Kindergarten Christmas Concert CFIES 2016

1st Grade Christmas Concert 2016

Rainbow Christmas presented by 2nd Grade

Second Grade "Rainbow Christmas"  9:00 performance with Mrs. Smith's class, Ms. Barnes class, Mrs. Akins' class and Mr. Stagg's class.  

Second Grade "Rainbow Christmas" 10:00 performance with Mrs. Tyson's class, Ms. Acevedo's class, Ms. LaPorta's class and Mr. Stagg's class.

Impromptu "Ghost of John"

"Ghost of John" is one of the students' favorite Halloween song.  Last year they had a great lesson on form and movement that I picked off of  "Music is Elementary". So this year, we were just singing it as a warm-up, fun activity for my 5th grade class when all of the sudden I decided to play the cannon version and review what a cannon was.  Well they nailed it.  Okay...let's put some movement to it..says my Orff training...bingo..I handed out the scarves and we picked four different movement.  It looked so good I decided to video....well then the students wanted to add throwing the scarves, and sitting and standing.  It truly came together in five minutes time.  Great job Mrs. Johnson's group!  Not bad for an impromptu "Ghost of John" lesson.  Music can be fun.

O-H-I-O

If you know me, I am a big Ohio State fan.  I am from Ohio and I did graduate from there.  So on "school team day"  naturally I am going to support the Buckeyes!  Well this year, I went one step further.  During kindergarten class, you have to love these guys, they followed my impromptu cheer.  Our song had a big Oh! at the end so why not turn it into O-H-I-O.  So much fun!  Ms. Rosage's group did an excellent job cheering for those Buckeyes!    

October Rhythm Fun for Mrs. Manchester's 1st Graders

First graders have been working with their "Beat Buddies" and reading rhythms.  This is a SMART Board activity where the students match the rhythm of the pictures and then say and play the rhythms.  They did an outstanding job on this October activity in music class.  

Mrs. Clark's Fourth Grade "Canoe Song"

All fourth grade students have been working hard to put this Orffestration of the Canoe Song together.  It started with learning the song and doing some movement activities and then putting in the bass xylophone and metalophones, We added the alto and soprano metalophones and hand drum part.  Finally, we added the soprano and alto xylophones with the sixteenth notes.  Nice job everyone.   We hope you enjoy our classroom concert!

Teacher's Take Classes Too

https://onslow.rev.vbrick.com/#/videos/7c51a7bb-de02-469f-b81f-f17d0723039a

Do you ever wonder where teachers come up with all their lessons and ideas?  Well, it happens during Professional Development time.  The elementary music teachers were very lucky to have UNCW professor, Dan Johnson, come to Onslow County and present lessons on creativity.   Some of the ideas and activities he shared will be so easy and helpful to add to our lessons.  Be looking for some of these activities in classes that will be posted in the future.  Another highlight was the time to work with our ASCD mentor/mentee program and talk about programs and choir.  What a productive afternoon.

Open House 2nd Grade and 3rd Grade music room activities

Second grade classes have been working on a song called "Make a Friend"  Each week they have been adding instruments to accompany their songs.  They have been playing bass xylophones and bass metalophones,  alto and soprano glockenspiels, and the hand drums.  The second video is a second grader practicing her Xhosa language conversation.  The students learned how to say, " Hello,  My name is _____"  They continued with " I am fine, thank-you, and how are you?"

Third Grade classes have been working on an Orff arrangement of "John Kanaka"   They have put together five parts that include the bass metalophone and xylophone, Alto and soprano glockenspiels, alto and soprano xylophones, the hand drums and triangles along with their singing.

Open House Kindergarten and 1st Grade

Since open house was this past week, I tried to get a number of videos recorded to share with parents as they came into to music room.  I wanted them to see and hear what was going on in their child's music class.  I created a number of QR codes and had them displayed in my class.  Well, now that I have these videos, I might as well share them on my blog as well.  Enjoy the work the students have been doing for the first three and a half weeks of school.  The videos include 1st Grade singing "Different Beat"  They are practicing keeping a steady beat and moving to different styles of  music.

Kindergarten  class is singing "O ma washi", a song from Japan and playing finger cymbals to the steady beat.  Kindergarten classes have also been learning about their four voices, speak, whisper, sing, and shout.  This is a SMART board activity to help them identify these voices.  1st Grade has also been singing "Bounce High" and adding Orff bells and solfege hand signs.

Making Connections with Africa

African Inspiration

The intro to my classes this week were inspired by a video I took while visiting South Africa this summer.  On the Boardwalk, the Marimba Trio musicians played and entertained people along the boardwalk in Port Elizabeth.  CFIES students were asked to put the beat in their feet while watching the video.  It was a lead into playing our classroom bass xylophones and metalophones with our songs we've been learning.  They learned what a marimba was and made connections between marimbas and xylophones.

The 5th grade classes have been working on a song  I call "Alfred".  It is a fun nonsense song that allows us to review steady beats and ostinato patterns.  It will also be adding some creativity parts in future lessons.  This week, 5th grade learners add a bass cross-over ostinato pattern and a xylophone 4 beat repeated pattern.  The large tube is to help maintain a steady beat.  This activity is in progress!

      First grade classes have been working on steady beat and the song Bounce High.  We did an activity with balls and bouncing them to a steady beat while singing. 

Then we added a bass two mallet ostinato pattern to a steady beat.  The students will continue adding parts and creative movements to these activities. Stay tuned in to a final product.  

A Brand New Year

Music Room Rules!

Well, it is the start of a new year, lots of new faces, and the opening lesson.  Now with the start of a new year, it's the going over the classroom rules, expectations, and procedures for their first music visit.  Now remember, there are  5 Fifth grade classes, 6 Fourth grade classes, and 7 classes each of Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, and Third Grade.  That is a lot of repetition on my part.  So I would like to share how I have fun with this.  I have my music rules set to rhythm patterns.  (Not my idea...saw it on Pintrest,)  

 This year, I decided I wanted to try "bucket drumming"...so I was looking and pricing buckets this past summer.  They are not cheap...especially if you need to have 32 so each student has their own.  So while I was in Michael's Craft store, I got this bright idea to do Frisbee drumming...Less space required for storage and still able to get multiple sounds from it (when taught to use center and rim)..and bingo only $.50 each.  I can afford that.  (They were on summer clearance!)  I did have to purchase the drum sticks as well, but got a great deal through Musician's Friend catalogue.

Now I would like to introduce my Frisbee Drumming.  Mrs. Jones class is demonstrating each rule and rhythm.

 I have all second through 5th graders practicing reading and playing rhythms on these "drum kits"  so what about Kindergarten and First Grade?  They were introduced to "Beat Buddies."  I had some Ty Beanie Babies, and I put out a request for donations of more and got enough for each student to have one.  So, they get to play their rhythms with Beat Buddies.  This was not my idea either.  The credit for this will go to Richland's Primary Music teacher Holly Beasley.  Thanks for sharing this great idea.   Stay tuned for more fun and activities this year!

Take 5

Well, as the year winds down, I get to do some of my fun lessons in class.  I enjoy this 5th grade activity that reviews time signatures in 3/4 and 4/4 time and introduces 5/4 time. We work on polyrhythms and also review  rondo form and improvisation. This music is one of my favorite jazz pieces by Dave Brubeck:  Take 5.  Hope you enjoy our final activity for this lesson!

Mrs. Bryant's 5th Grade class

Hawaiian Puilli Stick Routines

Ms. Carter's class

The third grade classes concluded their "Hawaiian" unit by playing Puilli sticks this week.  Each class learned two routines and enjoyed some trivia questions about our 50th state.  The top video is a routine that the students performed individually.  The second video is a partner routine.  

Mrs. Greene's class

E-I-E-I-Oops!

Kindergarten Program 

This week we had a wonderful time putting this little musical together for our friends and family.  The kindergarten classes did a wonderful job. Thank you teachers for helping rehearse these songs.    Our seven classes will not all fit in the multipurpose room of our school, therefore, four classes performed on Tuesday, and three classes performed on Thursday.  These recordings were taken during the Thursday performance.  The farmers and the stage animals (speaking parts) stay the same for both performances, while the chorus groups change from one performance to the next. 

Old MacDonald

Ham It Up

Lost Sheep

Cute Chicks and Whole Barnyard.

Autoharp Fun!

Ms. Bossler's 2nd Grade Students

There is never a dull moment in the music room.  The second graders were introduced to playing autoharps this week.  This is this class's first time playing them and I thought they did an outstanding job.  Now, I need to constantly remind them to push the buttons down all the way, but their beginning technique was awesome.  They started off keeping a very good steady beat, however by the third verse, they are off a little but I am supper excited of how well they are reading the chords from the music to play.  Hats off to Ms. Bossler's Musicians!!

Tropical Storm Sound Scape

Mrs. Smith's Class

Second Grade has been busy creating the tropical storm sounds with their music.  We talked about where tropical storms occur and what it's like to be in a tropical storm.  The students concluded that this song is from the Caribbean islands.  It is song in both English and Spanish; Mrs.Smith's class is singing in English, and Ms. Acavedo's  class is singing in Spanish.  Students are playing the steady beat in the bass metalophones and xylophones, and improvising on wave drums, thunder tubes, guiro, and rain sticks.  The ribbons and scarves are for improvisational moves too.  Students had lots of fun in music this lesson.

Ms. Acevedo's Class

Rain Sings a Song

Featuring Mrs. Stiles 1st grade class

All 1st grader classes were working on improvisation and sound scapes.  This song depicts a nice gentle rain so the students played a steady beat in the bass metalophones and added wind chimes, raindrops on the alto metalophones, rain sticks, wave drum and lots of different types of ribbons and scarves to make the rain shower come alive in the classroom.

Skip to My Lou

Mrs. Collins' Class is featured  singing and playing the ukulele this week.  Nice job everyone.  Switching between chords is starting to get easier.

Ukulele Time Again

As promised.....This is Ms. Cameron's 3rd grade class playing and singing "Down in the Valley" on their baritone ukuleles.  Two students share one instrument, so while one is playing, the other is singing and resting up their fingers from the ukulele strings. They switch and then the second group plays.  Therefore, in this video, you only see half the class playing at one time.    They are sounding pretty good playing their two chord songs.

Scarf Dancing in Mrs. Crenshaw's 4th grade class.

The 4th graders are preparing for the North Carolina Symphony field trip.  They learned about thin textures with few instruments playing and thick textures with lots of instruments playing.  They demonstrated their listening skills by using the large scarf for thick textures and their small scarf for thin textures.  This music is by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov "The Sea and Sinbad's Ship" from Scheheazade Op 35.

Just From The Kitchen

Playing kitchen instruments can be lots of fun!  Ms. Castillo's Kindergaten class demonstrates the call and response song while they sing and play along.

Pat Works On The Railroad

Mrs. Johnson's 5th Grade Class singing and playing a counter melody on their recorder.

A Little Irish Jig

Mrs. Scott's Class doing a scarf dance Follow the Rainbow.  They added a little Irish Jig.

Ukulele TIme

This week, third graders started a ukulele unit.  This was the revealing day for Ms. Carter's class.  This is the first time they are opening up their cases to meet their baritone ukulele.  In the future, I'll be posting some good old fashion folk songs the students will be playing and singing.

1st Grade "Star" Compositions

Mrs. Scott's 1st Grade Music class was inspired by Dr. Seuss's "Sneetches" and composed a song about stars.  The first week, students came up with rhyming lyrics for their song.  The next class, they added the rhythm notation to the lyrics and finally composed the melody using So, Mi, and La.  The students are playing their three pitch melody on the tone bells.  Everything is color coded so the students have great success performing.

2nd Grade Musical Speech Piece

Mrs. LaPorta's 2nd grade music class was inspired by Dr. Seuss's "Yertle the Turtle".  The students wrote a rhyming speech piece and set it to instruments.  The class had just finished a big unit studying instrument groups and how they played, so for each rhyme in the piece a different instrument was played.  Two girls kept a steady rhythmic beat while the class recited the speech piece and played their instruments.   Excellent job class.  Enjoy their classroom masterpiece!

My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss Week and Kindergarten classes did scarf dances to "My Many Color Days"    Videos were taken from three different Kindergarten classes; Ms. Castillo's class, Ms. Ketchum's class and Ms. Bush's class.  

On Bright Red Days how good it feels to be a horse and kick my heels!

On other days I'm other things.  

On Bright Blue Days 

I flap my wings.

Then comes a Yellow Day.  

And,  Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I am a busy, buzzy bee.

On Purple Days I'm sad.  I groan.  

I drag my tail.

I walk alone.

Then come my Black Days. 

I'm mad and loud.  

I howl.  I growl at every cloud.

Then comes a Mixed-up Day and Wham!

I don't know 

who or what I am!

Celebrating Black History Month

Mrs. Ellis' 3rd grade class is enjoying singing "Back of the Bus", a traditional song from their music books. This song reminds the students of the African Americans' struggles.  Rosa Parks refused to move from the front of the bus. This was and example of courage to fight for their rights as American citizens.  The song is in two videos because it runs more than a minute.

A Blast from the Past - 5th Grade

This is one of my favorite videos from earlier this fall.  Fifth Grade classes were singing a silly little song about an alligator named Alfred.  Mrs. Bryant's class did an outstanding job singing in a three part round.

"Here Comes Valerie"

Ms. Lopez's 1st Grade Music Class

"Here Comes Valerie" is a traditional United States game song.  The students lots  had fun walking down the alley!!

Kindergarten Lesson February 18th

Ms. Taylor and Ms. Baker's classes singing their High Low Song.  Students were busy identifying high and low sounds, fast and slow, loud and soft, same and different, and up and down movements.  Introduced Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.  Stay tuned for more!

County Chorus Weekend

Lunch bunch

Rehearsing on the stage
Sounding Good!

Ready for the Concert

Great Job boys and girls!!

Recorder Time

"Softly Falls the Rain"  Mrs. Johnson's 5th Grade Musicians.  

"Rolling Merrily"  Mrs. Clark's 4th Grade Recorder players.

Excerpt from Symphony No. 7  Ludwig van Beethoven  

Mrs. Crenshaw's class

Make a joyful noise!

Second grade Ms. Tyson's class enjoyed learning about the different drums and playing them with their Valentine's Day song.