Music Notes: End of October 2015

The kindergarteners have sung several echo songs and continue to practice showing the steady beat with their bodies. (Ask your kindergartener to sing the welcome song and show the steady beat!) They have also been hearing and showing the differences between fast/ slow and loud/soft (forte/piano). They’ve gotten involved by playing instruments, making vocal sound effects, and adding fingerplays for such books as Puff-Puff, Chugga-Chugga, The Napping House, and Five Little Pumpkins. They’ve also enjoyed seasonal songs such as “Three Little Witches,” and “Skin and Bones.” We’ve discussed different ways to use our imaginations and have practiced using them with our songs and our stories.

The 1^st graders have also been singing seasonal songs and echo songs, but their main focus this month has been rhythm. (Ask your 1^st grader what rhythm is, and see if s/he remembers how to spell it! We’ve been practicing…) They’ve practiced human rhythms, in which we line up four chairs to represent four steady beats and then seat students in the chairs to represent sounds or rhythms. After that, they moved on to food rhythms, in which they lay out four paper plate “steady beats” and use one- or two-syllable plastic foods to create four-beat rhythm patterns. They learned the sounds we say for the two rhythms we’ve been working on (ta and ti-ti), and practiced “writing” them with popsicle sticks. This week, they put this rhythmic knowledge into place with different Halloween-associated words. They’ve also added instrumental sound effects to the book Skeleton for Dinner.

The 2^nd graders have also been singing seasonal songs. They also learned two new rhythms, half note and half rest, and have been practicing reading, writing, clapping, and speaking these rhythms. (Want to learn something fun at home? Ask your 2^nd grader to teach you the song and clapping game for the song “Pumpkin, Pumpkin.”)

The 3^rd graders played melodic ostinatos on xylophones to go along with the song “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” which they learned in the process of learning their new rhythm of four 16^th notes (tiri-tiri). (Ask your 3^rd grader what a melody is, what an ostinato is, and what that means when you put the words together. Hint: It’s a ____ that ____.) They’ve also been practicing a round or a canon (ask your 3^rd grader what that is), and have been taking turns leading class-wide rounds with body percussion. Last week, we learned a Halloween song called “Mwa Ha Ha” that the students get to self-accompany with Boomwhackers (color-coded pitched plastic tubes).

The 4^th and 5^th graders are almost done with their instrument unit. (Ask your 4^th or 5^th grader about the instruments s/he has seen in class!) For more of an idea of the instruments they’ve been learning about, search the class blog for “percussion,” “woodwind,” “brass,” and “strings” to find each of those posts. The 4^th graders will culminate this unit with a field trip to see the Civic Symphony of Green Bay next Friday, and the 5^th graders will take a short break from the unit until 2016, when they will take a field trip to see the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in early February. 

Earning DRUM cards outside of class: If students are able to attend any performances outside of the school day, I ask that they bring in a program with their name on it and tell me (or write on the program) something about it: something new they learned, their favorite part of it, etc.

If your family is interested in attending performances in the Pulaski area, here are some upcoming ones:

            Friday, November 6             7 pm               Red Raider Showcase Concert

                                                                                    PHS Ripley PAC

                                                                                    $5 per ticket

Friday, November 6            7 pm                Civic Symphony of GB Family Concert

Meyer Theatre, downtown Green Bay

                                                                        Student tickets $7, senior tickets $12, adult tickets $17, family package $40

November 27, 28, 29           Varies             Green Bay Nutcracker Ballet

Meyer Theatre, downtown Green Bay

                                                                        Tickets $17.50, $26.50, $40 and can be purchased at meyertheatre.org

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I look forward to seeing you at parent/teacher conferences! I will be at Lannoye on Tuesday, November 10, for conferences.

Ms. Corinne Galligan
(920) 822-0433
cmgalligan@pulaskischools.org
lannoyemusic.blogspot.com