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