This year, all students in Grades 4 and 5 are participants in Buchanan's new choir program. Choir takes place on Day 4 of the school day cycle, during period 5 (1:05-1:42). During this time, all grade 4 and 5 students meet and rehearse music to perform for others. Our purpose is to use our music to reach out to our community.
So far we have two projects that are starting to take shape:
1) A partnership with Heritage Lodge personal care home. We are hoping to visit residents on a semi-regular basis and sing for them, as well as lead some audience participation music.
2) A partnership with Oakview Place personal care home. Students will be writing letters to residents inquiring about their favourite types of music, favourite songs, favourite singers, etc. Once they receive replies from participating residents, they will begin to learn some of the music they wrote about in their letters and perform for them!
Our Grade 4/5 Choir will also perform at other events such as our Remembrance Day service and winter concert.
We are currently looking for a name! One idea: Buchanan's Got Heart. Any others?
Kindergarten classes have each had music 3 times so far, and have shown such enthusiasm for music! A couple of the things we've done so far:
Sally Singer Sally singer is a pop-up puppet who starts off every music class. Sally loves to sing, and asks each student a question using her singing voice (such as "Michael, what is your favourite colour?"), and each student answers in his/her singing voice. The Bear Hunt
The Kinders love this one! I have posted it on our YouTube channel so that students can have fun with it at home too! Click here to do the Bear Hunt!
Instruments
So far the Kindergarten students have played the Rhythm Sticks. They learned how to tap them gently, and follow a conductor so they know when to stop. They are working on tapping a steady beat!
Here Comes A Bluebird
Kinders also learned the singing game Here Comes A Bluebird and had a blast!
"Here comes a bluebird, through my window, Hey, diddle-dum-a-day, day day. Take a little partner, hop in the garden, Hey, diddle-dum-a-day, day, day."
It's back to school time! Yay! I am so happy to see all of you again! I am looking forward to a fun school year with you!
Here's what's up so far!
Grades 4 & 5 (Rooms 13, 17 & 19) are starting the year with the song "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye. We began by watching a cover of the song by the group Walk of the Earth, where each member plays one part on the guitar.
From left to right:
Player 1: Uses the guitar as a percussion instrument
Player 2: Plays the ostinato (a repeating pattern) which is actually just IIV to I chords
Player 3: Plays the guitar melody
Player 4: Plays the off-beat chords (on beats 2 & 4)
Player 5: Plays accent chords
Then we watched another version of the song: Gotye saw that so many people were doing covers of his song that he made a compilation video of a whole bunch of YouTube videos from around the world!
Next week we will be learning to play this song on the Orff Instruments:
Grades 1/2/3 are learning the Tritsch Tratsch Polka by Johann Strauss. We have coupled it with Deborah Ziolkoski's story and movement about the ringmaster and tightrope walker from Fun With Composers. We are learning about ABA form in music (same/different/same), and a little bit about the life of composer Johann Strauss.
Here is a recording of it - ask your child to show you the story and movement!
Did you know that the Tritsch Tratsch Polka is also used in the video game Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games? It can be found in the Synchronized Swimming section!
Today we had our Orff Club wrap-up party and enjoyed some good music and ice cream sandwiches. Tomorrow is our Grade 4/5 Celebration of Learning in the gym at 1:30.
It has been such a wonderful year with all of you, and I can't wait to see you all in the fall!
Grade 5s - good luck and I will miss you!!! Hope to see many of you at your first band concert! :)
Love,
Miss Queen
It is almost that time of year again! The month of June, when all students at Buchanan watch a musical movie. Previous musicals include Mary Poppins, Annie, The Wizard of Oz and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
This year, students in grades 4 & 5 will be watching Newsies: The Musical.
Students in Kindergarten to Grade 3 will be watching an old favourite of mine, Pete's Dragon!
Students in Room 9 (Grade 1/2/3 Multi-Age) have been working on orchestrating the story Willy the Worm. They chose instruments and playing techniques they believed would help to communicate the story. They also illustrated it themselves!
Some of the curricular outcomes they met included:
experiment with music to communicate ideas derived from a variety of stimuli (e.g., visual stimuli such as artworks or an aquarium; a remembered or an imaginary experience; a poem or a story; music-listening experiences; themes or concepts from other subject areas)
select and organize, with teacher guidance, sounds and/or musical ideas as a class, as a group, or individually (e.g., make patterns with a low and a high sound, choosing from a range of instruments and sound sources)
collaborate with others to develop and extend musical ideas
make interpretive musical decisions, using variations of expressive devices (e.g., tempo, dynamics, articulation, tone colour)
Every June students at Buchanan School watch a musical in music class. Past musicals include The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Alice in Wonderland.
This year I would like to show students in grades 4 and 5 an exciting musical called Newsies. The musical is based on the 1899 true story of a courageous group of scrappy newsboys who become unlikely heroes when they rally forces to fight an unscrupulous newspaper tycoon. This Disney film is rated PG, as it involves some slapstick comedy and choreography that mixes dance and fist fighting.
If you would like to preview the movie, you can also rent it from iTunes. There may also be some videos of the entire movie on YouTube (example: Newsies Part 1).
If you have read the above storyline and viewed the trailer, but do not want your child to watch Disney’s Newsies, please call Miss Queen no later than June 1st.
