4th Grade:
NOVEMBER:
Well....we started recorders! The kids are so excited. Please continue to encourage your student! We have learned how to hold our recorder, how to use our air, fingerings for B-A-G, and the song "Traffic Jam." The kids LOVE to play. Remember that practice logs are due at the end of the month!
The 4th Graders are also working on 3 partner songs, "I Wanna Sing," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In." When these songs are sung together, we create harmony. Partner songs are one of my favorite things to teach. I LOVED singing them as a kid, so it's fun to share that with my students.
Rhythmically, students have been practicing their ability to "decode." This means, I play or chant a pattern that the student then applies syllables to. It's like learning a new language. :) This skill is a readiness to read and write patterns later in the year.
Well....we started recorders! The kids are so excited. Please continue to encourage your student! We have learned how to hold our recorder, how to use our air, fingerings for B-A-G, and the song "Traffic Jam." The kids LOVE to play. Remember that practice logs are due at the end of the month!
The 4th Graders are also working on 3 partner songs, "I Wanna Sing," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In." When these songs are sung together, we create harmony. Partner songs are one of my favorite things to teach. I LOVED singing them as a kid, so it's fun to share that with my students.
Rhythmically, students have been practicing their ability to "decode." This means, I play or chant a pattern that the student then applies syllables to. It's like learning a new language. :) This skill is a readiness to read and write patterns later in the year.
OCTOBER:
4th Grade is getting SO excited to play recorders. We will start the first week of November, and hopefully we'll have a couple songs under our belt before Winter Break. :)
4th Grade is such a great time to hear the kids' developing singing voice. They are confident and eager to share their voices--because they are awesome! :) The 4th Graders have been learning a repertoire of Halloween songs, but we also spent a lot of time on the partner songs, "Canoe Song," and "Land of the Silver Birch." These are both songs that celebrate Native American Culture. We compared similarities in lyrics, learned a little bit about how music plays a vital role for Native Tribes, and of course, we sang! We also added a lot of instruments to this songs, drums, shakers, xylophones AND boomwhackers.
Rhythmically, students are echoing more difficult patterns with syllables. We are learning "dotted" rhythms this year. By the end of the year, your student will be able to read and write dotted half notes and dotted quarter--eighth note combinations with confidence. We also created a B section to the song, "Here Comes Halloween." It's pretty easy for the students to create a fun Halloween sentence, but figuring out how to write it in notation is the challenge. Watch for this to come home the first week of November.
4th Grade is getting SO excited to play recorders. We will start the first week of November, and hopefully we'll have a couple songs under our belt before Winter Break. :)
4th Grade is such a great time to hear the kids' developing singing voice. They are confident and eager to share their voices--because they are awesome! :) The 4th Graders have been learning a repertoire of Halloween songs, but we also spent a lot of time on the partner songs, "Canoe Song," and "Land of the Silver Birch." These are both songs that celebrate Native American Culture. We compared similarities in lyrics, learned a little bit about how music plays a vital role for Native Tribes, and of course, we sang! We also added a lot of instruments to this songs, drums, shakers, xylophones AND boomwhackers.
Rhythmically, students are echoing more difficult patterns with syllables. We are learning "dotted" rhythms this year. By the end of the year, your student will be able to read and write dotted half notes and dotted quarter--eighth note combinations with confidence. We also created a B section to the song, "Here Comes Halloween." It's pretty easy for the students to create a fun Halloween sentence, but figuring out how to write it in notation is the challenge. Watch for this to come home the first week of November.