Welcome back! We are so excited to have our wonderful students making music again! This year, we will be focusing on developing students’ exposure to a variety of genres and artists, and using a lot of creativity to build music skills. Just a few of things that we’ve already been working on include practicing steady beats in Primary, learning to sing in sign language in Lower Elementary, and Bucket Drumming in Upper Elementary. While we may need to be physically distanced, music can help us to still be emotionally connected. 

Why is Music Education important? 

Children who can keep the beat have improved fluency in language. Read more here:  https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2013/09/the-importance-of-keeping-the-beat/

Reading a text more than once is a proven strategy to improve reading fluency – what better way than to learn a song? Read more here: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1656&context=stu_hon_theses

 In music, children practice discrimination between pitches, types of voices, inflections, high/low, loud/quiet. Discriminating between similar auditory elements is essential for effective communication. Read more here: https://www.luther.edu/oneota-reading-journal/archive/2012/learning-literacy-through-music/ 

Decoding symbols, letters, words, and sentences, visual focus, and visual memory are part of music and literacy (Hansen et al., 2004). From the book: The Music and Literacy Connection By Dee Hansen, Elaine Bernstorf, Gayle M. Stuber 

Choral reading, repeated reading, echo reading and song reading are strategies to develop prosody. Learning songs improves fluency in language! Prosody is the third core element of fluency. It is defined as reading with expression. Read more here: https://www.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/663701/SA-DECS-Fluency-doc.pdf

Fingerplays, chants and action songs are important tools to help children develop fluency and rhythm in language. Children learn new vocabulary, comprehension and fine motor skills as they show with their hands what the words mean. 

Songs teach many concepts: alphabet, counting, cultures, basic skills, and more!

Upon walking into a recent upper elementary music class, one might be surprised by the cacophony of sounds filling the room.  Drumming here, ukulele playing there, singing and dancing by small groups of students working together to create a unique sound.

Having spent most of the school year learning the fundamentals of music theory, pitch, scales, melody, rhythm and chords, students are now experimenting with creating their own musical works of art. Cooperation, collaboration and compromise are some of the socio-emotional benefits of working together.

Students are working on a “passion project” in music. These individual and small group projects chosen by the students include a presentation on 80s music, learning the guitar, bucket drumming, and building their own drums. At the conclusion of their four week studies, they will do a presentation for their class. 

The “Lion King” production is moving along nicely, with performances scheduled for Tuesday, March 31st and Wednesday, April 1st.  

Rhythm, tempo and composing measures are some of the curriculum themes for first grade music class in the month of January.  

Rhythm is the pattern of music in time.  Hearing rhythm and keeping a steady beat are skills that are nurtured and developed in Music class.  Hand clapping, using rhythm sticks, and bouncing a ball in time are several ways that student’s experience rhythm. 

First graders are also working on dynamics and tempo, as cats and mice, in the song The Old Gray Cats are Sleeping.  Tempo is measured as the number of beats per minute, and the students learned to sense the tempo when they were asked to be a cat, which sings the song loudly while the mice lower the tempo and volume as they sing the same song quieter.

Progress is being made by students, as Ms. Rachel and Ms. Kim are preparing for the upcoming production of “The Lion King.”  Look for announcements for the performance to be done at the end of March.

The melodic strumming of ukuleles could be heard coming from the upper elementary music classes, as students learned the basic strumming and chord progressions. Twenty four ukuleles were donated by the PTO to our music department and our students love them! 

Students found it quite easy to fit their fingers on the neck of the ukulele and strum the strings with ease.  Ukuleles are a Hawaiin inspiration introduced to the mainland in the late 1800’s. The ukulele is better known as the “jumping flea” on the islands, a reference made to the high pitched sounds coming from the instruments.

Upper elementary students are immersed in a curriculum called Rainbow Ukulele, which is a sequenced lesson plan starting with learning how to tune the instrument, to playing a variety of songs.  It will take the students through February to complete the course. Several students were so inspired by the music class that they returned to class with their own ukuleles!

Have a wonderful winter break and happy new year!

Music education is an immersive and participatory experience for our students on a weekly basis.  There is always singing, movement and often the playing of instruments. Many of the skills developed during the weekly class are applied to larger school productions, like when our lower elementary students performed the musical, “Welcome to the Jungle.”

The first musical production of the year, “Welcome to the Jungle,” was performed enthusiastically by lower elementary to the delight of their audiences.  A vibrant stage with simple costumes framed our singing jungle “animals.” Rhythmic clapping of hands conjured up the sounds of raindrops and the singing of indigenous, African songs immersed the audience in a musical rendition of a living jungle. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to monkeys, a giraffe, a hippo, and the king of the jungle, a lion.  The lion dominated the other animals until he was caught in a hunter’s net and it was the smallest creature, the mouse, who freed the mighty lion from his trap. 

The students threw their hearts into the performance and it brought their audiences great joy and satisfaction.