Only one week to go...!

This is our last week before Winter Break! It's hard to believe that we have already come to the end of 2012, and the first four months of school are almost behind us. I have felt so grateful to be at Courtenay Elementary and to work with such eager, energetic and talented young students. Here's a glimpse of what we will be doing this last week of school....

Intermediate students
We have started to look at Bucket Drumming. Students are playing syncopated rhythms in 4/4 time, on upside-down garbage pails, using drum sticks. This is a LOT of fun, and as you can imagine, VERY noisy! We really get to get out some of that pre-holiday energy! We will look at a song called "A Christmas Mash Up", which puts together several well-known Christmas Carols into one song. It also features some entertaining instruments, such as kazoos, slide whistles, and cymbals.

Using bucket drums also connects to the performing group, STOMP, and discussing how to create music using "found sound". We will watch a short STOMP video on the last day of classes.

Primary Students
Primary students are singing lots of Christmas Carols and have learned the Jingle Bell Dance. They have also explored the "Snowman Scale song", which is a little song that goes up the C scale note wise for each line of the song ..... until the snowman melts back down at the end!

I have a little snowman
He is so fat and round
I made him from a snowball
I rolled upon the ground
I put some buttons on his coat, 
A scarf of crimson red,
I put some mittens on him,
A cap upon his head.

Watch him as he melts to the ground!

We moved our bodies up slowly as we sang the lines of the song and they melted at the end (they really like the melting part!) We then looked at how the notes move step-wise up the scale, and used Boomwhackers to help with this. Boomwhackers are fun, pitched musical tubes!  We will continue this after the Winter Break and also begin to look at melody and how music is notated.

Primary students are also going to have a look at the Nutcracker. There are several activities we will use, including movement with scarves, rhythm, watching clips of the ballet, coloring while we listen. The two main pieces we will focus on are the March and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Here are a couple videos I will be showing that are very interesting!

Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy was originally written for the Glass Armonica. Visit The Franklin Institute to learn more. View the video below to see the Glass Armonica!

  

Here is a musician playing Musical Glasses! Also, another example of a "non traditional musical instrument", or creating music using "found sound".

 

And finally, here is a ballet dancer performing the Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy, as you would see it if you went to watch a Nutcracker Ballet. 

 

~Mrs Caya

WOW! What a great show!

Congratulations to all our students for their fabulous performance in our Christmas Concert! I was so impressed with our the performances by all the classes. Great job everyone! Hopefully we will have some pictures up soon!

~Mrs Caya

We've been BUSY!

Hello everyone!
I haven't posted in a while because the music room has been so BUSY these last few weeks!
First we were preparing for the Remembrance Day assembly, and now all the classes are busy learning their songs for the Christmas Concert!

The concert is on Tuesday, Dec. 11 and there will be 2 shows. The first show is at 1:00, and the second is at 7:00 pm. Students are expected to attend BOTH shows. Each class is learning a different song and the show will feature: singing, ukuleles, djembes, xylophones, recorders, other percussion instruments!

The Kindergarten and K/1 classes have learned two extremely cute songs and they can't wait to present them to you! The Grade 1 class is learning an especially entertaining song called "Reindeer Rap", the Grade 2/3's are learning how to play xylophones with one of the classic Christmas songs, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town",the Grade 4/5's are adding recorders to "Jolly Old St. Nicholas", the 4/5/6's are busy with ukuleles and "Jingle Bells", and our 5/6's are going to WOW you with their djembe song! It's going to be an incredible performance! All topped off with some talented young actors and actresses who will weave the story together for you.

What will happen when ALL of Santa's presents get stolen from his sleigh?? You'll have to come to our concert to find out!

Can't wait to see everyone there!

~Mrs. Caya

Different Voices

Ms. White had a fright,
In the middle of the night!
Saw a ghost, eating toast,
Halfway up the lamp post!

Primary students have been learning this fun chant. They have been using different voices while they repeat the chant.

(image from bethsmusicnotes.com)  

Now that they know the chant well, we are going to decipher where the BEAT in the song is! Using my handy magnetic hearts, I will guide students by placing hearts underneath the words that fall on the BEAT. They are ready for this as we have spend a lot of time moving, listening, and playing on the beat to different styles of music! A next step would be to determine the RHYTHM of the words in the chant! Then we can add in some instruments and bring the chant to life!

~Mrs. Caya

What the Intermediates are up to!

Students in grades 4/5/6 have been busy learning all about the ukulele! They have learned the names of the strings, proper playing technique and rest position vs. playing position (very important!) :)

So far they have learned the song, "Don't Worry Be Happy", and "Wipeout". Two very different techniques needed, strumming chords, and picking the strings.

The grade 4/5 class have started learning how to play the recorder, and they are pretty amazing! In just a few short weeks (and I only see them 2 times a week for 45 mins), they have learned notes B, A, G, as well as E. They can play Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Ramble. This week they are learning a few new songs using their new note, E - BAGE Blues, and Skin and Bones.


~Mrs. Caya

October Assembly!

On October 25, Mrs. Bannister's class will be performing 2 songs. They will be presenting "Down, Down, Yellow and Brown", using ORFF instruments and movement. This song has been an excellent tool for discussing high/low, and for learning the very tricky skill of singing and playing at the same time. We have used leaf manipulatives with labelled with solfege, and I have placed this in a descending pattern, so students are able to see the movement of notes in the song.

The other song the class is performing is a cute little Halloween song called "Three Black Bats" (sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice)

Three black bats, three black bats
See how they fly, see how they fly
They all came out in the dark moonlight, 
Did you ever see such a Halloween sight, 
As three black bats!

I am going to be recording students this week and *hopefully* will remember to take some pictures, too!

Happy Halloween everyone!
~Mrs. Caya

Dem Bones!

Here is a cute little dance our kindergarten and K/1 students will be learning this week!

  

Pumpkin Patch!

Pumpkin patch, pumpkin patch
ti-ti         ta         ti-ti      ta

Looking for a pumpkin in my pumpkin patch.
ti-ka     ti-ka       ti-ka   ti-ka    ti-ti         ta

Here one is, nice and fat
ti    ti    ta      ti-ti      ta

Turn into a jack-o-lantern, just like that!
ti-ka     ti-ka   ti-ka   ti-ka    ti-   ti     ta



Pumpkin Patch is a song primary students got to learn today. What fun! We discussed the difference between a pumpkin, and a jack-o-lantern. Students showed me their best jack-o-lantern faces (scary? funny? sad? happy? silly?).

We then played the game. All students curl up into little balls, as pumpkins. I sang the song, and walked throughout the "pumpkin patch". At the end of the song, I tapped one student's shoulder on the words "just like that". They jumped up and showed me their best "jack-o-lantern face". The two of us then continue on playing the game, and tapping shoulders, until all students are jack-o-lanterns.

The students really enjoyed this game, and it was incredibly cute to see their different faces.

You could also use this song to each "tika-tika" with grades two and three.


~Mrs. Caya

Extra-Curricular Clubs!

Our Performing Arts Club has been meeting on Wednesdays from 2:30 - 3:15 pm.

They are amazing!

The club is working hard on learning Michael Jackson's famous dance, "Thriller"! We will be performing at the Halloween assembly coming up this October.

Choir meets on Thursdays at noon. Courtenay Elementary is a singing school and we have some very enthusiastic and talented young voices! The choir will be performing at different events throughout the year, as well as at assemblies at the school.

Turkey Lurkey!

Turkey Lurkey runs so fast,

  ti-ti         ti-ti       ti-   ti    ta

Turkey Lurkey's never last!

  ti-ti         ti-ti         ti-ti    ta

Turkey Lurkey, you had better

   ti-ti        ti-ti         ti-   ti    ti-ti

Hurry!    *        *        *

      ti-ti        rest     rest      rest

Turkey Lurkey is one of the songs we are learning with Thanksgiving around the corner! This is a great game for reading rhythms. Once we learn the song, I can put up the rhythms as a "Mystery Song" and have students guess the song. This is also a good song for showing melodic contour -- the way the melody goes up and down. I am making small "Turkey Lurkey's" with magnets on the back, that I can put up on the black board. The turkeys will follow the melodic line in the song. We can follow the line singing "Loo" and discuss the melodic movement. Students can also follow the melodic line using solfege:

sol-mi, so-mi, do do do

sol-mi, sol-mi, do do do

do do do mi, sol sol sol sol

sol-do

~Mrs. Caya

Pumpkin Rhythms!

Students are reading and creating using pumpkin rhythms!

Each pumpkin contains a different rhythm in4/4 time!

Students listened to me play and clap the rhythm, they dictated it to see if they got it right!

Primary students are using ta (quarter note), ti-ti (pair of eighth notes) and quarter rests.

Older students use tika-tika (sixteenth notes), too-oo (half-note), and "great big whole notes".

 

There are many different activities you could do with these rhythm pumpkins! Give students 4 pumpkins and have them compose a short rhythmic piece to be performed using body percussion. Later the students could perform using non-pitched percussion. Students could also compose lyrics to a Halloween song using the rhythms that I provide on the pumpkins. 

~Mrs. Caya

Pete the Cat!

"I love my white shoes... I love my white shoes!" 

Grade 2/3 students have been doing an EXCELLENT job playing instruments to the book, Pete the Cat - I Love My White Shoes. They are playing in different groups, to show different parts of the text.

-One group plays xylophones when we sing, "I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes". They play the same notes that we sing!
-One group plays a glissando on the xylophones when we say, "Goodness, no!"
-One student plays a non-pitched percussion instrument to show the colour red. There is a student with a different instrument for each of the colours in the book.
-Every student answers all the questions that are asked in the story.


Do you want to hear an audio version of the story, Pete the Cat?? Click the link below!
http://harpercollinschildrens.com/feature/petethecat/audio/pete-the-cat.mp3

And remember, the moral of the story.... don't sweat the small stuff... because it's ALL GOOD!

~Mrs. Caya

Can YOU keep the beat?

Students have been focusing on keeping the beat, feeling the beat, and playing to the beat! They have been doing an excellent job showing the beat by moving, playing instruments and tapping their toes. We listened to different sounds in our world that keep the beat.... things like
-Windshield wipers!
-Water dripping from the tap!
-Someone paddling a boat!
-A clock going, "tick-tock"! 

And students brainstormed more things that keep a beat. Ideas like, a monster walking up the stairs,  Native Dancing, drumming, and brushing your teeth!

Some of the songs students are learning to help them keep the beat are: Engine Engine #9, Cookie Jar, and Stella Ella Olla. Kindergarten and grade 1 students have been keeping the beat using rhythm sticks as we listen to and sing songs. Students in upper grades have been playing the xylophones and are learning how difficult it is for one group to keep a steady beat (not speeding up!) while other students play a different rhythm at the same time.

Next week CHOIR starts - Thursdays at Noon! 
PERFORMING ARTS club also begins - Wednesdays 2:30 - 3:15pm!

And we have TWO assemblies! 

~Mrs. Caya

A great September!

Wow! It's hard to believe it's already September 17.

Students have been singing the song of the month, WITS. This song is a reminder of our school-wide program, "WITS", which stands for
Walk away
Ignore
Talk it out
Seek Help

WITS aims to help students find practical solutions to bullying behaviour.

Primary students are also learning all about the beat in music, what it is, and how to move to it, play to it, and tap their toes to the beat! Since it is in all music, being able to feel the beat and play on the beat is  crucial. They are also learning fun circle songs and games to get to know each other, and begin working together cooperatively. Some of the songs we have learned are...
Cookie Jar
Hey There Neighbour
Bluebird, Bluebird
Apple Tree
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Intermediate students have jumped right into learning songs on the xylophones. We are using the songs as a tool to review rhythms, and to review our note names and where they sit on the keyboard. We are learning the song "Balafon", which has three different parts plus extra instruments (drums, shakers, etc!) The students have been doing an amazing job listening to each other, playing on a steady beat, and reading and playing rhythms properly!

~Mrs. Caya

Apple Tree - This game is played in a circle. Before we play the game, we keep a steady beat and sing the words. To play the game, two students are the "Apple Tree", and the rest of the students are the "apples". The apples walk around in the circle while singing, going underneath the arms of the apple tree. On the last word, "out", the arms of the tree go down, catching one of the apples! The game is played until all students have become trees.

This is a great learning tool to teach and review quarter notes and pairs of eighth notes. We also use a tool with apple pictures cut out, on high and low lines, in the same rhythmic pattern as the song. After learning the song, I can point to the "apple notes" and we learn and discuss how the notes are high and low, later adding the solfege terms so - mi - la.

Hello World!

Hello and thank you for stopping by our Music Room Blog.


I will update this blog frequently with the latest events and activities from the music room.
You will find photos, classroom activities, performance information and podcasts.


Please come by often!
~Mrs. Caya