Mrs. Mac Music: October Music!

October Celebrity Singers in Chorus!

JFK 3rd Grade

JFK 4th Grade

JFK 5th Grade

Parmenter 3rd Grade

October Musician, Culture, and Composer of the Month!

1st Grade Musician: Yo-Yo Ma

2nd Grade Culture: Africa

3rd Grade Composer: Camille Saint-Saens

Other snapshots of Music in October!

Below are pictures and videos of different activities and concepts we explored in music. I plan to feature every class that I teach at JFK and Parmenter by the end of the year. Stay tuned!

Also follow me on twitter @MrsMacMusic1

Kindergarten

Kindergarten has been having a blast exploring their voices and instruments! Students have also been discovering that the beat is everywhere! Ask your children where they have heard the beat in music.

Here is Mrs. Forde's Class dancing to the beat. We talked about how people must listen and move to the beat and music to be great dancers. To see if they were really listening to the music, we moved to the song "Freeze!" Check out these moves!

1st Grade

Here is Mrs. Emord's class demonstrating the song "Little Ghosty." This song reinforces the resting tone (Do in Major and La in La based minor) and students were also asked to audiate or sing certain parts of the music in their head.

2nd Grade

Below are students from Mrs. Carnaroli's class. We explored music from Africa this month while also working on reading duple rhythms and singing solfege syllables in major and minor tonality. Students learned an African call and response rhythm on the drums from Ghana and here they were playing along to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which was taken from a tribe in South Africa.

3rd Grade

As 3rd Graders are learning about composers, Gustav Holst and Camille Saint-Saens, they also learned about becoming composers themselves! Students created their own planets as a class and composing their own music to accompany their planets. This month we added a melody using notes and solfege that we are learning on our barred instruments. Still more to do but we look forward to performing this for you!

We were having so much fun this month I completely forgot to get any pictures or a video! So sorry! Instead here is a new video I found that I've shown to 2nd and 3rd grade that teaches the solfege syllables and hand signs. The kids loved it!

4th Grade

Students have officially started learning the recorder! I thought the kids (and parents) would get a kick out of hearing the students the first time they play the recorder. In the second video you will be amazed to see how much control they learn in just one week! As them if they know the two ways to avoid squeaks on the recorder!

Mrs. Bessette's Class - Note B

Here is Mrs. Merten's class working in groups on the song, "All Alone." I spend a lot of time in class showing students how to practice so that they can have strategies when they learn songs at home. Check out this awesome group work!

Recorders come home in January!:)

How fun is this?!

5th Grade

Students are still expected to be playing the recorder at home so we can maintain our skills and add the ukulele. In November, students will be taking a few weeks to learn a Japanese round on the recorder, "Hotaru Koi." We are preparing for quite the concert! So far on the ukulele we have been learning the strings and parts of the ukulele. In November we will be learning Am and C chords with the down strum.