As we approach the holidays, we also see an increase in opportunities for our students to perform and/or see their classmates performing. Below is a poster for an upcoming performance, featuring several of our King students. I hope you're able to attend this wonderful event and support some of our King students!
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After our SQUILT, each grade level talked about the word PROTECT: What does it mean to protect? Who is a protector? Who and what should be protected? Each class came up with different, unique answers and we had really great conversations about protection. This then flowed into protecting the Earth and its resources, particularly water. Then, each grade level used an instrument - some used drums, some used xylophones, some used xylophones and glockenspiels, and some even added scarves with movement. See the pictures and videos below for a glimpse into how we created music together this week!
This week, we celebrated Veteran's Day in our music classroom! Each class used a common song, "See the Veteran," and built upon the song with different instrument skills. Young Fives, Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade added a steady beat, playing the root note (F), playing both F and C simultaneously (called a bordun), and alternating between the two notes: F and C, respectively. Third Grade and Fourth Grade used the echo in the song as an opportunity to practice improvisation. Using the F pentatonic scale, the students were able to choose their own notes for the rhythm of the song. Our Fifth Graders were introduced to a musician named Bobby McFerrin, known best for his song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." We watched a few clips of his skill, and then recreated his song using our voices, xylophones, and hand drums.
This week, we had a belated Diwali lesson! Each grade level celebrated in similar but unique ways. We also finished some Halloween lessons from when I was out last week due to illness. Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, and 3rd Grade all read different books from Epic! about Diwali, including Celebrating the Holidays: Diwali and Diwali. Then, we learned a song from Manju Durairaj (a wonderful music teacher in Chicago) about Diwali. Our Kindergarten students learned a rhythmic ostinato (a repeated rhythm pattern) and played it on the triangle, our first graders learned a Diwali dance based on the book Let's Celebrate the Five Days of Diwali, our second graders played the rhythmic ostinato on the xylophones, and the third graders accompanied themselves on the xylophones with a melodic ostinato (a repeated pattern with notes). I love doing the same activity with multiple grade levels, so over the years they are at King, they will get to explore the same concept in many different ways.
Young Fives had a celebration of their excellent report from the guest teacher by getting an introduction to the xylophone. They did a wonderful job and were even able to keep a steady beat on the instrument, which is rather advanced for Young Fives! Way to go, musicians! 4th Grade started off the week by building a treble staff out of PVC pipe as a teambuilding activity. Students were not allowed to talk but did have a diagram of what the finished product would look like. Then, we reviewed the FACE in the SPACE and EGBDF (every good burger deserves fries) by playing a game. 5th Grade celebrated Halloween on Monday by playing "Spooky Scary Skeletons" on the xylophones, glockenspiels, boomwhackers, and contra bass bars. We then continued our conversation about copyright and music by comparing the bassline of "Ice Ice Baby" (Vanilla Ice) and "Under Pressure" (Queen/David Bowie), "Roar" (Katy Perry) and "Brave" (Sara Bareilles), and "Levitating" (Dua Lipa) and "Live Your Life" (Artikal Sound System). The students brought compelling arguments for why or why not copyright infringement was at play, and we had a great time comparing these songs to each other.
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Mrs. BergerTeacher, parent, dog mom, traveler Archives
March 2024
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