KING SPRINGS GOES TO THE FARM! Our sweet Kindergarteners performed on stage for the very first time! "King Springs Goes to the Farm" was a sweet program full of dancing, singing, and playing instruments. Their smiles were truly contagious!
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This picture is blurry, but so full of joy! The second graders are learning all about "form," or "patterns in music!" But of course, we learn through feeling and moving! We danced to, sang, and played instruments with many different pieces of music, and then figured out the patterns that occurred in them. For example, in the above picture, we danced to the play party called "The Grand Old Duke of York." We learned a line dance, and had a blast! Then, we discovered the form is AB (AKA Verse/Chorus, or binary form). We did the same with the piece, The Syncopated Clock by Leroy Anderson. After thinking about the different parts of the piece, we added instruments to it and discovered that it is ABACA form, or Rondo form! Can you listen to your favorite song and discover it's form? Early February had crazy weather in store for us! Not only did snow find it's way to Georgia, but so did severe thunderstorms! One day was so severe that all of our second graders needed a place to learn inside the school building so that they could escape their waterlogged cottages. KSE specials crew to the rescue! We gave our classrooms to the second graders and taught music, STEM, art, and PE all together in the cafeteria. Pictured above are the students enjoying some relaxing yoga. Second Grade took their long-anticipated music field trip in February! We have been talking about their field trip to the Atlanta Ballet since Kindergarten. They were so excited to show their good manners and see a live performance of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
The New Year is off to a great start!
Kindergarten loved learning some new play parties this month. Play parties are a special type of song that tells you the dance moves in the lyrics! In the song, "The Skaters," the students learned how to perform a right hand star and left hand star! It was so fun to work together. First and Second Grade's favorite activity had to do with the grumpiest monkey in the jungle! Suzanne Lang's children's book, Grumpy Monkey, is a fun book that anyone, even adults, can relate to! Sometimes, you are grumpy for no apparent reason. What can you do with those emotions when you have them? I added a run rhythmic refrain that the students chanted and moved to, and then we added rhythm stick and xylophone parts to make it beautiful. Block days are so fun for the students. This year, we have been taking advantage of our extra time during block rotations to do center work. I set up different centers in each corner of the room, and the students rotate through them. One center the students especially loved was the audio book center, where they read the book, The Napping House. After reading the book, they listened to a song based on the book. Then, they worked together to create their own "napping place," draw a picture of it, and write a song about it. Some of my favorites they created were the napping rocket ship, napping school, and napping tent.
When we came back from Thanksgiving break, we enjoyed all sorts of holiday activities! Above, you can see second grade students enjoying their lesson on Hanukah. We learned traditional Israeli folk dances in kindergarten, first, and second grades. Kindergarten and first grade danced to Cherkessiya, and second danced to Debka Kurdit.
2nd Grade spent the month of October preparing for their program on November 4th. "What America Means to Me" was a special performance that included "Time to Sing," "All "Round the Brickyard," "Molly Lou Melon," "Twinkle 50 Stars," "America I Hear You Singing," "Yankee Doodle," and "America." The students loved performing using the instrument technique that we have been working on this half of the school year. We had more instruments on the stage than ever before on this exciting Monday night! The students were also able to share their writing on the topic, "What America Means to Me" with the audience during the prelude and in between patriotic pieces. Thank you to all who made this night a success!
Welcome back to school, King Springers!
Our Kindergarteners are off to a great start this year. They learned how to behave in the music classroom very quickly, which meant we could move right into making music together! We enjoyed spending a class on each farm animal: the duck, the hen, the lamb, the cow, the pig, and the horse! Some of their favorite songs and activities this month were "Little Ducks are Funny," "I Had a Little Rooster," "Little BoPeep," "Milk Bucket Boogie," "Hop on One Foot Little Pig," and "My Pony Macaroni." We learned how to play the rhythm sticks, tambourine, maracas, jingle bells, the wood block, and sand blocks! What an exciting month! First grade has enjoyed activities that prepare them for basic rhythm notation reading. We had lots of fun remembering how to move to the steady beat, respond to rhythmic clues, and play glockenspiels! Some of our favorite songs and activities this month were "I Think Music's Neat," "The Very Busy Spider," "Jack and Jill," "Jack be Nimble," "Monkey See and Monkey Do," and "Giraffe's Can't Dance." We especially loved reading "Giraffe's Can't Dance" in music class, discussing how Gerald learned how to dance to his own beat, and then having our own classroom Jungle Dance! We love it when music and literacy meet! Second grade started off quickly with playing accompaniments to simple rhymes and songs on our xylophones. We remembered our skills and have already begun to build on them. Some of our favorites this month included "Go! Go! Go!," "Yankee Doodle," "Ha Ha This Away!," "Don't Clap This Rhythm Back," and "Mrs. Wright." You might've heard your second grader chanting our new favorite rhyme about our teacher, Mrs. Wright, at home! "Mrs. Wright had a fright in the middle of the night! Saw a ghost eating toast, halfway up the lamp post!" Ask them to perform it for you for a giggle! Second grade has become adept at decoding simple rhythms into rhythm syllables. It is going to be a great year! Check on your child's grade level page for the PTA performance dates for this year! What a crazy month! The students enjoyed two music presentations this month. One guest presented an unconventional instrument - the Glass Harp! You might've noticed that they have been trying to play music with your water glasses at home. Their curiosity was piqued during our discussion about instruments we can create at home! They will also learn about Australian music and dance next week from Didgeridoo Down Under. We learned about all of the instrument families in the orchestra during class, and Mrs. Wright even brought in some of her own instruments to show the students how they work - the trumpet, violin, and whistle. We culminated our study of the orchestra by having a special movie day in class watching Sesame Street's Peter and the Wolf. What a special time we have had together!
The above picture is of the Special's Team here at KSE. We enjoyed putting Field Day on with many volunteers. The kiddos loved competing with their classes! It's Great to be a First Grader! The first grade class did a great job presenting all of the fun things they learned in music class this year. They sang, danced, played the djembes, played the xylophones, and read poems. And their smiles lit up the room! We are so proud of their successes this year.
In March, the Kindergarteners put on their first PTA performance - King Springs Goes to the Farm! Not only did they have fun dressing up to be their favorite barnyard character, but they also showed off their new musical skills to all of their families and friends. We are so proud of our Kinders!
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AuthorI'm Mrs. Wright, and here is what we are up to in Music Class! Archives
March 2020
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