Thank you to:

1. Grade 1, 2 students in rooms 4, 5, 9 and 11
2. Grade 3, 4 students in room 6 
3. Grade 5, 6 students from room 16 

...for contributing to this blog.


Grades 1, 2 (Rooms 4, 5, 9 and 11)
In September, and in the beginning of October, the grade one and two students have also been singing, "Hello," in different languages.  They have played singing games and action songs.  They have been practicing the beat and are beginning to understand the difference between rhythm pattern and beat.  They have begun to learn some specific rhythm patterns and to construct them with hearts and sticks.

The grade one and two students discussed why Canada is such a wonderful place to live.  Now they are learning to sing "O Canada" with enthusiasm and "from their hearts".

1.  Canada is a safe place to live.  (It is not as dangerous as it is in some countries.)  The following reasons make it a safe place.

• No tsunamis
• No wars
• No earthquakes
• No bombs
• Clean water
• Shoes to wear-so we don't get cuts or worms in our feet

2.  Canada is a rich country.

• Lots of food
• Money to spend
• Clothes to wear
• Cars
• Houses
• Bikes
• Toys
• We only hunt if we want to.  We do not have to hunt for food.

Because we are so thankful to live in Canada, we want to sing "O Canada" from our hearts and with much enthusiasm.  We are learning to sing it.

Grades 3, 4  (Room 6)

The grade 3 and 4 students have been learning about the beat:

1. If the beat stops, the song dies.
2. It is like a clock that goes tick, tock, tick, tock, except the beat can go at different speeds.
3. It is like your heartbeat.
4. You have to feel it.
5. You cannot hear it or see it or smell it or taste it.

They learned about rhythm patterns:

1. It is not like your heartbeat.
2. It is not like a clock.
3. It is what you hear.

We practiced the beat and rhythm pattern in songs that move in 3's and in 4's.

Grade 5, 6 (Room 16)

The grade five and six students have been improvising in music.  Improvisation means to "perform without planning".

When they improvised they experimented with body percussion, voice inflections, rhythm instruments such as metals, skins(drums) and woods.

They also experimented with beat, making long and short sounds on the instruments and with different rhythm patterns.

Thank you to grade 3, 4 students in rooms 12, 13, 15 and to grade 5, 6 students in rooms 18 and 19 for contributing to this blog.

All students from grades one to six learned how to say and sing, "Hello," in different languages.  One student commented, "I like that idea because after we have learned "Hello," in different languages, maybe we can start learning more new words to the song in those same languages.

Grades 3, 4 students learned new games.  "It was fun."

They practiced the beat in different songs and are beginning to understand how to find it in songs better.

Grades 5, 6
From a video they watched of a pianist playing variations of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,"  one student commented, "You can change a song by adding extra short notes."

The grade five and six students were asked to fill out an interest survey.  One of the questions that a grade six student liked to answer was, "Who is your favorite recording artist?  Name two or three songs or raps by the artist."  She wanted to do the beat to some of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDMvvelPXj0

Thank you to the grade 3, 4, 5, 6 students in rooms 7, 8, 14, 18 and 20 for contributing ideas for what they learned this week in music.


Some of the activities that we learned and/or reviewed are:a get acquainted song where they learned each others' names.

• singing techniques
• rules of respect 
• rules of safety in moving the music cart  We are particularly concerned about the safety of each student as they are moving the cart.
• singing games

As one student commented, "It is good to see you again."  It was good to connect with each other.

The last 2 weeks of November, the grade five and six students chose their own inquiry question to research on computers.  The grade three and four students prepared to go on a field trip to hear the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra perform "Peter and the Wolf" and upon return they did some follow up activities.  The grades one and two students worked on beat and rhythm pattern.

In December, the grades one - six students had music in the Learning Commons.  It was an opportunity to practice playing the following instruments:
Grades 1, 2:  Tone Educator Bells
Grades 3, 4:  Tone Chimes
Grades 5, 6:  Handbells

They learned the technique of ringing the instrument, playing the beat and/or rhythm pattern on the instruments.

A questions posed to all grades was, "What is harmony?"
To grades 3 - 6, they also answered, "What is a chord?"  (They also chorded on the instrument.)