Movies and the Imagination

Spring Concert

Grade 5 band, grade 4 ukuleles, and grades 4/5 chorus.

Date:  Thursday, May 21^st, 2015                                                    
Time: 6:30 PM      (Doors open at 6:10 PM)
Place: DBS Gymnasium                                                                          
4/5 Attire for PM Concert Only: Black bottoms and colored top with no writing or pictures.

Procedure

5^th grade chorus members who are not in band and all 4^th graders:

·       Arrive between 6:10 and 6:25 PM.

·       Students will leave belongings with their parents/guardians for safe keeping. 4/5 chorus members will go right to their places on the risers and non-chorus 4^th graders will go to the 4^th grade ukulele seating.

5^th grade band students:

·       Arrive at 6:10 PM.

·       Students will go to the music room to store cases and belongings, place their instruments/music at their band spot, and go to their riser spot if in chorus.

All concert students:

·       We will begin our performance promptly at 6:30 PM. Please note that the doors to the school will not be opened until 6:10 PM.

·       After the performance band will be dismissed first to the music room and meet parents back in the gym, followed by non-band students dismissed to meet parents in the gymnasium.

·       Please remind your child to use the restroom before they arrive or right when they arrive as there will be no time to go once the concert starts.

Save the date! Spring Concert May 21st

SAVE THE DATE!

Our Spring Concert this year will be on
Thursday, May 21^st, at 6:30 PM.

The theme is “Movies and the Imagination.”

The concert will include Grade 4/5 Chorus, Grade 5 Band, 
and all Grade 4 students on the ukuleles.

See you there!

4th Graders Prepare for Ukulele Karate

4th graders have been preparing for Ukulele Karate the past two weeks. They learned how to play notes B, A, and G on the ukulele and practiced rhythm reading.
Here is a clip of one of the songs they learned titled "Puppy Dogs."

2nd graders learn the ukulele!

2nd graders were so excited to learn a little ukulele this past week! They have been reading the book "My First Orchestra Book", and just finished learning about the String Family. Although the ukulele is not a part of the Symphony Orchestra, it does have strings. And what better way to wrap up the strings than with some actual string playing?! Students will learn A LOT more about the ukulele in 4th grade, where students play ukulele most of the school year during music!

4th grade Spooky Uke

This week 4th graders learned a new ukulele chord: A minor! Minor chords are perfect for spooky sounding music in October. In this video students play the A minor chord to the song "Spooky Ukee" by MusicK8. They use the rhythm: strum, strum, strum, stomp.

September fun in music!

Below is a summary of what each grade has been doing the past month, with a few tidbits from lessons.
Kindergarten has been learning about echoes, sounds they can make, and using the 4 voices: Speaking, singing, whispering, and yelling. This week they will learn about loud and soft.
"Play what I play after me" is a song where students hear a rhythm on a drum and then must play it on their egg shaker if their egg color is called. (song from SoundShapes Playbook)

"I Bought me a Cat" is an American folk song. Students were assigned an animal to listen for in the song. They played their animal's instrument when it was their turn in the song.

Slide found here

Grade 1 has been learning about the 4 voices: Speaking, singing, whispering, and yelling. They have also been learning more in depth about loud and soft and have been using the Italian musical terms: Forte (loud) and piano (soft).
"This is my speaking voice" chant is lead by a student for the class to echo, that goes through all 4 voices (From One, Two, Three, Echo Me).

"Good King Leopold" uses a student as the king. The class ask if they may cross his kingdom. Then the king says they may ask again but in a different voice. (The yelling voices are a bit too strong in this video, and I teach students that our "yelling" voices are not really yelling since that can hurt our voices, but the kids got excited!) Once the king says "Yes!" students must jump up and run in place (across his kingdom) until the king gestures them to sit down (Idea from One, Two, Three, Echo Me).

Grade 2 has been working on a boomwhacker unit and has been using a new and exciting curriculum called "Boomwhacker Beatz". 2nd graders will play boomwhackers in the Winter Concert on December 4th.
"Wait to eat the doughnut" activity from "Boomwhacker Beatz".

"Baa baa black sheep for the boomwhackers":

Source: NHCS Blog

Grade 3 has been working on the barred instruments such as the xylophone and glockenspiel. 3rd graders will play the barred instruments in the Winter Concert on December 4th.
"Which way is up?" This piece helps students remember which way is "up" on the barred instruments, and which way is "down". (From Mallet Madness Strikes Again)

"The Grand Old Duke of York" practices playing a chord, going up and down the barred instruments, and rolling on one note. (From Mallet Madness)

"Beetle Bop" uses a book along with the barred instruments. After each page is sung to the class students say "Beetle beetle Bop" while playing a descending 5-note scale on their instruments. (From Mallet Madness Strikes Again)

Grade 4 is off to a wonderful start on the ukuleles. They have already learned 3 chords! Chord C, C7, and F.
"I Can Play the Ukulele" is the first song students learned on the ukulele. It uses the C chord. Students not only were able to learn this chord and use it in the song, but they are all holding the ukulele correctly which takes a lot as a beginner!

"Troubadour" uses two chords: C and C7.

Grade 5 started off the year by learning the "Cup Song". The past two weeks they started their "Composer Spotlight" studies with the famous German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven. Beethoven was deaf for the last 10 years of his life, which is when many of his famous compositions were written. The next composer is French composer Camille-Saint-Saens who wrote the beloved children's work: Carnival of the Animals. He also wrote the October-appropriate Danse Macabre.

A popular video from the class called "Beethoven's Wig". This video adds words to Beethoven's 5th symphony.  

Lion King: Arts Enrichment K-4

Credit- Raymondsanti

Students in grades K-4 began the Lion King unit this Monday during Arts Enrichment time. Arts Enrichment is an extra music/art time a week taught by the Art teacher Mrs. Divis and the music teacher Ms. Moon.

Photo Credit

The Lion King on Broadway Trailer

For the next two Mondays students will be learning a fun dance to "The Circle of Life" and making African necklaces. Students will wear the necklaces while showcasing "The Circle of Life" dance at an upcoming school assembly.

Photo by: Swiss.frog

After those two weeks students will explore The Lion King theme more through various art projects and music activities. Some of the music activity videos are shown below:

Hakuna Matata:

The Lion Sleeps Tonight Music Video

Lion Sleeps Tonight- Just Dance 2 Video

 I made two different arrangements of Lion Sleeps Tonight (and found the ukulele online) for grades 2-4, to align with what instruments they are learning in general music class. Grade 2 will learn the song on boomwhackers, grade 3 on the barred instruments, and grade 4 on the ukulele. I will also give a brief description of some common African instruments and add appropriate percussion parts (likely only one or two per grade of the percussion parts listed below).

Below is a video from a 2nd grade class of students playing the boomwhacker part and some African instruments.

Here is a 3rd grade class practicing the mallet accompaniment to "Lions Sleeps Tonight".

Although the Lion King takes place in Kenya, the theme of the unit opens up the wonderful opportunity to explore musical activities from all parts of Africa. Obwisana is a folk song from Ghana. Students will play a rock passing game while singing the song. 

The words of the song mean "The rock has crushed my hand, grandma." I found this description in a book I have: 

"A child singing this song is repeatedly receiving a message of security and comfort, even in the context of a phrase and game which tells of injury. The injured child can take comfort in the fact that he or she can turn to "Nana" for sympathy and assistance- the ever-present circle of relatives supports Ghanaian children and adults during times of misfortune and celebration both."

Che Che Koolay is also a folk song from Ghana. The words have been said by some to be nonsense words. But the movements to the song lean toward this translation: 

Hands on your head

Hands on your shoulders

Hands on your waist

Hands on your knees

Hands on your ankles

Hands on your ankles

Hands on your ankles, hey! 

Notation found here

Students will learn a dance similar to the popular American song, "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to Che Che Koolay.

Hungry to Learn Spring Concert Pics!

Our Spring Concert "Hungry to Learn" was a wonderful event! The 4th grade ukulele players plucked their hearts out, the 4/5 chorus danced the night away, and the 5th grade band wowed us with their pieces about garden gnome attacks and superheros flying through the sky! Here are some pictures of the concert:

4/5 Chorus

Grade 5 Band

4th graders on the ukuleles

'Attack of the Garden Gnomes' with gnome hats!

Thank you to everyone in the audience who supported the arts at DBS and to all the wonderful staff that helped make this concert possible. See you next year for some more fun music-making!

Somebody that I Used to Know on Orff Instruments

4th and 5th graders learned an arrangement to the popular song by Gotye, "Somebody that I Used to Know" on the Orff instruments and ukuleles (from here).

4th and 5th graders on ukulele!

4th graders are moving right along with their ukulele karate songs. Here is the first song they learned for their white belt: Hot Cross Buns. They can finger pick the individual notes and sing at the same time!

The 5th graders were able to learn ukulele for 2 weeks. They learned how to play their C, F, and G7 chords. Here is one 5th grade class playing "London Bridge."

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

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! :-)