Goodbye, September!
Looking for the Grade 4 Thanksgiving songs? Click here!!!!!
What a wild and wonderful month September was. Thank you to the welcoming students and staff at MQW for a great start to the year. Keep reading if you are interested in what we've been up to so far this year. I will apologize in advance - it's a long one :)
What's going on in the music room?
Kindergarten has been busy practicing their singing voices. We have been playing games like "icky sticky bubblegum" and exploring all the different instruments in the music room. We learned about the ugly stick and mummers and Newfoundland music. Now we are playing a game called "Closet Key" and will soon be practicing our four voices - singing, speaking, shouting, and whispering!
Grade 1 has been having lots of fun in the music room! We also learned about the ugly stick, in preparation for our author visit. We spent some time this month learning about our music room routines, and trying out all the different seats in the music room. We even started choir this month! We've played on the xylophones and busted some moves playing freeze dance with the piano and sung with our beautiful voices. Coming up we will be learning all about ta and ti-ti and maybe even writing some music!
Grade 2 has been playing lots of games, and one of our favourites from this month is "Who's that tapping at my window?" My secret plan was to teach them the rhythm too-ooh by singing this song - they didn't even know they were using it! We will learn how to draw it and write music with it during October. We sang in silly voices and got ready for our author visit by trying out the ugly stick. Choir has been fun, too - these kiddos can sing!
Grade 3 has been having a wonderful time at music. One of our favourite games to play during September was "Here comes a bluebird". We played this super fun game and laughed so much that we didn't realize that we were also learning "so so-la so-mi, so so-la so-mi, mi_ re-re re-re, do so do_". Choir has been fun and we are absolute pros at singing "Mrs. O'Leary". Next up, we will be heading to the paw-paw patch to learn about tika-tika.
Grade 4 has been SO busy preparing for the Thanksgiving Assembly, which takes place Friday October 7. I saw them every single day this week to practice! We will be singing, reading poems, and sharing a special video. My promise to them is that we will have a super fun party class once the assembly is over to thank them for their hard work. And then they will finally be getting their recorders! Woo-hoo! Sorry, parents. :)
Grade 5 has dusted off their recorders and are doing a fabulous job reviewing their notes from last year. Once we are comfy reviewing, we will be composing our own recorder songs to perform for our friends. As well, starting next week we are going to begin preparing for the Remebrance Day assembly. Never a dull moment!
Grade 6 has also been working hard on recorder playing and note reading. We completed a great first page in our music portfolio, sharing information about ourselves and completing a rhythm review. We have also been getting songs ready to enter into the CBC Music Class competition. They are sounding great and I know we will come up with something creative for our video submission!
Elementary Choir had our first meeting and it went super well. I will be passing the teachers a schedule for October on Monday. And today I got a cool e-mail about a VERY exciting Christmas performance opportunity!
Violin Club will be getting off the ground this month as well. I can't wait to hear what the Grade 6's learned last year, and start teaching a new group of students all about the violin.
Flexible Seating continues to be a very positive part of our classroom environment. Kindergarten has not yet been introduced to the seating. I may wait until after Christmas to introduce it, but we'll see. Likewise, there is at least one group that needs more structure, and beginning next week I will be implementing a seating plan for them. I don't want to do this but I also do not want learning to be impacted. My plan of action is to reinstate structure fully, and work together to become more flexible as the year progresses. Every class I teach is unique and I am eager to find a way to make the music room work for all my students.
Overall, I believe I have found a good balance - sometimes we use FS, sometimes we don't. It takes time to get everyone settled - more than if we only sat in chairs, or on risers, or on the floor. I do believe it is worth the time but depending on the needs of the class/the day, we may forgo it occasionally.
I also strongly believe using a rotation so that everyone gets a chance to pick their spot first is important. However, when you only see students an hour or so a week, it takes up a lot of your time with them. Ideally I would be positioned at a school permanently and would only have to do this for one year - then, the next year the students would already know the routine.
Despite some challenges, I wouldn't change our fun and colourful and cozy room for anything! I think my students feel this way as well!
Author Visit
Today we were so lucky to have a visit from Joshua and Craig Goudie. They read their new book "Jack and the Magnificent Ugly Stick". This is an incredible work of visual art, literacy, and music. I believe the K-3 students enjoyed this visit and learned a lot about NL culture!
What a wild and wonderful month September was. Thank you to the welcoming students and staff at MQW for a great start to the year. Keep reading if you are interested in what we've been up to so far this year. I will apologize in advance - it's a long one :)
What's going on in the music room?
Kindergarten has been busy practicing their singing voices. We have been playing games like "icky sticky bubblegum" and exploring all the different instruments in the music room. We learned about the ugly stick and mummers and Newfoundland music. Now we are playing a game called "Closet Key" and will soon be practicing our four voices - singing, speaking, shouting, and whispering!
Grade 1 has been having lots of fun in the music room! We also learned about the ugly stick, in preparation for our author visit. We spent some time this month learning about our music room routines, and trying out all the different seats in the music room. We even started choir this month! We've played on the xylophones and busted some moves playing freeze dance with the piano and sung with our beautiful voices. Coming up we will be learning all about ta and ti-ti and maybe even writing some music!
Grade 2 has been playing lots of games, and one of our favourites from this month is "Who's that tapping at my window?" My secret plan was to teach them the rhythm too-ooh by singing this song - they didn't even know they were using it! We will learn how to draw it and write music with it during October. We sang in silly voices and got ready for our author visit by trying out the ugly stick. Choir has been fun, too - these kiddos can sing!
Grade 3 has been having a wonderful time at music. One of our favourite games to play during September was "Here comes a bluebird". We played this super fun game and laughed so much that we didn't realize that we were also learning "so so-la so-mi, so so-la so-mi, mi_ re-re re-re, do so do_". Choir has been fun and we are absolute pros at singing "Mrs. O'Leary". Next up, we will be heading to the paw-paw patch to learn about tika-tika.
Grade 4 has been SO busy preparing for the Thanksgiving Assembly, which takes place Friday October 7. I saw them every single day this week to practice! We will be singing, reading poems, and sharing a special video. My promise to them is that we will have a super fun party class once the assembly is over to thank them for their hard work. And then they will finally be getting their recorders! Woo-hoo! Sorry, parents. :)
Grade 5 has dusted off their recorders and are doing a fabulous job reviewing their notes from last year. Once we are comfy reviewing, we will be composing our own recorder songs to perform for our friends. As well, starting next week we are going to begin preparing for the Remebrance Day assembly. Never a dull moment!
Grade 6 has also been working hard on recorder playing and note reading. We completed a great first page in our music portfolio, sharing information about ourselves and completing a rhythm review. We have also been getting songs ready to enter into the CBC Music Class competition. They are sounding great and I know we will come up with something creative for our video submission!
Elementary Choir had our first meeting and it went super well. I will be passing the teachers a schedule for October on Monday. And today I got a cool e-mail about a VERY exciting Christmas performance opportunity!
Violin Club will be getting off the ground this month as well. I can't wait to hear what the Grade 6's learned last year, and start teaching a new group of students all about the violin.
Flexible Seating continues to be a very positive part of our classroom environment. Kindergarten has not yet been introduced to the seating. I may wait until after Christmas to introduce it, but we'll see. Likewise, there is at least one group that needs more structure, and beginning next week I will be implementing a seating plan for them. I don't want to do this but I also do not want learning to be impacted. My plan of action is to reinstate structure fully, and work together to become more flexible as the year progresses. Every class I teach is unique and I am eager to find a way to make the music room work for all my students.
Overall, I believe I have found a good balance - sometimes we use FS, sometimes we don't. It takes time to get everyone settled - more than if we only sat in chairs, or on risers, or on the floor. I do believe it is worth the time but depending on the needs of the class/the day, we may forgo it occasionally.
I also strongly believe using a rotation so that everyone gets a chance to pick their spot first is important. However, when you only see students an hour or so a week, it takes up a lot of your time with them. Ideally I would be positioned at a school permanently and would only have to do this for one year - then, the next year the students would already know the routine.
Despite some challenges, I wouldn't change our fun and colourful and cozy room for anything! I think my students feel this way as well!
Author Visit
Today we were so lucky to have a visit from Joshua and Craig Goudie. They read their new book "Jack and the Magnificent Ugly Stick". This is an incredible work of visual art, literacy, and music. I believe the K-3 students enjoyed this visit and learned a lot about NL culture!
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