Kindergarten and 1st!

Kindergarten and 1st grade music have been off to a wonderful start this year!

Kindergarten has been practicing keeping steady beat through the use of body percussion, student-lead dancing, playing musical name games, and singing folk songs from various cultures. We've been learning about the different types of voices - whisper, speaking, shouting, and singing - and when it's appropriate to use each. Kindergarten classes have also been doing vocal exploration to learn how they can raise and lower their voices to sing through the use of fun activities like sirens and vocal rollercoasters. We've also been introduced to handheld percussion instruments like maracas, tambourines, claves, and triangles.

The next few months will include daily singing to get our musicians practice with matching pitch and singing with good technique and posture. We'll do a lot of exploration of sound and begin looking at how music is present in everyday life and how music can be used to relate to characters and actions in stories. We will likely be doing a unit on Camille-Saint Saens' Carnival of the Animals in which different animals are represented by different instruments and movements of the piece. We'll also work a lot with listening maps to get the students thinking creatively about how sounds can relate and symbolize things in every day life!

First grade has been learning a lot about rhythm through moving, dancing, and playing instruments. They're being introduced to "Ta," "Ti-ti," and "Shh." as ways to vocalize simple rhythmic ideas. We've even begun basic composition through the use of colors.

The next few months, we'll introduce the students to the class set of African drums so they can begin practicing these rhythm songs and ideas in a really fun and exciting way. Eventually, 1st grade will be performing their own songs and compositions on the drums, Orff
 xylophones, and other handheld percussion.

All music classes have also done a bit of an art project in our front hallway, so if you haven't seen it, come by the music room, take a look, and say hello!




It's been a fantastic first few weeks; all the parents and staff have been so kind and welcoming, and I'm very excited for the rest of this year. If I haven't met you, please don't hesitate to come by and introduce yourself.

Go GLOBE!

Brian Gay