music

The Kindergarten, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th grade students just celebrated Grandparent’s Day on October 24. Each grade sang a special song for their grandparents, and then all of the grades got to bless their grandparents with song. The students sang beautifully. Way to go K-4^th graders!!!

K- Kindergarten students will continue to use their voices as they prepare for their special Advent program with their 6^th grade buddies. They will continue to explore with their voices and learn the difference between speaking and singing. We look forward to seeing you at our program on December 17!

1^st- Through preparation for Grandparent’s Day, the 1^st grade students did a lot of vocal warm-ups using “sol, la, and mi.” The students will continue to use these notes in warm-ups, and will soon get to make up their own melodies (improvising) during a song that they will sing called “The King’s Land.” Then the 1^st graders will get to add body percussion, non-pitched and pitched percussion to their song.

The 1^st grade students will also be in a special project with Mrs. Sturm and Mrs. Gardner called “Picture the Music.” The project is from the St. Louis Symphony, and each year the symphony chooses a piece of music for students to imagine. Some students create a story in their minds, while others may experiment with how color represents sound. Each student will then get to put what he/she sees in his/her mind on paper. This year the piece is called “Bolero” by Ravel. We can’t wait to see how creative the 1^st graders will be!

2^nd- The second grade students recently attended a great concert at the St. Louis Symphony called “Peter and the Wolf.” Thank you to all of the parents who came and all of the parents who helped plan such a fun trip! This year the symphony played the piece and had actual actors to help tell the story. The students even got to have a great treat of hearing “The Thieving Magpie” by Rossini where they got to imagine their own story as the music played. The students got to see how professional musicians played the classic tale of “Peter and the Wolf.” Now in music class, the students will get to create their own version of the “Peter and the Wolf” story through the use of shadow puppets. “Peter and the Wolf” will help students become more familiar with instrument families and the roles each family plays in the orchestra.

3^rd and 4^th-The students in grades 3 and 4 have spent a lot of time using their voices this past month. Now they will begin using classroom instruments. They will spend some time reviewing the names of our instruments and classifying the percussion instruments by pitch, non-pitch, skins, metals, woods, and shakers.

5^th- The 5^th grade students spent the last couple of classes learning a really fun Halloween instrumental piece called “Unk, Unk, Unk.” The students got to play our school’s new xylophones and various non-pitched percussion instruments to make the witches’ stew of Shakespeare’s “Witches’ Speech” from the play “MacBeth.” The students got to use instruments in unconventional ways to make the various “scary” sounds.

The 5^th graders will be studying instrument families for the next couple of classes. They will classify instruments of the orchestra by sight and sound.

Then the 5^th graders will get to join 1^st grade in a project with Mrs. Sturm and Mrs. Gardner. They will use their imaginations to create images for the piece “Bolero” by Ravel. This project is from the St. Louis Symphony.

6^th- The 6^th grade students also spent the last couple of classes learning the piece “Unk, Unk, Unk” for Halloween. The students really enjoyed creating the sounds of a cauldron.

The 6^th grade students just finished celebrating one holiday, and will quickly turn around and prepare for one of the most blessed holidays of all, Christmas. These students have a very special role in serving as leaders to their kindergarten buddies in the K/6^th Advent program. The students will sing and play Advent and Christmas songs with their buddies in music and then for parents on December 17. We look forward to seeing you there!

7^th-8^th- The 7^th and 8^th grade students have spent time learning about instrument families this year, and we still have a little more to talk about. They will spend a couple of classes classifying the instruments in their families by sight and sound.

For Halloween, the 7^th and 8^th grade classes got to use their voices in a song called “Old Abram Brown.” Then the students were able to sing the song in a 4-part round. 7^th grade students even had time to add instruments to accompany their voices!

The students will continue to sing and work toward the goal of singing in 2 or more parts to create vocal harmony.

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