I Could Have Danced... All Day!

Ah.....Dancing!  The perfect combination of Music and PE, linked together for the children to learn.  Rhythm, steady beat, tempo, on/off beat, pattern, form; the list goes on.  Dance encompasses so many of the skills we teach in the music room that it would be a shame not to include this in our yearly lessons.

For the next two weeks, I take my students and combine with the PE classes so that we have anywhere from 50 to nearly 100 students in the gym dancing and learning together.  Mrs. Treptow and I have planned for the next two weeks to be a wonderful experience for the kids.  This will be happening from November 29th through December 10th.

We have all the children, kindergartners through 5th graders, meeting in the gym for Music and PE to experience many types of dance.  We teach social dance, circle dances, square dances, folk dances, country and line dances as well.  They are great exercise for the children.  Once they get moving, they keep moving until the music finishes!  And as teachers, we keep them moving right into the next song.

Chorus and Orff Ensemble are gearing up for the concert on  December 9th.  They are very excited to present their musical selections to the audience.  Look for another email to come home early the week of the concert with reminders for the concert. 

November Notes

The music room is alive with singers!  The past few months have been a big study of rhythm for our young learners.  Now in November we are focused on the singing aspect of our music making. 
The kindergarten and first graders are finding their solo voices.  They have had opportunities to sing by themselves. I ask them to take turns singing a short song alone so that the children get to hear the sound of their own singing voice.  Sometimes it is a surprise what they hear!  They all receive a little reward paper for singing a solo that is theirs to take home and show their family.
Second Grade:  It's concert time!  Their big show is Thursday, November 18th at 6:30 pm.  Families should have received an email about the details for this fun event.  We will see you there!
Third grade and fourth grade have been incorporating singing with challenging movement activities.  You can ask your child about John Kanakanaka and Makowe Koteoh!
Our fifth grade students have been creating movement and dance to different musical forms like Theme and Variation and Rondo as well.  However they are finding that listening to a piece of music and following the form is trickier than the thought...they will get better through discussion and using our form following tools this next week.
The Fry Chorus and the Orff Ensemble are getting geared up for December 9th.  They have their first concert of the year that night.  Their official information letter will come home in email through your child's classroom teacher.  Please look for this at the end of this week.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving,
Mrs. Whitney