Welcome back to music in 2018! I was on maternity leave most of first semester after I welcomed my baby girl, Samantha in July. Now that I have returned to William Ford Elementary, I wanted to share with you some things that each grade level is working on:

Kindergarten:

Students are beginning to work on musical opposites such as high/low, loud/soft, short/long, and fast/slow. We are also continuing to work on steady beat and beautiful singing.

1st Grade:

Our 1st graders are working on beautiful singing, steady beat, musical opposites, and are beginning to read rhythmic notation.

2nd Grade:

Second graders have been learning about the macrobeat and the microbeat. They are also practicing half notes, and will soon start learning some solfege notes, Do, Re, Mi, Sol, and La.

3rd Grade:

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, 3rd graders are learning a song about him. They area also starting to learn about musical phrases and song form. They will start learning about the new rhythm “tika tika” and continue to improve their understanding of solfege pitches.

4th Grade:

I think the most exciting part of 4th grade music is beginning the study of the recorder. Students in my class will soon be bringing their recorders home to practice the Recorder Karate songs. Music can be found on my website in the section titled “4th Grade Recorder Resources”.

5th Grade:

This year’s 5th grade has the special opportunity to study the guitar! At the end of last year, I received a very generous donation of a classroom set of guitars through the non-profit program called “Little Kids Rock”. We will be learning how to play chords on the guitar, strumming techniques, and how to play several songs. Students will learn traditional songs along with some modern band music. More information about this program can be found at www.littlekidsrock.org.