November is here and a lot is happening!
4th and 5th graders are continuing to prepare for their upcoming concert in less than a month! Each class is doing an amazing job practicing their recorders, xylophones, and singing our pieces! I am very excited to have them share their hard work with our Plains Family! A fun new development is that our amazing 4th and 5th grade teachers will be joining them for one of the songs! How awesome that our teachers would work as hard as they work! 5th graders are also preparing to attend the BHS Area Vertical Concert on Nov. 19th. They will have a rehearsal during their specials times on Friday, Nov. 15th to really dig into the music that they will be singing. The concert is at 5:30p at BHS. For those attending, a schedule will be given to students so that they will know what to expect the day of. Students should plan on wearing jeans and their plains t-shirts on Tuesday, Nov. 19th in preparation for the concert. Parents who agreed to donate snacks for the event, thank you so much! Please send in your donations (pre-packaged snacks) with your child prior to Tuesday if possible! 3rd graders are learning some new songs, like Miss Miss, in preparation for our next concept we will be learning, while they practice reading and saying ta/ta-ti rhythms. They even are working on translating rhythms that I say into ta/ta-ti! They are working very hard and have shown a lot of progress in the few months of school so far. 2nd grade is working on matching pitch by singing high/low songs, such as Snail Snail, Billy Sad, and Apple Tree. They are also finding the rhythm to these songs by labeling sounds as long or short-short. 1st grade and Kindergarten are working on identifying the difference between high and low pitches as well as matching pitch with simple songs, such as snail snail. We just finished performing our Big Pig rhyme for our classes, where we practice using our voice in a high and low way. 1st grade is moving on to working on capturing the word pieces of simple rhymes we are learning while kindergarten are starting to use our tubaloo phones to talk to Arioso Land, a land where they only understand you if you sing to them! There isn't a whole lot of school left in November, but I'm looking forward to the coming weeks and the progress our students will make as we enter our winter break! Important dates: Vertical Concert - Nov. 19th, 5:30p Thanksgiving Break - Nov. 27th - Nov. 29th 4th/5th grade concert - Dec. 12th, 2p & 6p If you have any questions, please let me know at [email protected] Stay Musical, Mr. Conway I never knew it could stay so hot so late into fall, but here we are! That heat can't stop us!
What an awesome month of learning that's been happening in the music room! Kindergarten and 1st grade continues to work on exploring our voices in high and low ranges through the use of Squirrely the Squirrel and Big Pig the Pig! We've used our high and low voices as warm-up to begin singing and playing games such as 'Billy Sad,' 'Apple Tree,' and 'Star Light.' If you want to know what those songs sound like and how to play the game, as your child! We also continue our beat keeping skills through a song entitled 'Who's That,' where students knock on various parts of their body to the beat while we sing. We have added the use of a drum that we pass around the circle to keep the beat as well! 2nd grade has continued to identify rhythm versus beat in songs and rhymes like 'Kicikicikici' and 'Bee Bee Bumblebee,' and even using the last rhyme to notate the rhythm using magnetic Bees on the chalk board. We play and sing games like 'Billy Sad,' 'Apple Tree,' and 'Bounce High Bounce Low' to practice our singing voices but also prepare for our next learning objective. (I'll keep it a secret until we learn it). 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade all reviewed 'ta' and 'ta-ti' (also known in the music world as quarter note and two eighth notes) and has read rhythms using combinations of the two. 3rd grade continues to sing and play games such as 'Mouse Mousie,' 'Lemonade,' and 'Billy Sad' to prepare for our next melodic review concept. 4th and 5th grade have begun preparing for our upcoming concert in December by reviewing recorder and Orff instruments. In October we will begin learning the songs for December on those instruments as well as the songs we will be singing! I'm very excited for this upcoming month of learning in the music classroom! Some Announcement from the Music Room: 1) 5th graders will be participating in a Vertical concert with J. Frank Hillyard and BHS choirs on Nov. 19th. Permission and interest forms will be sent home the week of Oct. 14th. Please fill out the bottom section and return to me (Mr. Conway) by Nov. 1st! 2) 5th graders, please continue to remember to bring recorders to music class! Upcoming Dates: 1) Vertical Concert (5th graders) - Nov. 19th, 5:30p @ BHS 2) 4th and 5th grade Holiday Concert - Dec. 12th, 2p & 6p @ PES School Calendar Reminders for October: 1) Oct. 11th - 1p Dismissal 2) Oct. 25th - No School 3) Oct. 28th - Beginning of Red Ribbon Week If you have questions or comments, please feel free to email me at [email protected] Stay Musical, Mr. Gregory Conway I can't believe the first week of September is already over! Where has the time gone!
The first 3 weeks of school has been awesome! PreK, Kindergarten, and 1st grade have been focusing on exploring our voices in what they can do. Our voices are amazing things that can be loud, soft, high, low, speak, or sing! They can do so many things! These students are also practicing keeping beats by going on train rides or using hammers! If you want to know what your child is doing, as them if they can teach you the train rhyme that starts, "Engine Engine Number 9." 2nd - 5th grade have been in a review time the past few weeks. Our focus has been making sure that these students can keep a steady beat through playing Apache Chant by passing 4 cups around the circle. We also have discovered the difference between the steady beat (the heartbeat of the music that doesn't change) and the rhythm (the pattern of the syllables of the words) by using a rock/paper/scissors style game. If you want to learn that game, as your child to teach it to you! They have been doing an excellent job with it! Some upcoming things that everyone should be aware of: 1) The north end will be having a Vertical Concert on Nov. 19th. This concert will feature 5th graders from all elementary schools, the middle school choir, and the high school choir. More information on this will come in the next few weeks. 2) 4th and 5th grade will have their annual Holiday Concert on Dec. 12th at 6pm here at PES. More information on this will also follow in the next few weeks. 3) 5th graders will be playing their recorders that we started learning at the end of last year for our concert in Dec. They should plan on bringing their recorders to school starting the week of Sept. 23rd. A reminder will be send home with students next week. 4) School Calendar reminders for the Month of September: - Rock your School Day (Sept. 19th) - 1pm Dismissal (Sept. 20th) If there any questions about anything at all, please feel free to email Mr. Conway at [email protected] Stay Musical! |
PES Music Updates!As often as possible, updates on happenings in the classroom, as well as announcements of upcoming events will be posted here. Archives
August 2021
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