January Lessons Preview: Grade 5

Students will begin the new year by learning more about notes and rests in a fun "Smartboard Now" interactive lesson called "It's a Bird! It's a Plane! Flying High with Notes and Rests."
Example page:

Students will then begin a drumming unit by learning about body percussion.

Here is one of the body percussion moves they will learn:

                                      

Students will then start learning the basic playing techniques of the djembe drum. They will apply their rhythmic knowledge through hands-on playing and singing/chanting. Students will have the opportunity to lead call and response and improvise on the drums. They will finish the unit by composing their own 8-measure rhythm for drums.

There will be an opportunity to continue learning about body percussion in chorus this year. Anyone in grades 4/5 is able and encouraged to join chorus in January.

January Lessons Preview: Grade 4

Below is what grade 4 will be working on in music for the month of January:

Students will begin the new year by learning more about notes and rests. Then students will learn about half and whole steps, and how they apply on the piano and ukulele.

In the first part of the school year 4th graders learned how to play chords and strum on the ukulele. Now students will begin learning how to finger pick individual notes and melodies on the ukulele. They will achieve this through a new program I am trying called "Ukulele Karate." This uses the same music as "Recorder Karate" made through MusicK8, but I adapted it to be for ukulele instead. Students work more independently in class to practice their songs, while I help individuals and "pass" students into the next song. There are 9 songs and belts total. Every time a student completes a song he/she moves a clothespin with his/her name on it to the next colored belt. I am very excited to start Ukulele Karate!

Photo by Chriskoru

January Lesson Preview: Grades 2/3

Below is what grades 2/3 will be doing in music the month of January:

Students will start off with a SmartBoard game called "Candy Rhythms." Students must drag the named candy into the correct bag that has the same rhythm. Students will use quarter notes and eighth notes in this game.

Students will then start a unit on the 4 families of the symphony orchestra, and their corresponding instruments. The interactive online game called "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," will be a tool in helping students learn about the orchestra, along with various listening and visual non-internet activities.

After this unit is completed students will learn about a Conductor of the orchestra and how to conduct simple patterns. They will also touch on dynamics (volume) of music, and tempo (speed) of music. 

Photo by MITO SettembreMusica

January Lessons Preview: Grades K/1

Below is what grades K/1 will be doing in music the month of January:

We will start off with a lesson on losing baby teeth and sing a cheerful song from MusicK8 called "Bye Bye Baby Tooth." Then students will begin learning how to count simple rhythms of quarter notes and quarter rests. They will apply this knowledge by composing their own rhythms using big paper lips and paper teeth. They will line up teeth next to each other for quarter notes, and leave gaps for quarter rests, being able to clap and share their compositions.

The following week students will learn a chant called "Loose Tooth" and add classroom instruments, such as the triangle, to certain words.
The third week in January students will talk about how colors feel, sound, and move through the book "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss. Students will listen to music representing different colors and move their bodies with colored scarves to match the music.

Photo Credit

Music Class Video Catch Up

Here are some videos from the last couple months of music students may enjoy seeing again.

Bach's Toccata and Fugue Listening Map K-4:

Witch's Brew K/1:

Carol of the Bells: Boy's Choir All grades:

Carol of the Bells: Boomwhackers All grades:

Carol of the Bells: For 12 Cellos: The Piano Guys: All grades

Carol of the Bells: Destiny's Child: All grades

Carol of the Bells: Pentatonix: All grades

Students loved the Pentatonix A Capella group and may enjoy watching other videos by them on Youtube, such as The Little Drummer Boy.

Winter Concert was a Huge Success!

The Dothan Brook School winter concert, "A Holiday of Music," was on December 11th, 2013. The concert was a huge success! The gymnasium was filled to the brim with cheerful parents, children, friends, and community members. This is the first all-school concert DBS has put on, and students were so excited to show what they had been working on the past few months. I am very proud of all the hard work and dedication students exhibited that night. I had a blast teaching them all the songs and conducting them at the concert. I am truly lucky to be working with such inspirational, creative, and caring students. Thank you to everyone who helped and supported me in putting on this concert!

See more photos of the event on the DBS Facebook page, linked here.

SAVE THE DATE: The spring concert will be on May 21st, 2014 at 6:30 PM. This concert will feature all 4th graders on ukulele, 4/5 chorus, and 5th grade band.
PLEASE NOTE: Chorus will be opening up in January to any 4th or 5th graders that want to join. We meet Tuesdays/Thursdays during recess. I have some exciting music picked out for this concert and can't wait to share it with the students. Please encourage your students to join chorus, and join the fun!

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
Ms. Sandi Moon

Pretending to play the ukulele

5th grade band

There's Someone in the Chimney

3rd graders on the barred instruments 

4th graders on ukuleles

2nd graders on boomwhackers

4/5 Chorus

Staff on ukuleles

"I Want to Be an Elf" don't you?

The large crowd!

Unity Day Dance

October was national anti-bullying prevention month. The 4th and 5th grade chorus worked hard to learn the Unity Dance the past few weeks. Below is the performance at the DBS Unity assembly on October 24th. The staff surprised students by doing a flash mob of the dance.

 To learn more and download the song for free, click here.

5th Grade Boomwhacker Photos and Videos

Below are videos from the 5th grade boomwhacker unit. During this unit we focus on this year's goal of communication and problem solving. Students first had to work in groups to figure out a "mystery piece," (found in this post) then they created and performed a mystery piece of their own for the rest of the class to guess.

Student notated piece of "Jingle Bells"

Grade 2/3 Frog Calls

Below are some recordings we made in 2nd and 3rd grade music the past couple weeks. First we learned about frogs and frog calls. Then we created our own frog calls (I found this idea online but do not remember where. If anyone knows feel free to comment!):

Leopard frog: rub a balloon w/a wet finger (This one was left out from some recordings since it didn't sound "real" enough)

Cricket frog: click two marbles together

Chorus frog: run a stick over guiro instruments

Green frog: snap a rubber band over plastic box opening

Next we learned about Haiku poems and students practiced speaking and clapping a haiku poem I had written about frogs, showing the normal 5-7-5 syllable lines:

"The sun has risen.

Chirps and croaks are in the air.

I listen and smile."

Finally, instead of clapping the syllables, students improvised on barred instruments, such as the xylophone, while saying the haiku poem out loud. They could only play one note per syllable. This was combined with the frog call recording to create the final product you hear below. The last recording (class 2G/N) is only of the frog call, which is interesting to listen to as well.

Enjoy!

Sandi Moon

Week 3 Links

Here are some links, by grade, of what we did in music class this week. I'm sure your children would love to teach the songs to you or share the videos we watched! :-)

Grades K/1: BEARS
Black bear info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaRGgipzehU
Grizzly bear info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7h_DriTS_4
We're Going on a Bear Hunt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzIcu6tbEko
Grumpy Grizzly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay6-47FEAR8
Gummy Bear Dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jpqO-3UU_U

Grades 2/3: FROGS
Frogs info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMFxQsaT274

Frog in the Millpond song from Silver Burdett Making Music Gd 2:

Grade 4: Ukuleles
Langley Ukulele Ensemble playing "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk-hpv__cgo
Langley Ukulele Ensemble playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Rimsky-Korsakov: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYHYnF1js0Y

Grade 5: Boomwhackers
One Minute Boomwhacker Introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Haf9IzInpM
Call Me Maybe on Boomwhackers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qxPie5_cEU
Lady Gaga's Pokerface by 5th grade students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd2UQoJ_9-0

Students worked in groups to play and figure out what their mystery piece was (Found on this post), then play it for the class and have them guess. Can you figure out what these mystery pieces are?

I had a blast this week! More fun still to come! :-)

Camp Song Lyrics! Sept. 2013

Here are the lyrics to the camp songs we did in music the first two weeks! (I learned these songs working at a summer camp and did not write them. They are popular campfire songs.)

Photo Credit

Go Bananas!
Bananas unite!
Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas!
Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas!
B-A-N-A-N-A-S!
Other Verses:
-Pick Bananas
-Smash Bananas
-Eat Bananas
-Go Bananas

There Was A Great Big Moose
There was a great big moose!
He liked to drink a lot of juice.
There was a great big moose!
He liked to drink a lot of juice.
Singin' way oh way oh
Way oh way oh way oh way oh
Way oh way oh
Way oh way oh way oh way oh

The moose's name was Fred.
He liked to drink his juice in bed.
The moose's name was Fred.
He liked to drink his juice in bed.
Singin' way oh way oh
Way oh way oh way oh way oh
Way oh way oh

Way oh way oh way oh way oh

He drank his juice with care,
but he spilled some in his hair.
He drank his juice with care,
but he spilled some in his hair.
Singin' way oh way oh
Way oh way oh way oh way oh
Way oh way oh
Way oh way oh way oh way oh

Now he's a sticky moose
Because he's all covered in juice!
Singin' way oh way oh
Way oh way oh way oh way oh
Way oh way oh
Way oh way oh way oh way oh

The Pirate Song
When I was one I sucked my thumb
the day I went to sea.
I climbed aboard the pirate ship
and the captain said to me,
"We're going:
This way, that way
forward, backward,
over the Irish sea.
A 7-up to fill me up and that's the life for me!
Dah, dah, dah, dah!
Dah, dah, dah, dah!"

2- Tied my shoe
3- Skinned my knee
4- Shut the door
5- Did a jive
6- Picked up sticks
7- Went to 7-11
8- Was running late
9- Feeling fine

10- DID IT AGAIN!

Wishy Washy Washer Woman
Waaaay down in the valley where nobody goes
there's a wishy washy washer woman washing her clothes
She goes "Oo! Ah! Oo! Ah!"

And that's how the washer woman washes her clothes.

Wadlyacha agootchie gootchie gootchie
Wadlyacha agootchie gootchie gootchie

And that's how the washer woman washes her clothes!

The Bear Song
The other day (group repeats), I met a bear (group repeats),A great big bear (group repeats), in tennis shoes (group repeats).?The other day, I met a bear, A great big bear in tennis shoes.

2. He said to me
“Why don’t you run?
Because you're out,
of hotdog buns!"

3. And so I ran
Away from there
But right behind
Me was that bear

4. Ahead of me
There was a tree
A great big tree
Oh glory be!

5. The nearest branch
Was 10 feet up
I’d have to jump
And trust my luck

6. And so I jumped
Into the air
But I missed that branch
Oh way up there

7. Now don’t you fret
Now don’t you frown
Cause I caught that branch
On the way back down

8. The moral of
This story is
Don’t talk to bears
In tennis shoes

9. The end the end
The end the end
The end the end

The Music Classroom!

African Drums- Posters found here

The green "line up" line

View of the whole classroom

Colorful solfege signs- Found here

Get 100 practice points to become a "band rockstar"!

"Sharp" and "flat" pencils

The tile circle for circle games and fun times

The story rug

Bulletin board outside the classroom

Start of School

We are off to a great start at Dothan Brook School! This is my first year teaching and I am so grateful to be at such a wonderful school. The staff is extremely supportive, and the students are creative, smart, and definitely CSR Otters (caring, safe, and responsible)!
I hope to post lots of fun things we are doing in music class and links to songs, activities, etc., so check back frequently!
Have a great year!