I showed all my students a little bit of this version of the Nutcracker in class this week. THEY LOVED IT! Since we only got to see a little snippet, it would be awesome if you could watch it at home with your child. You might even see a real life movie star in it, if you watch carefully. :)
0 Comments
After the concerts, I enjoy taking a little break. This week and next, we will be breaking out the bells and boomwhackers and playing some traditional Christmas music Guitar Hero style. These exercises are so fun and the kids really enjoy them. Check out my Winter Lesson Playlist on Youtube. It totally rocks!
What a GREAT K-3 concert! I'm so proud of all the kids and how well they performed. Check out the TCDS blog for some fantastic pictures from the concert. The video I took has great sound, but the video itself isn't the best. If you took video at the winter concert, I would LOVE it if you could email it to me at [email protected] .
This week we will be analyzing our performances and watching our concert. Winter Concerts are coming! Mark your calendars for the first two Mondays in December. We will be at Sahuaro High School again this year. The kids are already working on their winter concert songs. This is the place to come for all information and if your child wants to practice at home.
I've attached the lyrics above for all those super proactive kids. Enjoy! We learned about high and low sounds in our environment in Kindergarten. First grade learned about moving to different parts in a speech piece called Mashed Potatoes. Second grade learned the importance of synergizing to the beat while singing a call and response song. We learned to move to the form AB in a Spanish song and then tried recorders and played "A".
Steady beat and rhythm. We worked on being able to tell the difference in all our classes this week. Kindergarten played two different games and discussed how the beat was different in each. "Juba" and "O Ma Washi" are always a favorite of Kinder classes.
First grade developed their understanding of rhythm, using iconic notation, in the form of birthday cakes and candles, to better understand eighth notes, quarter notes and quarter rests. Second grade learned a little Chinese with the song "Xiao Yin Chuan." This song reinforced the notes learned in first grade. Third grade went one step further and learned sixteenth notes! 4 quick notes that fit into one beat. Students had fun learning to sing and play these super fast rhythms. Fourth grade continued our arduous, but oh so important task of learning to tune the ukulele. Once they know this, the rest of the year is going to be a breeze. We are synergizing like crazy to ensure that every student understands how to tune so that when/if they get one at home, they will be bale to tune it themselves. It's pretty awesome seeing them work together. If you'd like a guide to getting started with the ukulele at home or want to know which kind of ukulele to buy, check out the Ukulele tab above. Lots of great resources there. Thanks! Classical music is fun to teach, especially when you teach the story that goes along with it. One of my favorite lessons is about the William Tell Overture by Rossini. The kindergarteners all learned that Rossini's opera was not about a horse race, but about a man who refused to bow down to a hat and was then forced to shoot an apple from the top of his son's head. We acted out the story and then played a little just dance to the William Tell Overture. The classical music continued into 1st grade. We listened to Braham's lullaby and then created lullabies of our own with mallet instruments.
We're getting ready to sing "A Tribute to our Presidents" on Monday, February 20th at flag for President's Day. We have a few leaders, who've really shown that they've got what it takes to lead the whole class in song. You may even see them taking the lead on Monday. We're also learning a counting song game from Tobago. Third grade is learning a song of their choice on the recorder. We're still learning the names of the notes on the staff and will be doing a rhythm review next week to aid their self learning. 4th grade did a fantastic job singing and playing this week at flag. "I Love you, Arizona" has 13 chords that they learned and memorized. I'm so impressed! And now that they've learned 13 chords, we're going back to basics. How do you really hold a uke? What kinds should you buy? Here's a quick guide to buying: Test a few out. Go to Guitar Center or Bookmans and try a few. Make sure they can be tuned properly. Get a Soprano Uke if you can. They're the small ones. Good brands are Teton ($99-$219), Diamond Head ($28, score!), Haman U-30Bk ($44), Kala and Makala ($45-50). We have Makala at school. They're a great starter Ukulele. 5th grade is continuing to learn about current artists. Lindsey Stirling was this week. She's brilliant and motivational. I hope your kids come away inspired by these rising stars we've been learning about. Kindergarten and first grade are now learning February songs and are better understanding what rests are in music. We played the quiet game and learned a song called Silence. It was quite, or should I say "quiet" nice. 2nd grade is coming up with choreography for a song to perform at flag for President's Day on February 20th. The song is called "A Tribute to our Presidents." We're continuing with recorders fro third grade. We're doing "America" as a group number and they're picking one more song to either play by themselves or in a small group. Having multiple songs going on in the classroom should be exciting. I love the 4th grade song we're working on for flag next week. February 14th is Valentine's Day as well as our state's birthday, so we will be performing "I Love you Arizona" with ukuleles on Monday Feb 14th at flag. I love 5th grade's curriculum right now. We learned more about stringed instruments from Black Violin. We learned about a virtual choir from Eric Whitacre. This week, we continued learning about musical instruments by witnessing the awesomeness that is created by a marching band. This Ohio State performance is a must-see. January friends! Can your Kindergartner or first grader tell you our January friends? We learned about Betsy Ross, Paul Revere, Martin Luther King Jr and Franklin D. Roosevelt. All four having birthdays in January.
Inauguration day is/was Jan 20th! In 2nd grade, we're learning about our new president and celebrating some old presidents in order to sing a song for President's Day at flag. Do you know when President's Day is? 3rd grade is also learning a song for flag. This one has the recorder. We are jumping right in and learning the hardest two notes this week, C and F. Luckily, the transition between C and F is rather simple. The part goes like this for those who like to practice at home. CFFF CFFF CFFFEEF F-------- F------- C-------C------- CFFFEEF 4th grade is continuing to learn "I Love you, Arizona." Please see the previous blog post for links and practice. 5th grade learned about a group called Black Violin last week and are learning about drum sets this week. We watched a few videos and responded to what we learned. Pretty soon, we'll be using the knowledge from all of these video to create a song of our own. |
Mrs. Bell with Emily and photo bomber Robert.
AuthorHello! I'm Mrs. Bell. I teach K-5 music and Middle School Choir at Tucson Country Day School. I also help with after school clubs like Singers and Drama. Archives
January 2019
Categories |