Winter Fun in Music Classes

The one good thing about the snow is that it certainly makes our snow and winter songs more relevant!

It was not so easy to sing "Snow is Falling Today" when it was sunny and over 40 degrees!

                                                Kindergarten Kids having fun with winter songs!

The First Graders are doing a great job preparing for their upcoming program "We Are Making Music" to be presented at the Evansville High School Performing Arts Center on Thursday March 1st at 9:30 AM and 7:00 PM. The unanimous favorite song is "Music is Always There".  This is also the most difficult of the songs, and I've gotten goosebumps on a few occasions because of how hard they are working on it and how well they are doing!

 First Graders have also been doing an awesome job with "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" website and I am thrilled to hear how many have explored this at home as well as in class!

Second Graders are finishing up their Tempo Unit with the program "Music Ace" on the SMART Board.
Many have asked if it a website they can access, and unfortunately it isn't....but it IS a software program you could purchase for home use if you so desire!

Technology Integration in Music Classes

I made the following video for a course I am auditing, but felt it would be fun to share!
Technology plays a huge part in my music classroom!

Technology Integration

Second Grade January 2012

Tempo is our current unit of study!

Freddie the Frog

Second graders were introduced to Freddie the Frog and Eli the Elephant in Sharon Burch's book.

It is a great way to relate the concept of tempo to a story! 

You may click on the link above to visit the website which includes games.

Activities for this unit include:

Name That Tempo listening game

Writing a Tempo Story and creating a Visual Map to go with it

Performance of a friend's Story Map

First Grade January 2012

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten

I am very excited to use this website as a teaching resource for the first time this year with the first graders! It is interactive learning which we do as a class on the SMART Board. The best part is that your child may do this on their own at home as well. I have provided the link above.

Along with learning more about the instruments and their families, we have begun learning the songs for our upcoming program We're Making Music by Teresa Jennings which will be performed in the Evansville High School Performing Arts Center on Thursday, March 1, 2012.

Kindergarten January 2012

Kindergarten Music students are learning about the 4 families of musical instruments and their common characteristics.  Woodwind Family: most have at one time been made of wood, use a piece of wood called a reed, and all use WIND or breath to play.  Brass Family: All are made of metal called brass, have a cup shaped mouthpiece and you need to buzz your lips to play.  String Family: They all have strings!
Percussion Family: instruments are played by Striking, Shaking or Scraping.  The students are also grasping the concept that the smaller an instrument is, the higher its sound, and the bigger an instrument is, the lower its sound.
This month students will experience the story of The Musical Life of Gustav Mole, and the book and video of Tubby the Tuba.