This is a great tool for students and parents to learn, practice and have fun singing our beautiful school song! Thanks to our Middle School students for starring in our lyric video.
It has been a busy week in music and library, getting acquainted, checking out books and even starting some drumming.
The younger students in library began class by playing a game called, "Happy Book/Sad Book" to learn how to care for our library books. Some of the things the students noticed:
- Try not to leave your library book where your dog or cat might play with it,
- Read books with your family, including baby siblings, but try not to leave the book in baby's hands unsupervised,
- The playground and dinner table aren't great places for Happy Books, and,
- If your book might get wet, from rain or a water-bottle in the backpack, try putting it in a plastic bag to protect it.
The older students discussed the importance of choosing appropriate books and the process behind those choices. We talked about "GRAB", which is a procedure that will be displayed in the library for reference.
Before you GRAB a book, think and remember:
- G- Genre- Does it fit within the genre you are studying or your genre of interest?
- R- Reading Level- Is it at your reading level and is the character about your same age?
- A- Appeal- After reading the blurb or summary, does the book interest you?
- B- Browse- Have you looked at two or three other options before choosing this one?
Finally, the students spent time browsing and checking out books and settled to read independently or with a friend.
In music, the students learned their warm-up, which differs by grade-level. The younger students concentrate on learning the difference between their four types of voices (speaking voice, whispering voice, calling voice, singing voice) while the older students are expanding their vocal range. All students warm-up their bodies as well, including 1-2 "Yoga for Young Singers" poses. Since our voice is part of our body, it's important to be 100% physically engaged! The warm-up ends with the school song.
Students in all grades practiced drumming this week. First, some basic rhythms to assess levels and then off to Orff Schulwerk practice, which is a great way to learn note reading and durations utilising syllables like "ta", "ti" and "tika" to match with Western music notation. The students are already very familiar with this method, so we got a lot accomplished. The Middle Schoolers even learned an extended rhythm that we put to a new song, "We Are Children of Peace." This song will be reappearing throughout the year and in a few weeks, you'll see a lyric practice video.
The students end music class with a free-dance song which encourages cooperation and self-expression. I often model some easy, repetitive dance moves which they can choose to follow if they wish. Many students make-up their own dances with friends. We end the class with a goodbye song and 1-2 relaxing yoga poses to go forth into the day calmly.
Next week, students will continue drumming, adding other unpitched percussion instruments very soon. We will also have a firm concentration on "We Are Children of Peace," which is a simple song in several different languages. We are hoping to have the vocal and instrumental parts mastered in time to make a video for International Peace Day, which is September 21.
Please email if you have any questions!
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