December in the music room

Kindergartners

Kindergartners became superheroes last month as they “flew high” and “snuck low,” exploring the concept of pitch. They practiced using their voices to match the shape of a melody to line drawings. They discovered through observation and performance that size and pitch are related, with larger instruments making lower sounds relative to smaller instruments. This week students will learn a song about a common NW native as they explore pitch in greater detail. You might ask them about the slow-moving creature that goes round and round, usually covered with slime!

2nd grade:

2nd graders are having “Oceans of fun,” memorizing the lyrics and actions to their concert songs. Ask your student which song is their current favorite and why? Tempo, rhythm, pitch (or lack of, as in the song where we don't sing).  Increasingly we use musical vocabulary to describe our preferences. This month we will be adding spoken parts. All students who return their forms in time will have a line to speak at the performance.  

4th graders

4th graders are working diligently to learn our concert songs. Many students decided to take on the added challenge of a speaking part and we will begin incorporating their lines into our classroom rehearsals this month. Committing information to memory is a skill that will be increasingly important as your student advances in their education. In class we brainstormed a variety of strategies to memorize the lyrics and make the process as least a little fun! Your students had some great suggestions, several of which we’ve already incorporated into our rehearsals. Encouraging students to think about how they learn is an important priority in my classroom. Reflective learners are effective learners!