The month of October has flown by with the Primary classes working hard to learn all of the music and dialogue for our upcoming program. The children have learned about virtues that will make our lives better, while also learning about different Mother Goose Characters. Each class has been diligently working to make this a memorable performance. I hope all of the parents will be able to come and enjoy their children singing and performing. Our performances will be Tuesday, November 6th at 9:00 a.m. for P1, Tuesday November 6th at 10:00 a.m. for P2, Thursday November 8th at 9:00 a.m. for P3, and Thursday November 8th at 10:00 a.m. for P4.

Lower Elementary classes are continuing to learn lessons on rhythm, ostinato, and solfege (particularly Do, Re, Mi, So, and La). The end of the month was fun singing about the Old Woman who was Skin and Bones. We turned the lights down and created a spooky graveyard using our bodies as the trees. The Old Woman went to the cupboard to get a broom to sweep up all of the bones…ask your child what she found there!

Upper Elementary has been exploring different emotions and working in groups to find ways to show those emotions. Others in the class had to guess which emotion was being portrayed.

We listened to Mischief Managed by John Williams from Harry Potter followed by a discussion of how he as a composer created emotions in his music by using tempo, dynamics, instrumentation, style, timbre, etc. to make us feel different emotions. The students in upper elementary used rhythmic patterns to create ostinatos to supplement the story The Old Woman Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything.

I am including a link to a website that explains the Orff approach to teaching music to children. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-orff-approach-2456422  

I love teaching your children music and hope they are enjoying my classes.