John Kanaka

1st graders this week are learning the Sea Shanty called "John Kanaka." They do a double circle partner dance where the inside circle rotates after each verse!

Sleigh Ride Grade 1

1st graders have been learning about the American composer Leroy Anderson. He was born close by, in Cambridge, MA!

Last week we danced to Bugler's Holiday.

This week we learned a cup game to Sleigh Ride and played the rhythm sticks after.

Staulcup's Class Rhythm Sticks

McEachern's Class Rhythm Sticks

Yurick's Class Rhythm Sticks

1st grade Same-Different

1st graders learned about same-different this week, which leads into musical form. They learned either "Tick Tock" or "Bell Horses" as part A, then had races with drum rolls as part B.

Staulcup's Class doing A-B racing.

Carnival of the Animals 2017

1st graders have been learning about "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint Saens. The piece has 14 different musical movements and each movement is supposed to sound like a certain animal.

Ray's Class acting out the Kangaroo movement with added vocals from the Fun With Composers book

Scott's Class acting out the "Persons with Long Ears" Donkey movement by kicking on the high notes and pawing on the "Hee-Haws"

Shoo Fly Dance Grade 2

Grade 2 did a lesson on the folk song "Shoo Fly" this week. We discussed the ABA form of the piece and then learned a fun double circle dance.

DeLuca's Class

To finish the class we listened to the book "Jazz Fly 2" where a fly who speaks jazz (scat) travels through the jungle to get to his gig in the termite nest. Along the way he has to use his Spanish phrase book to talk to the animals of the jungle. Here is a little taste of the book.

Kindergarteners Hatch out of Their Eggs!

Kindergarteners are learning about "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" this week by composers Mussorgsky and Ravel.
Here is the link to the youtube video students watched for their first listen to the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAtAvF2cepg

Students discussed what it would be like to be a chick inside an egg ready to hatch. How would they feel? What might they do to try to break free?

Then students learned the story about Charli the chick and how he and his friends broke out of their eggs and then hid inside them again to surprise their mama and papa when they got back from the lake.

Here are some classes performing the cute version of this piece from "Fun with Composers Volume 2." We added instruments to part A and scarves to part B.

Words= 
PART A= "Let me out! Let me out! Icky sticky, icky sticky, I am feeling icky sticky!
Let me out! Let me out! Icky sticky, icky sticky, I am feeling icky sticky!
Peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, PUSH! *Repeat*

PART B= Where is my mama, where is my papa? Where is my mama, my papa? Oh there!
Quickly, oh quickly, get back in the eggshell. Quickly, oh quickly, they'll love the surprise!"

FORM= AABA

 Mrs. MacDougall's class

Ms. McCluskey's class

Hopi Basket Dance Grade 3

3rd graders learned about Native American music this week since they will be doing a Native American unit soon in their classrooms.
Students learned a Hopi Basket Dance, which is a dance to celebrate the harvest used by the Navajo Native Americans.

Here is Ms. Lantz's class performing the Hopi Basket Dance with paper plates as their baskets.

Students also learned a song called Gitsigakomim, from the Blackfoot Nation. Gitsigakomim means "I love you" or "I honor you." And Na-a means mother. After learning the song students were able to substitute "Na-a" for the name of someone or something that they would like to honor.

Gitsigakomim Na-a

Gitsigakomim Na-a

Gitsigakomim Na-a

Gitsigakomim

Way ya, way ya

way ya, hey ya

way ya, hey ya

Gitsigakomim, Gitsigakomim

Groovin' Elf Practice Grade K

Here is a cute video of Mrs. MacDougall's Kindergarten class practicing for their concert this Thursday! The beginning is a little messy since I am both trying to hold the camera and do the dance moves, but the kids catch on quickly! :-)

'Galop' Ribbon Dance

Grade 3 has been learning about form. In this video students perform a ribbon dance routine to 'Galop' from The Comedians by Composer Kabalevsky .

Mrs. Perry's Class

Mrs. Wilson's Class

Ms. Lantz's Class

High/Low Songs on the Stretchy Band

1st graders learn about sound opposites throughout the year. They just learned about the opposites high and low. In the two videos below students perform the song "High Low Song" by MusicK8. View the video here!

Students were excited to use the music room's new stretchy band! We were able to purchase this awesome new stretchy band through our Best Seat in the House Raffle at our Winter Concert. 

Ms. Nealey's Class

Mrs. Jagentenfl's Class

The song below called "bounce high, bounce low" showed the high, middle, and low notes using the stretchy band.

Mrs. Greer's Class

Toothy Rhythms Grade K

Kindergarteners did a lesson on loosing their baby teeth. First they sang a song called "Bye Bye Baby Tooth." Then students created a toothy rhythm as a class on the smartboard using teeth as "beats" and lost teeth gaps as "rests".

Then students each got to compose their own rhythms using paper lips and teeth.

Finally, two students got to be the tooth fairies and when they tapped a student's shoulder that student became a lost tooth and ever so slowly sat down, to the music of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies!"