It is hard to believe that there is only about one month left of school! Here is what we have been working on in the music room at ÉCCS.
Maternelle - The students are busy planting seeds and growing veggies. Our focus has been on cute songs like "Watch the Garden Grow", which go through all the steps to make a beautiful garden! Grade 1/2 - After a few weeks with the classic, 'Peter and the Wolf' (or Pierre et le loup"), we are moving into 'Carnival of the Animals'. This has been an excellent study of different instrument families and understanding the qualities that make each instrument unique. In addition, we are reading different stories about each animal in 'Carnival' to help us make predictions about the elements of the songs (high/low; fast/slow; long/short; loud/soft) Grade 3/4 - Students learned about each instrument family (Strings, Percussion, Woodwinds and Brass) and demonstrated their ability to categorize each instrument. Grade 5/6 - Earlier in the month, we started with a music and movement study. In groups, students were required to create a class warm up. We are currently heading into our final project: creating a product and commercial to advertise the product. This project pulls all the arts education strands together: Music, Dance, Drama and Visual Art. Grade 7/8 - The past month has been a very exciting (at least in my opinion!) study of the jazz and more specifically, the 12-Bar Blues. First, students completed a web quest that had students research different types of blues songs from all decades. Next, students learned the call and response form of the blues and made their own lyrics. Finally, we went through the 12-Bar Blues form on the barred instruments with some jazz backing tracks. Students demonstrated their ability to hear the chord changes while playing! It was a really awesome class that brought all their knowledge together! Looking forward to a fun and exciting June. We will be getting outside in the sunshine with some folk dancing and more!
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Welcome back after a delightful February break. Over the next 7 weeks (until Easter break), we will be exploring music and dance from around the world. We start our study with world drumming and songs originating from Western Africa. Kindergarten - Grade 2: The main goal is to keep a steady beat while drumming, perform 2-beat echos and start creating repetitive rhythmic patterns (also called rhythmic ostinatos)
Grade 3/4: We extend our skills by adding syncopated rhythms (off-beat rhythms) on the drums and begin adding more layers with the use of non-pitched percussion instruments. Grade 5/6: We are currently building our repertoire of drum patterns through technical practice. Eventually we will use these patterns in improvising. Grade 7/8: The goal is perform an ensemble piece with multiple layers - different rhythmic patterns, non-pitched percussion instruments, singing and dance. I am so excited to be part of the team at École Connaught Community School this year! We have a lovely room downstairs, across from Wise Owl Daycare. We are equipped with full class sets of world drums, guitars, barred instruments (xylophones, etc) and lots of non-pitched percussion instruments. Best of all, we have lots of space to sing, dance, act and be LOUD!!!
By the end of the week, I will have worked with all the students in the school, except Pre-K and English Kindergarten. We are learning our welcome songs and routines and setting classroom expectations. As we move around in a new space with lots of distracting and awesome instruments, we are working on being respectful and remaining calm in the classroom. This ties in with our school-wide "Virtue of the Month" - Self Control. Thank you to Mrs. Daelick for sharing the information below! At ÉCCS, Self Control LOOKS LIKE:
Self Control SOUNDS LIKE:
Self Control, FEELS LIKE:
I am looking forward to a great year! |
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