What we're learning in the music room

Hello and welcome to fall! 

We've been hard at work in the music classroom this fall (even though it's felt still summery with these temperatures!) Here are some updates in Miss Hoop's Room within the past few weeks!

Letterboard: The music room letter board has continued to be a hot topic in my classroom with its ever-changing quotes! Weeks four and five included lyrics: the first from a country song by Rascal Flatts, and the second from one of my favorite childhood musicals, Annie!

We have a new composer of the month! Head over to the 'Composer of the Month' tab (under 'more') to find out more about him!!

World Map: We have been busy adding things to our world map in the music room. We've now got two composers and several songs and instruments that the kids have sung and played in the music room. This will continue to change as we learn more each week! Check out the picture below!

Kindergarten: The kindergarteners have been learning SO much these past few weeks. They have done a great job learning so many new songs and chants! We've had a ton of fun playing and singing the "Grizzly Bear" song and "Lucy Locket" while practicing being loud and quiet. We've also started working on the next 'Kindergarten Opposite', fast vs. slow with fun songs such as "Engine, Engine, Number 9". Ask your kindergartener if they can sing these (or more of our songs) at home for you!
Below is Lucy Locket's Pocket, that we use when we play the game. It helps us practice singing loudly and quietly (plus it's really fun!)

1st Grade: The first graders are reviewing the difference between beat and rhythm and learning about one sound on a beat versus two sounds on a beat. In our early stages of prep, one sound on a beat is called 'long' and two sounds on a beat is called 'short short'. We have been decoding a lot of our favorite songs and chants and figuring out what their rhythms are! They are doing wonderful with this. 
We also read a story in first grade this week called "Scoot" and had the chance to move around the room like all of the animals in the story. It's a wonderful book with beautiful illustrations--check it out if you can! (See picture below).

First graders also got the opportunity to practice keeping a steady beat on our xylophones. Everyone sang "Apple Tree" while kids took turns on the instruments! We added an extra challenge by having the kids switch from steady beat to rhythm and back again sometimes. :) 

2nd grade: The second graders are continuing to refine and practice the relationship between so, mi, and la. We are singing patterns, reading and writing patterns, and figuring out how some of our favorite songs have these patterns in them! We also worked on putting these patterns and what the 'rules' are for doing that (the second graders know: 'if so is on a line, MI is on a line!' and 'if so is on a space, MI is on a space!' See below for our notation of "Apple Tree"--we played the game (a favorite) and then figured out first the rhythm, then the melody, and then we put them together on the staff. They're really catching on quickly!

3rd Grade: The third graders have been working especially hard at singing with do, mi, so, and la. They are getting VERY good at decoding patterns that I play or sing on a neutral syllable (like 'loo' or 'oo'). We practiced that this week in some classes by playing "Melody Bingo: So/Mi/La/Do edition". I would play a pattern on my recorder, and they had to work together in their small groups to figure out what the pattern was that I was playing. Below is a picture of a class working on this, and also some pictures of the bingo sheets that they use--they have been doing a REALLY great job listening to those intervals and patterns!

4th Grade: The fourth graders continue to learn about songs from around the world while practicing their low so and low la patterns. We also used our German song (Lachen, Lachen from last week) to work on our newest rhythmic patterns (ti-tika and tika-ti!). See if your kids can draw you what these look like!
We are learning a new song this week with a really fun rhythm stick/clapping game that goes along with it. The song is called "Makoair" and is a Maori folk song (from the northern tip of India). It's been added to our map as well. Those fourth graders continue to impress me with how well they sing (and how well they sing with a new language!)