Our Weekly Info: | The Buzzword was: SCAT, which means: "improvised jazz singing in which the voice is used in imitation of an instrument." It was our last Buzzword saluting Black History Month and African American contributions to the music world for this year. The new Buzzword is FOLK MUSIC. This word shares a special connection with a unit about Irish music and culture that we will be exploring in grades PK - 4 in coordination with this month's celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Do you know what that word's musical definition is? Can you look it up? Join the fun by completing this week's Buzzword Challenge!! We've continued to learn about our composer of the month George Frederic Handel as we listen to his music and learn facts about his life each class. 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 will also begin learning about Irish music and culture as we prepare to celebrate St. Patrick's Day soon!! Look forward to learning songs about Leprechauns and Rainbows, seeing traditional Irish instruments and getting to try and play them, listening to traditional Irish folk music, and watching some videos about traditional Irish step dancing. We might even get to dance along!!! Kindergartners and First Graders will continue 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. We will also be exploring "body percussion" and doing some classroom composing / improvising activities incorporating this special muscial skill!! 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 Irish music and culture as we prepare to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!! Look forward to learning songs about Leprechauns and Rainbows, seeing traditional Irish instruments and getting to try and play them, listening to traditional Irish folk music, and watching some videos about traditional Irish step dancing. We might even get to dance along!!! Second, Third,and Fourth Graders will be finishing up their work on this month's special focus unit on Jazz and the Blues as we close out our salute Black History Month in the music classroom. We're ready to share our group "Blues Song Composition" projects with our classmates and Mrs. Kamp! We'll also be beginning a special focus unit on Irish music and culture as we prepare to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!! Look forward to learning songs about Leprechauns and Rainbows, seeing traditional Irish instruments and getting to try and play them, listening to traditional Irish folk music, and watching some videos about traditional Irish step dancing. We might even get to dance along!!! | General Music Classes |
Performance Music Classes | 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. Parents, it might be a good idea to save your child's band web page so you can reference it for important information including practice sheets, band repertoire play alongs, the instrumental program google calendar, and, my favorite, our Remind App :) |
Thank you to all students who auditioned for this year's Recess Drama Club production, Willy Wonka Kids! Rehearsals for the show have begun and will be held DURING RECESS in the Music Room every MONDAY and WEDNESDAY until the show. Parents, please help your young actor or actress rehearse their lines at home so that we can memorize our material quickly and get downstairs on the stage to add blocking, music, and choreography as soon as possible :) | Recess Drama Club |
Mrs. Kamp :)