Fall 2009
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All students began the year with the World Drumming Kit. The kit, which is funded through the ICCSD Foundation, was here for the first month of school before travelling to Grant Wood Elementary.
This fall kindergarteners have worked to establish routines and procedures while building a repertoire of songs. We began the year with patting the beat and moved to hand held instruments. Students have had experience with rhythm sticks, hand drums, finger cymbals, egg shakers and are now adding other percussion instruments. In addition to keeping a steady beat kindergarteners have worked on finding their singing voice and recognizing how “high and low” differ from “loud and soft”. Some favorite songs have been “Johnny Appleseed”, “Sing a Little Song”, “Little Blue Truck” and “Brush Your Teeth”.
First grade music skills build on skills from kindergarten. Some emphasis is placed on developing more independent skills so students have the opportunity to play a steady beat alone while the class sings. We have also used literature such as Mortimer, Get Out of Bed, The Doorbell Rang, and The Very Busy Spider as a spring board to singing and using percussion instruments. Students have had beginning experiences with quarter notes, quarter rests and their notation.
We continue to work on singing voices and matching pitch. Some songs we have enjoyed this fall are “Down By the Bay”, “Willum”, “Sleep Bonnie, Barnie” and “Apples and Bananas”.
This fall second graders continue to work on tuneful singing. We have had experience with quarter note and quarter rest as well as eighth notes. Students have used these notes to create patterns which we have used with songs. In our mallet playing we have accompanied songs by playing the beat and have played notes from the pentatonic scale on rests and cue words. We also practice the mallet techniques involved in glissando, chord, take a walk, and tremolo. Some favorite songs this fall are “Check It Out”, “Safari”, “We’re Off to the Zoo”.
Third and fourth grade classes have been reviewing how to hold the mallets and techniques to get the best sound. Students started by accompanying folk songs by playing the beat and moved to playing cross over patterns. They have also added chords on rest and cue words. In October we played melodies on the mallet instruments, which is a different challenge from accompaniment patterns that repeat throughout a melody. Some favorite songs to sing have been American folk songs “Polly Wolly Doodle”, “This Land Is Your Land”, and “Camptown Races”.
Fifth and sixth grade classes are becoming quite skilled at the xylophones, metallophones and glockenspiels. The melodies they have tackled this fall have required students to be able to count and play quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes! Once all students are able to play the melody we add accompaniment patterns, an introduction and coda to the pieces. Students have the opportunity to do so some self-reporting and choose an instrument or partner with whom they are comfortable. As we begin to spend a little time focusing on singing and matching pitch we are enjoying “From the Inside Out”, “Vive l’amour” and “Get Up!”.
Students in Ms. Clark’s class have been working on instrument playing. They reviewed how to hold the mallets and where to play in order to get the best sound. We have worked on playing the beat as well as reading pattern with quarter notes and quarter rests. We enjoyed adding instruments to the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We have had fun with a variety of percussion instruments on pattern or cumulative songs.
We look forward to using the district traveling electric piano unit during the month of January and the arrival of our student teacher who will be at Hills during January and February.
General Music Hills am/Van Allen pm
Henson.betsy@iccsd.k12.ia.us
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