Large motor movements and fine listening skills are incorporated into primary’s music lessons.  Each class is framed by a greeting song utilizing movement and simple commands. The close of class is also bookend by a consistent song.

This kind of consistency helps young students to grow in their confidence as they hear and experience a familiar process, they know what to do and it helps to increase their participation.

Primary students were introduced to the concepts of pitch and tempo.  Ms. Rachael worked with her students by giving them the tools to distinguish between “high” sounds in comparison to “low” sounds. 

Also sensitizing them to the tempo being fast or slow.  Throughout the class, students have been exploring using their body percussion (clapping and tapping), their singing voices and speaking voices.  Then they have been taught how to use various instruments (shakers, rhythm sticks) and the glockenspiel is a class favorite.

Many of these fundamental themes are also being carried out in elementary classes as Ms. Rachel explores voice, pitch, tempo and instrument playing with all of her students.

Welcome to the new school year!  

I’m so excited to be teaching music this year. Music is the universal language for people of any age group and has always been such an important part of my life. I am so happy to get to share it with the students at FMS. 

In all levels of music class this year, the students will be participating in Active Listening. During active listening, we spend a few minutes of each class, simply listening quietly to music. Active listening is important, not only to develop a good musical ear, but also to build skills in concentration. It also helps us to better understand music. When we listen, we are asking ourselves the following questions: 

1. How does it make you feel?
2. What instruments do you hear? How many instruments are playing? 
3. Is the song fast or slow?
4. What is the melody?
5. What is the time signature? 

This month has flown by as all months in the school year seem to do. In our music classes, we’ve remembered it’s the month of LOVE by singing songs about getting letters, hiding love notes followed by searching for the notes, doing dances to song with the words love in them, and the Upper Elementary classes even played a rhythm stick game to the Beatles song “All You Need is Love”.

It was a challenge, but they rose to the occasion and got the complicated 7/4 rhythm at the beginning that I even found challenging! You can see their concentration as they worked together to be successful at not missing a beat.

Our rehearsals for the school production of Mary Poppins are moving along, as well. We appreciate all of the support from parents in helping us prepare by making set pieces, working on costumes, and donating items to be used as props.

 Ms. Maria from E3 has taken on the daunting task of teaching the students choreography for our play. She is amazing and the students are quick learners. We appreciate the time and effort she has put into our production. We’re sure all who attend the performances on April 2nd and 3rd will see all of the effort and time invested to ensure our Junior Broadway musical is a success!

This month has flown by in our music classes! We have explored various songs, dances, and instruments which remind us of winter time. The 3rd grade class composed their own ostinatos to a song about snow falling and then accompanied themselves singing the song! The primary students have had a wonderful time moving like snowflakes and melting like snowmen. Upper Elementary students have been creating hand games, learning new songs on the recorder, and hearing live musicians play bluegrass music.

The Southern Nevada Bluegrass Music Society came and gave us a short concert of bluegrass music, as upper elementary students have been studying North American history. The musicians from the group explained about the instruments which they play, where the instruments come from, and how and why they are used in bluegrass music. 

Then the musicians played a short “lick” to demonstrate the instrument’s qualities. The members of the SNBMS had a “petting zoo” for our students where they were able to handle and play each instrument, followed by questions. This was a highlight for our music program this year as we learned that bluegrass music was created here in America!

This was a rich addition to their study of our country. Lastly, the Bluegrass Society of Southern Nevada contributed a new acoustic guitar to FMS! Upper elementary students are able to “check out” the guitar from me for a week at a time.

I hope this experience has inspired some of our students to consider learning how to play some of these amazing instruments. I would like to thank Michael Jones from the SNBMS for setting up this experience for our students!

Singing “Happy Birthday” together.

The primary classes successfully performed their Mother Goose Character Camp plays in November. They had been working on the music and scripts from the beginning of the school year, and were amazing when it came time to perform in front of an audience. Each class did a dress rehearsal for other students in our school, who were all impressed with their performances.

Students shared how they learned to be kind, persevere, tell the truth, follow the rules, apologize and forgive, be generous, and be thankful through stories told from various Mother Goose characters. I’m grateful to all the Primary Teachers who gave so much time and attention to helping theirs classes learn their lines and songs.

Creating “snow fall.”

All of our other music classes have continued to learn about reading rhythms, singing songs, what ostinatos are (ask your child if they know!), and musical terms such as forte (loud) and piano (quiet).

We are learning and growing together in our musical experiences and knowledge.

The Upper Elementary classes are also learning various folk dances. We’ve learned the Boston Tea Party set dance, The Big Southern Mixer partner dance, and Ve David an Israeli circle dance. Music is a great part of culture at FMS. The children are excited to sing, dance, play, and create every time they come to music.