My head is EXPLODING with the 3rd grade musical stuff, but that doesn't meant that we aren't doing awesome things in other grades right now at The Wheatlands. I'll be back to posting pictures and videos soon, but I thought I'd still let you know what we are doing!
1st Grade
These little guys are having a BLAST in music right now because we are doing some of what is called MALLET MADNESS!!! This is basically the loudest, most fun, most crazy thing that we can do in music. It is a rotation where all the kids are playing instruments at the same time. Then when I say "1-2-3-4", they follow with this chant... "Put your mallets on the floor... 5-6-7-8, hurry up and don't be late!" That lets them rotate to a new instrument. We are learning how to play drums and xylophones and how to hold out mallets, and now we are getting ready to play different rhythms on the instruments using our new found mallet techniques!
2nd Grade
I am soooo proud of our 2nd graders here at TW because we are researching in 2nd grade music and creating a Powerpoint about a culture different from our own. Groups are researching Hispanic, Indian, Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, and African cultures to learn about the culture in general but most specifically the dancing, music, instruments, and celebrations in these cultures. I can't wait to post some of the great Powerpoints up here for you to see because they have been doing some great work!
3rd Grade
The musical is NEXT week!!! April 10th and 7P.M. get ready to hear the awesomeness that is the 3rd graders!!
4th Grade
These guys have been working hard at learning how to read the notes on the staff to prepare them for.... wait for it.... 4th grade parents are about to kill me.... RECORDERS!!!! By next week, the 4th graders at TW will have recorders in hand and so will begin the last weeks of school with me hearing over one hundred children come before me to play "Hot Cross Buns". If you at any time feel like you would like to experience the most loud, joyous, crazy, insane thing you've ever heard... all fourth grade classes are in music from 12:35-1:35. Feel free to join us... if you've taken some Advil and have invested in earplugs! They love them though, so get excited for 4th grade.
5th Grade
5th grade has entered my absolute favorite part of the year because we are getting to the practical applications of music. This unit we are doing right now has us listening to popular music and really talking about it. For example, we listened to the song "Roar" by Katy Perry today in one class. Now you can say "oh, that's the song 'Roar' by Katy Perry" and yeah... that's okay, but I want the 5th graders to be able to say things like... "The song 'Roar by Katy Perry is a female vocal solo. During the chorus of the song, she is joined by people singing harmony under the main melody line. The instrumentation of the song includes guitars, drums, and various electronic instruments. I like the song because of its fast tempo in the background and because it is part of the pop music genre." Wow... could you imagine if all of them could talk this intelligently about what they are listening to? That is our goal with the main project we will be doing with the classes for the next month!
Anyways, I hope you have an awesome weekend and I hope you all had a GREAT first week back after Spring Break!
