Music in March (K classes featured!)

March Celebrity Singers!

5th Parmenter

4th JFK

3rd JFK

5th JFK

April Musician of the Month!

Scott Joplin

April 1, 1868

"King of Ragtime Writers"

Here is one of my all time favorite Scott Joplin pieces, "Maple Leaf Rag"!

Videos from inside the music room! 

Featuring JFK Kindergarten!

Mrs. Trottier's Class

Students in multiple grades listened to "The Viennese Musical Clock" and did different activities to help find the beat and identify parts that were same and different. In older classes, students were able to identify the form!

You can listen to the whole piece here!

Mrs. Trockman's Class

Here is a fun game I play in K-1. Students wake up the grizzly bear by hearing and singing the resting tone!

Mr. McCarthy's Class

Here is another fun activity I do with K-1. Students identify the macro (big) beat and the micro (small) beat. Once students can put this beat in their bodies we transfer the beat to barred instruments (xylophone, metalophone, glockenspiels). Students also create an ABA form using the two parts!

Field trip is quickly approaching!

Our field trips for 5th at Parmenter (4/12) and 3rd and 5th at JFK (4/14) are quickly approaching! 

Thank you to all who volunteered to chaperone! Chaperones have been notified but I will let people know if anything changes! 

5th Grade:
Here is the full recording of The Blue Danube. I'll be teaching the B section this week. This recording has also been posted in google classroom. Don't forget to practice!:)
Click here to listen and play along: The Blue Danube

Toronto Children's Chorus Visits Parmenter School!

What a great opportunity to hear a chorus from another part of the world! This group showed such great singing technique, expression, and poise while singing music from all different parts of the world. Special thanks to Mr. Morris for bringing this wonderful chorus to Parmenter!

Here was their last song from New Zealand called "I Te Timatanga".

Music Field Trip!

Attention 5th grade JFK and Parmenter parents AND JFK 3rd grade parents!

RI Philharmonic Orchestra Field trip information went home today. Please return the second sheet by Thursday. The third sheet only needs to be returned if you are interested in chaperoning.

Thank you so much! Mrs. MacMurray

P.S. 5th Graders, My Country Tis Of Thee has now been added to my Recorder Olympian help videos! *See important links on right

Clara Rockmore rocks!

Did you happen to notice a musician featured on google today? Go to www.google.com and play along with Clara Rockmore, electronic music pioneer!

To learn more about Clara Rockmore, go to The Story of Clara Rockmore.

Special thanks to Mr. Jamie Barrett (Franklin music teacher extraordinaire) for passing this along!

Attention 2nd-5th graders, summer fun!

Here are just a few of the exciting summer programs going on right here in Franklin!

Elementary School Musical! 
Taught by your very own, Mrs. Mac! For dates, description, etc. 
Please click here.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens! 
Taught by Mrs. Mac's husband, Mr. Mac! This is not a music camp but is for any student who loves Star Wars! For dates, description, etc. 
Please click here.

Summer Music Program!
Band, chorus, and orchestra taught by various staff members. For dates, description, etc.
Please click here.

*If for some reason the links do not work. All programs can be found on the Franklin schools website under lifelong learning, summer programs. Hope to see you there!

News from the Music Room!

January and February Celebrity Singers!

Parmenter 5th

JFK 4th

JFK 3rd

JFK 5th

Special thanks to Keona's mom who came in to help the 5th graders at Parmenter with our new song from Brazil. She helped us with our Portuguese, painted a great picture of Rio de Janeiro, and even taught us to samba! 

I also have to give a special shout out to Sean, a 5th grader at JFK, and Mr. John who works at JFK who helped us with our Portuguese translation!

Last month we celebrated February birthdays along with the Birthday and music of John Williams! Very fitting with the Oscars last night! John Williams has been nominated for 50 Oscars and won 5 for film scores such as Jaws, ET, Schindler's List, Fiddler on the Roof, and of course, Star Wars. While, unfortunately, he did not win last night, here is John Williams conducting his newest film!

Happy Birthday this month to Bobby McFerrin!

March 11, 1950

I couldn't resist picking this really talented and unique musician! He uses his voice in so many amazing ways and is a great example to children who are learning to improvise. I had to start with this feel good hit! Enjoy!

Psst. Remember Jazz Prodigy Joey Alexander? Guess who got to perform at this year's Grammy Award Show?! Check out his performance!

        Finally, Happy Belated Valentine's Day from Mrs. Arnold's JFK 1st grade class. This was an activity I did K-2 at JFK and 1-2 at Parmenter. Finding, demonstrating, and maintaining a steady beat is a concept we work on K-5. In K-1 students helped my friend Valentine, the bear, dance to the beat while we rapped a Valentine's Day poem. From there, we used the program Mixcraft (very similar to GarageBand) to create a background beat, similar to rap artists! First graders had a little more input in which beat they wanted to incorporate and recorded themselves as well. Second graders created their own Valentine's Day poem and used the recording to help evaluate their performance and then re-record. Unfortunately, in an effort to help keep my data usage down I deleted a few more projects I was hoping to share! Don't worry, more to come in March!

Mrs. Arnold's Class Valentine Rap