Friday, December 19, 2014

Our hard work paid off (and we learned something at the same time!)

Wow!  What a great job at our Winter Concert Monday night!  I am so proud of all the students for the hard work that they put into learning their songs.  All that hard work really showed by how great everything went!

Did you know that as the students were learning their songs they were also working on building their musical knowledge and skills?  Here are some examples of what the students learned as they were working on the concert...

Kindergarten
"I can make my voice change pitch" - This is where good singing starts!  In addition to using their singing voices, students also used a whisper voice and a speaking voice.
"I can keep a steady beat" and "I can echo a simple rhythm"  - As we were learning our songs we added instruments to many of them, sometimes keeping a steady beat, and sometimes playing a simple rhythm.

1st Grade
"I can match a series of pitches" - This is building on our skill of using a good singing voice.
"I can distinguish high and low sounds" - This skill is helpful in singing, playing and listening.
"I can perform patterns using quarter notes and eighth notes" - 1st graders also used instruments to play along to their songs.  Some even got to play instruments at the concert!

2nd Grade
"I can read and perform short rhythmic patterns." - Students practiced reading and performing with some of the rhythms from their songs.  They even got to experience reading and performing a complex rhythm that is not part of the normal 2nd grade curriculum!

3rd Grade
"I can read and perform short rhythmic and melodic phrases" - Students practiced reading and performing with some of the rhythms and melodies from their songs.  We spent a lot of time looking at the melodies of our songs and determining whether our voices would have to get higher, lower, or stay the same.
The 3rd graders also helped create a new song, using the melody of a song that we already knew!

4th & 5th Grade
"I can read and perform short rhythmic and melodic phrases"  Students learned to read and perform syncopated rhythms.  We also spent a lot of time looking at the melodies of our songs and determining whether our voices would have to get higher, lower, or stay the same.
"I can sing with two or more parts"  Three of our songs had more then one part which meant that students really needed to be secure with their own part.

All Students
In addition to the grade specific skills students worked on, they all also worked on the important skill of being a performer.  One of the most important aspects of being a performer that was worked on, was how to handle mistakes.  As with most performances we made a few mistakes, but in many cases, most of the audience probably didn't even notice due to the way that the students handled themselves as performers!

No comments:

Post a Comment