Wow, April and May went by so fast! So much music, so little time. Below are the highlights of the last two months:
First grade: "April Showers" was a theme we worked with this month. Some of the rain songs we sang were "Rain Rain Go Away," (Which we also learned to play on Orff instruments and sing with solfege), "A Little Drop of Rain, " (in which we create a rainstorm with body percussion and percussion instruments), and "Rain on the Green Grass". We also explored dynamics and tempo with movement activities to Debussy's "Garden in the Rain," Vivaldi's "Spring," and Gershwin's "An American in Paris." We also started to explore the Percussion family of instruments, breaking them down into groups- Rattles, Woods, Metals, and Drums.
May continued these units, in addition to lessons focused on melodic contour, form and dynamics with "El Floron," "Bate Bate Chocolate," "Down the River," and "My Aunt Came Back." *During NJASK week, we did a special lesson on storytelling with music and movement. We watched clips of Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, and discussed how the ballent movements and music told the familiar story perfectly.
Second Grade: We added half notes and Sol to our music reading skills this month. Some of the songs we learned were the speech piece "Riddle Ree," movement game "Matarile," the folk favorite (with Ms. Hunter's animation) "I Bought Me a Cat," "Pease Porridge," and "Frere Jacques." We also did a mini-unit on tempo with the folk dance, "The Chimes of Dunkirk," "Shoo Fly," and the play-party "John Kanaka." *During NJASK week, we did a special lesson on opera. We read the book The Bantam of the Opera by Mary Jane Ausch (and had a fascinating class discussion about the chicken pox, which I realized none of the second graders had ever had...)and then watched some clips from Mozart's The Magic Flute.
Third Grade: We reviewed and delved further into the pentatonic scale with solfege, playing a melodic ostinato for "This Pretty Planet," and singing "I'm Gonna Dance All Day." We also did some melodic improvisation based on types of flowers that bloom in the spring, and created dances that illustrated the form and text of "This Pretty Planet." We also took another look at meter when playing the concentration game, "Mabel Mabel" in 4 4 and 3 4 time. As we began a short unit on tempo and dynamics, we learned the Maori song "E Poi E Tai Tai," and the Dutch spinning song, "Sarasponda." Both songs are new favorites with many of the third graders!
Fourth Grade: We worked very hard on our concert selections. We will be playing Orff instruments and non pitched percussion instruments to accompany singing and dancing at our spring performances. Just a reminder that Kennedy's program will be Tuesday, June 4th at 2:15 pm, and Franklin's program will be Thursday, June 13th at 9:15am. Looking forward to seeing many of you there!