Rhythm Sticks with Grade 1

Grade 1 has been learning about fast and slow this past month. One of the books we read in class to help teach tempo words was "Freddie the Frog and the Mysterious Wahooooo".

Play the rhythm stick game from class here, and find more fun online music games listed here.

In the book, the characters make rhythms out of sticks, so after we read the book we got to make rhythms out of Popsicle sticks! We used what we already knew about making stick rhythms for "beat" (quarter note), "beat-and" (Eighth note pair), "beat-e-+-a" (4 sixteenth notes) and "rest" (Quarter rest).

Nutcracker Activities

Grades K-2 and Grade 5 participated in Nutcracker activities in the month of January (there was just not enough time in December with snow days and the concert!)

Grades K-2 moved to the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" with scarves and fairy wings (from the Dollar Store). When the music began, students with fairy wings started dancing in the middle of the tile circle. They could then tap awake the sleeping fairy children around the circle. Once tapped the fairy children woke up and danced with their scarves.

Here's a clip of the Sugar Plum Fairy ballet dance we saw in class:

One of student's favorite Nutcracker activities was a parachute routine to the "Trepak" Russian Dance. I got the wonderful routine from here.

Grade 5B

Grade KS, where it's a little more difficult to keep a quiet voice in such a fun situation! :-)

Here is a visual I made of the parachute routine. This lesson is a great way to teach students about form: The structure/layout of a piece of music.

5th graders took the "Trepak" Russian Dance to the next level by learning and performing a fast paced cup routine.

Found on Pinterest Here

Grade 5B

Here's a clip of the Trepak Russian Dance we watched in class:

KS Winter Vocal Exploration

KS practiced moving their voices up, down, and all around in a "Winter Vocal Exploration" activity. Someone points to the line as students follow where it goes with their voices. (Get it here for free!)

Example Page

After that students were able to compose their own vocal lines to follow. 

Here is one example of a student leading the class to his composition.

Holiday Songs Mad Libs

Sorry, I know this post is a little late! I'm trying to catch up on my posts.
4th and 5th graders got the fun chance to change some of the words to popular holiday songs. Get the mad lib pages from class here and "Let it Snow" mad lib from here.
Here's one song that students could choose:

Get Here

After working in groups to complete their mad lib of choice, students performed their compositions for the class.

"Let it Snow" from 4T

"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" from 4T

"Deck the Halls" from 5B

"Jolly Old St. Nicholas" from 5B

Bands Learns a New Warm-up

This video is from about a month ago when the 5th grade band members learned a 5-note scale warm-up that includes half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes.

Grade 4/5 Chorus starts again Tuesday, February 10th.

Chorus will be starting back up again this coming Tuesday, February 10^th,. Anyone in 4^th or 5^th grade may join and is certainly welcome (even if they have never been in chorus before!). Chorus will meet every Tuesday/Thursday during recess. Our Spring Concert will be on May 21^st, at 6:30 PM. The theme is: Movies and the Imagination!

If your child was in chorus for the winter concert, you DO NOT have to fill out the chorus contract again. If your child is joining chorus for the first time this school year, I will be sending a chorus contract home to be signed by the parent/guardian and student.

Please email me with any questions or concerns at moons@hartfordschools.net .

Photo by: OpenClips

Ancient Hunters band play-along

Once 5th grade band students are comfortable playing "Ancient Hunters" by Sean O'Loughlin quickly, they can try playing along to the recording found at this link. (It might not seem that fast to them anymore either!)

Photo Credit: TPSDave