March and April Music!

March and April Celebrity Singers in Chorus!

JFK 3rd Grade

JFK 4th Grade

 JFK 5th Grade

 Parmenter 3rd Grade

March Musician, Culture, and Composer of the Month!

1st Grade Musician: Bobby McFerrin

2nd Grade Culture: Ireland (and some Scottish bagpipes!)

Here are different classes practicing an Irish jig. 

2nd Carnaroli

2nd Maiato

1st Fitzgerald

What a treat! We even had a 2nd grade student at JFK perform an Irish step dance for us!

3rd Grade Composers: For woman's history month we talked about many different female composers and how they paved the way for other female musicians. 

Check out singer, songwriter and guitarist, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Many people don't know about her but she is called the "Godmother of Rock and Roll" and influenced many musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and many more!

April Musician, Culture, and Composer of the Month!

1st Grade and 3rd Grade: Musician and Composer Sergei Prokofiev

Prokofiev was a new composer for both grades and I thought it was a great opportunity to tie into the 1st grade unit on sound and the 3rd grade unit on instruments of the Orchestra. Students enjoyed learning about the story and instruments in Peter and the Wolf.

2nd Grade Culture: Brazil

In music we did some drumming and some very basic samba. Here is a little more involved tutorial on how to samba. Maybe it will be the new "floss".:)

Other snapshots of Music in March and April!

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

In kindergarten we have begun exploring the rhythm and students are echoing patterns but also starting to improvise. We are doing the same with our singing voices! Here is a video students really enjoyed! My question for the students was "Can we lose the beat or rhythm?" The answer? "No but we have to be careful to never lose our confidence." 

1st Grade

Students used an African song "Funga Alafia" to practice their beat and learn to move with personal space and shared space. Mrs. Kolodny's class loved having Ms. Fitzgerald's class come join us.

2nd Grade

Here second grader's are learning to layer rhythms by learning this rhythmic round. It was also a great connection to the duple rhythms we are now reading and writing.

 Mrs. Carnaroli's Class

Mrs. Maiato's Class

Mrs. Sandford's Class

3rd Grade

Students from 3rd Grade

Students at JFK and Parmenter are preparing for their field trip on May 21st (Parmenter) and May 24th (JFK) to see the RI Philharmonic Orchestra. Students have been learning about the different instrument families. Some students at both schools brought in their string instruments to demonstrate!

Below is activity we did to start learning some of the music we will be hearing on our field trip. Here students in Mrs. Grinley's class are exploring the rhythms of the Blue Danube through movement.

Here Mr. Tighe's class is playing a game "Leprechaun." Students at all ages love this game and I love it because I can differentiate it for all different levels to teach different musical concepts. In third grade we were using it to learn different minor singing patterns.

In third grade we are preparing a new composition based on the world famous percussion group, Stomp. I love walking around and seeing students excited and working hard to create their own music!

Mrs. Schreiber's Class (Day of wax museum dress rehearsal:)

Mrs. Consilvio's Class

4th Grade - JFK

Recorder Karate is going so well! Please help encourage your children to practice 5 times a day for 10 minutes. All songs will be performed at our end of the year concert.

Solo auditions will be in two weeks! Looking forward to hearing everyone! Here is one video students can use to practice at home!

5th Grade

Students in 5th grade are busy! At JFK students are memorizing "My Country Tis of Thee" on the recorder. At both schools students are trying to master the G7 chord. We've been having some really fun play alongs on the ukulele. Here is one example...

Mrs. Kroeber's class

Try it at home!