Here's what we're up to in music class!

Kindergartners have been singing songs about farm animals, sometimes adding handheld percussion instruments. We've just begun learning about Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel, which we will see performed in March.

First-graders have been working with steady beat. (If you have a first-grader, ask him or her to show you part of the "Syncopated Clock" dance!) We've been introduced to quarter notes and are about to meet the quarter rest.

Second-graders have been practicing sight-singing the pitches G, E and A. We've heard the story of how "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written, we've deciphered some of the lyrics, and we are learning to sing it correctly, without the extra melisma which is so often inserted.

Third-graders are very excited because they can begin learning on October 5th to play the recorder! Don't forget, there's a great recorder concert coming up Friday evening, October 7th--see the previous post. They've been doing a little of everything: sight-singing pitches, comparing durations of note values, playing instruments, and performing and even leading rhythmic canons.

Fourth-graders learned to sing Washington's state song and have been working with the Orff metallophones, glockenspiels and xylophones to distinguish their timbres and use them effectively in orchestration.

Mrs. Arends is preparing recorder music and getting ready to attend a music educators' mini-conference in Kirkland on October 14th and 15th.

Professional Recorder Concert Friday evening, October 7th

Here's a fun opportunity to hear and SEE recorders of all sizes--from five inches to six feet tall--played by professionals. Vicki Boeckman is a Seattle-based performing artist and recorder teacher; David Ohannesian is a recorder maker. Together they will perform music from seven centuries, from courtly love songs to pieces about Australian animals! This happens at 7:30 p.m. on October 7th, at Northlake Unitarian: 315 3rd Avenue South, Kirlkand, WA 98033. You can buy tickets online from the Early Music Guild at
http://www.earlymusicguild.org/?page_id=470

If you're going, let me know so I can look for you!

Welcome!

Hi! Thanks for checking out my blog for OWS music. It's my version of the classroom newsletter: here I'll post what your children are studying in my music classes, plus concert announcements and information about recorder activities. The little turquoise "Pages" section to the right stores basic information about the OWS music program and recorders program. You also can navigate from here to other specialists' blogs.

This first week we've been practicing what to do if you're in the music room when the fire alarm sounds--safety first! I'm also sending home information on the recorder program and will post it here shortly.

If your family enjoyed hearing YAAMBA (the Zimbabwean-style marimba band in which I play) at the cultural event last year, you might want to know that we'll be playing at the Mercer Island Farmers' Market on Sunday, September 18th. We're to begin at 11:00 and stop at 3:00, with two or three breaks.

Lessons Days

OWS students who take music lessons are invited to play for their classmates next week during their regular music classes. The date for Grades One and Three is Wednesday, May 25th; for Kinder and Second, it's Thursday, May 26th. (Fifth Grade had theirs earlier.)

Students who wish to perform should bring their lesson books (or books out of which they will play) and their instruments, with the exception of piano. The music room is equipped with a touch-sensitive electric piano and music stands.

At the end of Thursday's classes, the winner of the "Best Audience" trophy will be declared!

Recorders Play for Second Grade

Friday, April 15th, 68 students who have been attending recorder class will be playing a concert onstage in the gym.  The audience will be Second Grade, who will have the opportunity next fall to learn recorder themselves!  Familiar tunes in the concert will include Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", an adaptation of Pachelbel's "Kanon", and "Old MacDonald".

Free Children's Concert in Seattle

Saturday, April 2 at 2 p.m., the Seattle Men's Chorus and Seattle Women's Chorus will present their twelfth annual FREE Children's Concert at McCaw Hall. This year the concert will also feature kids from Village Theater's KIDSTAGE program! The program promises to be lots of fun, and kids who enjoy or have enjoyed singing in choir will have an extra dimension to their appreciation for the music.

Updates!

Today kindergartners played on the Orff instruments using mallets.  We used the rhyme "Ninety-nine O'Clock".  They continue to practice songs from Japan, India and the U.S. to perform after their Parade of Cultures.

March 21st was Bach's birthday!  First-graders celebrated by listening to some of his most famous music and figuring out that, if he were alive today, he would be 326 years old.

Second-graders have been learning songs for their Earth Day show.  One of the songs uses a few phrases in Swahili.

Third-graders are preparing to read syncopation and to listen to the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor.

Fifth-graders have been learning vocal and instrumental parts for the song "We Are One" and hope to make recordings of it next week.

Recorder players are still earning belts and are preparing to play their first concert: Friday, April 15th, they will play onstage in the gym for an audience of Second-graders.  This always creates a lot of excitement among the recorder players, as well as among the audience, who will have a chance to begin playing recorder next fall.