Week 22

This week, Third Grade started preparing for their recorders! They have practiced putting their left hands on top and right hands on the bottom with sticks, and are learning fingerings for their first two notes - C and A. On Monday and Tuesday, recorders will be going home with all students in Third grade and Ms. Silver's classroom.

Fourth Grade has begun working on their dance for the International Dinner. They will perform a partner dance from the Phillipines, Apat Apat (Four by Four). This circle dance is also a social mixer, so the students are working on dancing with new partners, keeping the dance moving throughout.

Fifth Grade is also working on a new dance, called Te ve Orez (Tea and Rice). This is in addition to a new unit on marimba, which will continue through March. The first song the Fifth grade will be learning on marimba is "Drill, ye Tarriers."

Fifth grade also recorded some of their samba unit from last month, and you can find it on the JSIS website. They worked very hard to learn the traditional parts, and then wrote their own instrumental parts to contrast. It's a great recording, and I'm excited to share it with you.

Week 20

At the beginning of every class with grades 2,3, and 4, students sing an A from memory, then checking their remembered note with a tuning fork. This A is the same note to which orchestras and other instrumental ensembles tune before playing, and falls very comfortably into a child's singing range. At the beginning of the year, second grade was often off by large intervals when finding this note on their own, but now they are usually within a whole step.

First grade and Kindergarten have begun a new game, called "Where, oh, where". In this game, students sing four beat phrases and patterns while keeping a three beat pattern with their hands. This game, and others like it that students play in music, help them learn rhythmic skills that help them when we play instruments and learn dances.