Our Weekly Info: | This week's Buzzword also had a connection to the Second, Third, and Fourth Grade Orffestration as well as a concept we are currently working on in the percussion section of the Fourth Grade Beginning Band and the Fifth and Sixth Grade Concert Band. The word was, ROLL and it means: "a rapid succession of beats sounded on a instrument, often used to introduce an announcement or event." This week, I'm connecting our Buzzword to the beginning of our Jazz and the Blues unit saluting African American contributions to the world of music as we celebrate February as Black History Month. This week, I'm wondering if you know what JAZZ is??? Do you remember from our Black History Introduction in music class? If not, can you find out? Take a card and let the games begin :) We also be meeting this month's "Maestro of the Month," George Frideric Handel as we listen to his music and learn facts about his life before our play practices. Check your child's go home folder for this month's composer fact sheet as well as the directions for how to become a "music detective" and have their work featured on the bulletin board outside the music classroom and on the Music Website! |
Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 students will be busy connecting music to their classroom letters and themes. The Pre-K classes are learning about Dental Hygiene and how to take care of our teeth, In music class, we will be learning the song, "Brush Your Teeth" to go along with this important theme. Kindergartners and First Graders will be learning the building blocks of music and working with a mix of melody and rhythm days where we will use the Rhythm Band Curriculum and the Pre-School Prodigies Curriculum to build our musical vocabularies and skills! On our Rhythm Day, we will be taking a game that we've been playing through Pre-School Prodigies and composing our own variation of it. On Melody Day, we'll be expanding our work with the pitches of the major scale and bringing more notes into our chord study. How exciting!! We'll also be beginning a special focus unit on Jazz and the Blues as we salute Black History Month in the music classroom. We'll be listening to Jazz and the Blues, learning about connections to this music and traditional African styles of music, learning about famous musicians, and learning how to improvise, and how to scat!! Second, Third,and Fourth Graders will be finishing up their work on this month's class Orffestration, "It's Raining, It's Pouring." In both classes, each section is now ready to work with the class as a full Orffestra and perform the song, including the page turn!! Be sure to check your child's music class page to listen to a recording of their class' work. We're pretty proud of our accomplishments with this song, especially using pick-up notes, turning pages, and reading the notes of our parts on the staff with no letters written in to allow for the page turn!! We've come sooo far since the beginning of this project!!!! We'll also be beginning a special focus unit on Jazz and the Blues as we salute Black History Month in the music classroom. We'll be listening to Jazz and the Blues, learning about connections to this music and traditional African styles of music, learning about famous musicians, and learning how to improvise, and how to scat!! We'll be taking all of this information and incorporating it into a composition project using the Pre-School Prodigies curriculum where we will be working in small groups to compose, orchestrate, and perform our own "Classroom Blues!!" In the instrumental music world, we've got some super exciting things going on!! Festival season is beginning which has necessitated large changes to our music lesson schedule to accommodate lessons for NYSSMA and SCMEA. Parents are encouraged to check their child's lesson schedule and go over lesson days with their child so that everyone can be prepared for each and every lesson :) As a social incentive for February, we will be celebrating "Belt-A-Palooza" this month!! Students will receive 5 points towards Battle of the Bands for each belt they earn in the month of February instead of the regular 1 point!!!!! I can't wait to see you all testing away and moving closer to our goal of becoming black belts in band by the end of June.....who will be the first person to reach Black Belt???? How many points will you earn for your class through testing?????? Fourth graders will be continuing their work as the Amagansett School Beginning Band and moving forward with their work in Band Brilliance. They will also be beginning their first ever complete band piece!! Concert Band students will now be meeting twice a week for band class (Tuesdays and Fridays) and will be beginning to work on an exciting selection of repertoire for our Spring Concert in May! At this point, you can help your children to practice along with the play alongs posted on the Concert Band webpage. Students should be feeling increasingly comfortable playing their part in: Furioso, Comet Ride, The Silver Scepter, Aliens Landing in YOUR Backyard, and T-Rex Rocks. Chorus class will also be seeing the introduction of repertoire for our Spring Concert in May. Last week, we began working on: Thunder, Remember Me, Seize the Day, and A million Dreams. This week, we're going to start reading through Seize the Day and possibly be introduced to our challenge piece, The Rhythm of Life. | General and Performance Music: |
Recess Drama Club | It's that time again...time to sign up for Recess Drama Club!!! Mrs. Hren, Ms. Paris and myself have had a long and challenging search for the perfect show, and we think we've found it......drumroll please...... This year's Recess Drama Club musical will be........ Willy Wonka Kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Permission slips went home last week and we hope to have many of our students in grades 2 - 6 sign up to participate.!! Check out the Recess Drama Club page from more information on the program and his year's show :) Auditions will be next week..... |
Thanks for reading!!
Stay tuned for updates about your child's performance date and time slot as they come in :) Check out the new schedule here and be sure to mark your child's new lesson date and time on your family calendar.
Don't forget to stay connected by joining our Music Department Google Calendar and our Remind App reminders for Beginning and Concert Band Students.
Mrs. Kamp :)