Singing, playing, moving and listening are the four activities we do at every music class in kindergarten. We sing our song of the week, mostly call and response to get the pitch right, and we always find a few instruments around the music room to help us. Keeping the beat is what we want to focus on, so moving with music helps. We are also learning about instrument families with the help of Benjamin Britten and other great composers. Please click on the link at the bottom below to see a little example of our musical activities!
First graders are now very good at keeping the beat. The next step was to introduce our first rhythm symbols. We also talked about how some notes go well with other notes (we did some experiments) and how it’s known as harmony. Our little Harmony likes it a lot! Please click on the link at the bottom below to hear our song!
Second and third graders are just amazing: they really sing very well, and they also can read rhythm. They were able in a few sessions to chant and say a four-part song. We then decided to play it on the drums. The audio result is on the link at the bottom below.
Fourth graders have reviewed successfully more than one octave of notes, many rhythm symbols and are now practicing a new song. Because October is Acts of Kindness month, we also recorded something for you! You can listen to it when you click on the link!
Fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders have extensively studied the concept of descriptive music with more than fifteen musical examples. We will write our own figurative composition in the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can listen to a short recording of the students working on a “Little Waltz for Dancing” (percussion part) by clicking on the link below.