Hello Memorial Families! It has been an exciting month of learning in the music room. Read on below to hear about your student’s classroom expectations in music!
Classroom Expectations:
Preschool: Students practiced being an echo this month, by trying to repeat after the teacher with a singing voice. They experimented with making a loud or soft rain sound on a hand drum while singing “Pitter Patter”. They also pretended to cook “Pumpkin Stew” and put all sorts of silly ingredients in while practicing the steady beat. Our finger story this month has been “Two Little Blackbirds”. Check the music room website for song lyrics.
Kindergarten: Students are now expected to demonstrate four different voices at the beginning of each music class: Talking, Whispering, Calling, Singing! If asked, they should be able to tell you about the poem we use to practice these voices. When we practice our singing voice, students are learning to make a “perfect match” when it is their turn with the singing ball! They explored the musical opposites fast and slow this month and are now expected to identify whether music sounds fast or slow.
First Grade: Students continued to practice making a “perfect match” when singing. They are expected to demonstrate a steady beat while singing or listening to music at this point in the year. They also learned about the concept of rhythm and contrasted it with steady beat. They learned that tapping the rhythm of the song matches the words while tapping the beat makes hands tap at the same speed through the whole song. Favorite songs and games this month included “Bounce High”, “Cobbler Cobbler”, and “Pumpkin Stew”.
Second Grade: Students focused on their music listening skills! They enjoyed listening to Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and were expected to describe the song using three musical words! They also got a chance to compare three different performances of the song: orchestra, voices, and electronic. Eventually, the expectation will be to explain a preference for a musical performance! Students also learned about a new rhythm that gets two beats, called a half note. They practiced reading and writing this rhythm throughout the month.
Third Grade: Third graders discovered the names of the two new notes on our solfege staircase: low sol and low la! They learned that every note on the staircase can repeat and that the repeating notes are one octave apart. They also discovered a new way to perform rhythms, by using numbers to count them! We made a fun connection to both fractions and pizza while learning this new skill! Now, when reading rhythmic patterns, students are expected to count the rhythms with numbers. Third graders also explored the concept of empathy in music, by trying to identify the feeling a composer felt when writing a song!
Please check out the music room website for more information about the music program. Feel free to reach out at any time by emailing smaldonado@easthamptonct.org.
Mrs. Maldonado
