Sept.28th - Oct.2nd

Another exciting week of music-making! In addition to an incredible assembly led by our Grade 3 classes, students across all grade levels continued developing their singing, listening, movement, and instrument skills while building confidence as musical learners.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students have continued practicing how to follow musical directions and participate as part of an ensemble. They have shown great improvement in knowing when to play and when to listen while using classroom instruments. This week, we added a new instrument (the maraca) and a new animal (the lamb) to our listening song. Students also enjoyed using all of the animals they have learned so far in Old MacDonald Had a Farm with matching actions. In addition, we practiced speeding up and slowing down during The Chicken Dance and challenged our musical memories with a game of Name That Tune!

Grade 1

Grade 1 students worked with the song I Think Music's Neat to strengthen their ability to identify and maintain a steady beat as a group. We also practiced listening and movement skills by responding to high and low notes played by the teacher, using tiptoes for high sounds and crouching or crawling for low sounds. Students had a great time with a singing game where they echoed melodies and then took turns trying to make their classmates smile or laugh while singing.

Grade 2

Grade 2 musicians added la to their growing solfege vocabulary and continued practicing melodic patterns using hand signs. Students reinforced these new skills through a song called Traffic Lights, making connections between the notes they saw, sang, and heard. We also introduced Rhythm Detective, a listening game where students identify a rhythm from written choices after hearing it played. This week, students practiced reading quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests. When time allowed, classes also enjoyed taking turns playing a "mystery instrument" while classmates guessed what they heard, helping to develop listening and instrument-recognition skills.

Grade 3

Grade 3 students expanded their solfege knowledge by learning do-re-mi patterns and corresponding hand signs while continuing to reinforce la-sol-mi through a new song called The Golden Rule. We used this song to practice reading notes on the treble clef staff as well as rhythm reading and chanting. Students were also introduced to new musical vocabulary, including ostinato, tempo, and binary form. Like Grade 2, Grade 3 classes began playing Rhythm Detective to strengthen rhythmic listening and reading skills using quarter notes, eighth notes, quarter rests, and half notes.

Grade 4

Grade 4 students began a new warm-up routine using singing and hand signs to review la-sol-mi and do-re-mi patterns. We continued exploring rondo form through the song Listen, defining rondo as a musical form with a repeating main section and different sections in between. Students also began developing movement responses to musical form by listening to Chimes of Dunkirk and alternating between walking to the beat and performing a four-beat rhythm pattern. In addition, Grade 4 classes started Rhythm Detective, reviewing rhythm notation and note values including quarter notes, eighth notes, quarter rests, half notes, and sixteenth notes.

Thank you for your continued support of music education. It has been wonderful to see students growing as singers, listeners, performers, and creative thinkers each week!