September Lessons

• Welcome Music Friends– hello song of the month, learning to sing one another’s names and welcome everyone into music class each week
• Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?– keeping a steady beat with a chant, reviewing ta and ti-ti notation from Kindergarten, discovering who many sounds/syllables/parts are in our names and which cookie jar we belong in, and composing Cookie Compositions with our classmates names (written activity for assessment)
• Marching Movement Game– moving within our own personal space and reviewing how to move as a class around the open space, listening to piano improvisations and demonstrating ability to discern between a marching, walking, running, and skipping or galloping rhythm/beat
• Star Light, Star Bright– notating and reading rhythm of poem, moving throughout space with a partner playing finger cymbals and triangles, improvise star songs in C pentatonic on glockenspiels with piano accompaniment; review Pentatonic, mallet technique, and improvisation ideas; create SLMRD melody with poem and discover MRD pattern
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star– notate rhythm on board and discover the entire song is an ostinato
• Syanora– goodbye transition song
• Ready for the Hall- transition song for line-up and moving into hallway

October Lessons

• Hello to All the Children of the World– hello song of the month, exploring hello words from around the world and discovering that each of us are unique and different and special, but we are all kids who love to make music!
• Mozart’s Twinkle Variations– listening activity to describe the differences between each variation of the Twinkle Melody (listened and analyzed only the first 6 variations)
• Pick a Pumpkin– singing and keeping the steady beat on our bodies, passing game with the fake pumpkins
• Pumpkin Patch– discovering sixteenth notes (ti-ri-ti-ri’s) and how they are different from eight notes (ti-ti’s), notating our rhythmic patterns for the poem, turning it into solfege with our solfege ladder and hand signs, discovering that the ending is the same ending as another familiar melody! (Star Light)
• Rhythmic Notation Game and Assessment– using rhythmic packets, students clapped and chanted short 4-beat phrases and arranged notation cards to notate the phrases they clapped, students also created their own original 4-beat phrases to share with the class
• Syanora– goodbye transition song
• Ready for the Hall- transition song for line-up and moving into hallway

November Lessons

• Hey There, Friend– hello change of the month, partner clapping game in a rotating circle
• Continue to review Hello to All the Children of the World for winter concert
• Carnival of the Animals Study– listened to, described, and moved to selections from Camille Saint Saens “Carnival of the Animals” including Royal March of the Lions, Hens and Roosters, The Cuckoo, and the Kangaroo; students also discovered the string family and compared violins, violas, cellos, and string basses in addition to the piano and the clarinet, also learned vocabulary word Suite and learned about the composer’s life and intentions for this piece
  • Royal March of the Lion– focus on piano and strings imitating the roar of the lion
  • Hens and Roosters– focus on squawky clarinet crowing, staccato and pizzicato violin sounds for pecking
  • The Cuckoo- listening map to understand the form, sang the clarinet part and how it contrasted the clarinet in Hens and Roosters, moved with scarves and parachute to demonstrate form
  • Kangaroo– listening map and movement, focus on melodic contour and repetition in form
• Leaves are Falling– sang and used non-locomotor movements with partners as mirrors alternating leader role, moved away from partner exploring the space during the improvised sections and back to partner for the melody
• The Little Old Lady who was Not Afraid of Anything– using the additive text from the story, we chose percussion instruments that could imitate and accompany the sounds of clomp, wiggle, shake, clap, nod, boo, the wind, the moon, and also composed some walking music in a minor key on the xylophones for the main character, we recited the story and put it all together
• Burn Little Candles– Hannukah song in minor, singing a song with multiple verses, showing melodic contour with hand movements, moving with a partner to create a mini drama for the lyrics of the song

December Lessons

• Burn Little Candles– adding instrument parts in preparation for our Winter Concert, continue to explore movement and singing in a minor key, focus on intonation and steady beat ostinati
• This Little Light of Mine- singing with solfege and understanding that sometimes the meaning of lyrics are much deeper than they first appear (How can you let your light shine in the world?)
• The Nutcracker– learning about Tchaikovsky’s life, reading the story of the Nutcracker, identity the characters, learn new terminology: choreographer, composer, conductor, scenery, set, props; watch Act I of the ballet and fill out worksheet discussing the costumes, the dancing technique, and the set, scenery, and props; stretchy band activity with The March

January Lessons

• Bonjour Mes Amis- hello song of the month, singing in French, mixer dance with partners
• We Are Playing in the Forest- singing with instrument playing on xylophones and metallophones (eighth note alternating bordun on xylos and half notes on metallophones); singing from notation and solfege, discovering patterns in melodies
• Little Red Riding Hood– reading the story, acting it out with characters, and putting music with it, playing the “wolf game”
• Zip a Dee Doo Dah- good-bye song, transition and line up