graders - look for patterns! If you can identify parts that repeat, the amount you need to actually learn is a lot less daunting. (Thanks to my percussion professor, Dr. Rick Dimond for pointing that out my freshman year!)

Here's one of my 5th graders labeling repeating patterns in Juba (working on High D).

We may go a little bit overboard with analyzing, but I'd rather point out anything that could trip someone up and leave them a whole menu of options for their own markings. I always tell the students that any music they get is their own copy and to make notes on it as they need to help be a successful performer.

After analyzing, I try to give students about 20 minutes to work through the song on their own and then get in small groups of about 6-8. During the final 10 minutes of class, we take turns performing as a group for each other and then the "audience groups" give 3 comments about the performance. By performing the practice songs in small groups, this helps students work through any performance anxiety before they have to perform their belt tests as a solo.

Small group performance #1

Have stage fright? Just turn your back to the audience!

Since I've mentioned "belt tests", here's what I mean: after students and I work through their practice repertoire, they are responsible for assimilating the knowledge they've learned so far. They receive a song from the Recorder Karate book and independently analyze it just like we did for their practice songs. Students choose to either work alone or with a buddy to figure out their test song and then perform it as a solo for me. Once they pass the test, they receive a colored piece of yarn to tie around the foot joint of the recorder as their "karate belt". 

After they complete all 9 belts, they are a RECORDER KARATE MASTER!

Percussion Ensemble

Ahhh...January! A fresh start to the new year and all rested up ready to dive into new experiences with the students. Well, not quite *all* rested...

This year saw the formation of a select performance group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students chosen to participate in Percussion Ensemble. I am so excited to spend my Friday afternoons with this group of talented students and share my passion for percussion! It has been a long 5 years since I was involved with any sort of percussion performance and now I have the opportunity to open this world to my own students.

We had our first performance on December 16th and they did absolutely fantastic! They performed 3 selections as a large group and four of the members were featured on Carol of the Bells. They only had about 9 rehearsals beforehand and a huge learning curve, but performed like young professionals. I heard nothing but rave reviews from the concert audience!

Now that we've started off the new semester, we've added 3 new members to our group and have dove right into our spring concert selections. The students musical maturity has definitely grown through the year and they are eagerly figuring our their new parts and exploring new instruments such as gankogui, goat hoof rattles, and other ethnic sounds. 

Think they're excited for the new songs???

Here's a sneak peak at what it takes to put this all together...

Creating their own choreography...

Working in sectionals...

and of course, lots of fun!

Cougar Choir rocks the Cluster Concert

Last night, the Cougar Choir performed at the annual cluster concert at Dan F. Long Middle School. They've been working on a variety of traditional Christmas carols from around the world in preparation for their performance at the Holidays Around the World Festival coming up on Tuesday, December 16. 

They've been INCREDIBLE troopers learning a whole new repertoire in the last 6 rehearsals and even taking on the challenge of learning multiple languages including Japanese, German, Spanish, and a little bit of French. Check out their performance of Kiyoshi Kono Yoru (Silent Night in Japanese) and O Tannenbaum in the traditional German. 

I'm SO proud to be their director!

Composers Everywhere!

Right before Thanksgiving, first and second grade students became composers using the pitches and rhythm they've learned so far. Second grade students reviewed their understanding of Sol, La, and Mi in small groups to "Roll-A-Song".

Students used two dice to help them find out the rhythm (quarter note, beamed eighths, or quarter rest) and the melody (Sol, La, or Mi). They then used their knowledge of where Sol, La, and Mi live on the staff to correctly write out their song. When students were finished, they needed to give their song a title and sing it!

Completed display of some 2nd grade original songs!

First grade had been working on Sol and Mi. We have practiced where those notes live on our bodies when we sing melodies. They also reviewed that a quarter note gets one sound and that beamed eighths get two sounds. We used little leaves and pumpkins to represent the notes. 

The leaves represented the quarter note since "leaf" gets one syllable. The pumpkins were our eighth notes since "pumpkin" has two syllables. It was kind of tricky to remember that when we wrote eighth notes, both pumpkins had to be together but they did it! Such a fun way to practice writing music before we move on to the staff!!

Showing off their hard work!

Super proud of their composition after singing it!

Second grade did a little MORE composing to explore their new rhythms of half note and half rest. Students worked with a partner to explore rhythm combinations of quarter note, quarter rest, beamed eighths, half note, and half rest. Each rhythm value had a corresponding movement of "jump", "hide", "gobble" or "ru-un".Once students came up with a combination that had the correct number of beats, they demonstrated their turkey dance!

Deciding what to choose is tricky! What do you want to choose?

Goofy Turkey dancers!

First Performance - JOUST!

Back on October 28, 5th grade students shared the first musical production of the year. We spent about six weeks preparing the songs and working on the choreography in class. Our featured cast took on the extra responsibility of after school rehearsals, stage blocking, and memorizing scripts. It was definitely the most intricate show we've taken on but it was so much fun to see in its final form! Check out some of the pictures from the evening:

King Arthur attempts to rally his knights to turn from their violent ways and choose to make harmony with Boomwhacker instruments. 

 "All I Ever Wanted Was Music"

Hopefully I'll have some more pictures soon and from different angles. Being front and center directing limited how many different shots I could actually get. I'm super proud of these kiddos and the hard work the put in to make such a fun production!

Spooky Story Time

Through the month of October, different grade levels enjoyed musical stories about "spooky" pieces of music, accompanied stories with sound effects, and sang along with familiar folk songs. Here's a look at some of the books we enjoyed!

Kindergarten is reading Linda William's "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything". Stories read with funny voices are great and all but we took it one step further and added sound effects! We've been getting to know some of the different percussion instruments found in the music room and thought this would make the perfect opportunity to play SIX of them! Students added woodblocks, jingle bells, maracas, rhythm sticks, triangles, and frame drums. Talk about fun!

First grade enjoyed a sing-along story to Lucille Colandro's "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat". Its just like the classic sing-along of "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Who Swallowed a Fly" but with different words to go with the holiday spirit! In this adventure, she swallows a bat, an owl, a cat, a ghost, a goblin and even more! Talk about a full stomach!!!

Second grade students met the composer Camille Saint-Saens back in first grade when they explored his "Carnival of the Animals". We've been exploring Mr. Saint-Saen's music a little deeper with a Mystery Song where students drew pictures that represented what they heard in the music. Then, they found out the actual title of the song was "Fossils" and it was FROM the Carnival of the Animals they already knew about! Another famous composition of Saint-Saens' is his Danse Macabre. We found out that it was inspired by a trip to the underground catacombs in Paris, France and he used the help of his friends Henri and Augusta to help figure out exactly how he wanted his music to sound. 

Third grade learned the mystery of the Phantom Cat! Its actually the story of the Phantom of the Opera, but the author chose to turn all the characters into cats. I guess he thought its more entertaining that way? I certainly thought so! Students found out that musicals are divided into acts just like stories are divided into chapters. In this adventure, we learn of a Phantom that has been haunting the Paris Opera House and how he loves a singer named Christine. The only problem though is there is ANOTHER man who loves Christine! What happens when you have a beautiful singer trapped between the love of two admirers? You'll have to read to find out!

There were two more books we read, even though they weren't of the "spooky" variety. Check them out below!

Kinder got to meet another of the Music Class Pals with Deborah Diesen's "The Pout Pout Fish". They were introduced to Mr. Fish, but its okay...you can call him by his first name, Nemo. :) 

Nemo loves it when he gets to sing the chorus and say "Blub, Blub, Blub". After we read his story students learned how to play Nemo's Game and his song. It was an ocean-ful of fun!

Second graders are familiar with all sorts of instruments but they've never met a didgeridoo before! Nick Page wrote a super fun book titled "Do you do a Didgeridoo?" where a quirky customer searches all over the music store for a mysterious Didgeridoo and brings even quirkier pals along with him for the search! After we read the book, students saw a didgeridoo performance by William Barton with the Youtube Symphony Orchestra. I'd even say some students found a new favorite instrument!

A Castle is Coming!

In the midst of show preparation madness, blog updates have unfortunately taken a hit. However, there is BIG news! It only took a 16' moving truck and a very kind Mr. Moreno (we weren't too keen on driving on the front lawn) to get things started, but the set for JOUST! is officially underway.

We are transforming the stage into a medieval castle complete with elevated platforms for the Damsels & Mighty Medieval Men, a perch high upon the castletop for Merlin to oversee the happening of the castle grounds, and a functioning drawbridge that will be nothing shy of a grand entrance.

I have to give my husband a HUGE thanks for his persistent work in getting all of this constructed. I've never done a construction project and boy does it tire you out. That's okay though - the kiddos will love it. With it being still in raw form right now, its a little tough to see but by Friday it should have every last detail in place. 

Some of the students have even been getting their hands a little dirty with prop construction. Last week, some of the cast members tried their hand at some paper mache to create balloons that will hang above the castle courtyard. There's still a few more clouds to go, but it should look fantastic!