Dive Into Drumming

Our video this week is from the Grade 1/2 Class, singing a welcome song in French and English. They learned this song the first week of school, so they have only practiced a few times and the resulting performance is very impressive. This song is an easy way to introduce another language at home!

In addition to the Grade 1/2 class learning French, the Grade 3/4 class has been practicing a "Hello" song in Swahili. Currently, the students are learning drum parts to accompany the song. Here are some of the students practicing their drum rhythms independently.

After the students spent a few minutes practicing the rhythms, they were paired up. The students that felt they had mastered the rhythm were paired with the students that expressed they were still struggling. The students rated their own progress and were encouraged to be honest and confident, so as to better help each other.

For the second class, the 3/4 students came back together as a group and put the rhythm with the music track. Finally, we added an additional rhythm and the students started playing in two-parts. In a few weeks, we might have a rhythm band going!

The 4-year-old class was introduced to their first musical circle game, entitled "High Stepping Horses." This game, hopefully to be filmed in the next few weeks, is a great way to encourage communication, expression and learning the difference between beat and rhythm.

The 3-year-old class continued their instrument exploration, adding the maracas, tambourines and sandblocks to the drums with which they are already familiar.

Our Middle Schoolers only had music once this week due to their field trip, so we spent some time reviewing treble clef note reading and they were introduced to a few games and websites that can help them review at home. These websites are all listed on the right side of this blog under "Fun Links".

Finally, our KG/1 class is working hard on "We Are Children of Peace," embracing the multiple languages fully.

In Library, Grades 1-4 are focusing heavily on choosing "Just Right" books at their reading level. The goal is for every student in grades 2-4 to have one or two books for independent reading (or read-aloud to family and friends). The Grade 1 students can check-out one book for independent reading and one book to read with parents or older siblings. Our younger students are learning the differences between fiction and non-fiction by starting with what is a fact and what is not a fact. This week, we read two books about worms, with one giving us fun and interesting facts about earthworms and the other written from the perspective of a worm that goes to school, writes in his diary and regularly eats his homework.

As always, please forward any comments or questions my way! I'm so enjoying having your students in music and library.

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