September Lessons

• Time to Sing Hello– hello song of the month, singing and welcoming everyone back, learning each other’s names
• Where is John?– singing a folksong as a round, discovering a descending scale in the last phrase, stepping to the music at different subdivisions (ta, ti-ti, and ta-ah) and reviewing rhythmic notation; reviewing solfege scale Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do with hand signs while singing a familiar melody; reviewing mallet technique and playing beat subdivisions on xylophones and metallophones with a descending scale on glockenspiels while singing
• I Stepped Around the Corner/Bakery Shop– chanting a long poem while changing beat subdivisions on each phrase; identify the quarter note, half note, and eight note pulses while walking and playing hand drums
• This Land is Your Land– singing with storybook, understanding the meaning behind the different verses, discovering together “What is a Folk Song?” and “Where do they come from?”

October Lessons

• Welcome Welcome Everybody– hello song of the month, singing in various call and response forms
• Baker, Baker, What Have You to Sell?– singing multiple vocal ostinati and transferring them to Orff barred percussion while singing, discovering all patterns are in C pentatonic and use only CDEGA to create their elemental harmonies, notating these patterns together on the 5-line staff
• America the Beautiful– singing together with storybook, understanding the meaning behind the lyrics, discovering together “What is Patriotic Music?”
• Autumn Comes– singing and moving to demonstrate melodic contour with a partner (one leads, the other follows)
• The World Is Crying Leaves Today– singing and decoding notation for the melody together, adding simple ostinati parts on barred percussion with movement (Mr. Cisco our student teacher taught these lessons)

November Lessons

• Musical Explorers Theme Song– hello song for the month
• In preparation for our Carnegie Hall concert field trip in December, this month was spent learning our repertoire for this event
  • Magda- from Greece, danced the Trata– a traditional Greek folk dance, sang the chorus (in Greek!!) and played wooden instruments that imitate clock sounds on Tiki Tiki Tak, created new sixteenth note patterns using different sound words, added the Accordion to our instrument list
  • Yocuba- from West Africa, sang Wawanco, added Kora to our instrument list, learned to play several instrument parts for Kele Faba on our barred percussion, learned about Yocuba’s role in his culture to bring peace to all through music

December Lessons

• Circle the Earth with Peace- hello song of the month, singing in many different languages
• Sing along songs for the winter concert (Rudolph, Dreidle, We Wish You a Merry Christmas)
• Musical Explorers Theme Song- sign language on the chorus, make up new motions for the verses
• In preparation for our Carnegie Hall concert field trip this month, we are continuing to master our repertoire for this event
  • Falu- from India, explored Classical Indian music, singing Rabba with musical ornamentation, practicing Indian solfege with Allahoo

January Lessons

• Funga Alafia– hello song for the month, singing and dancing a welcome song from Africa, analyzing a melody through notation and solfege, playing a melody on xylophones from notation; reviewing mallet technique
• The Nutcracker- Tchaikovsky composer study, (finished from December) watched Act 2 and explored pieces from the Land of Sweets (tempo, instruments, etc.)
• Round and Round We Go- good-bye transition song, sing in a canon with rmovement
• Statues in the Park- movement exploration game with recorded music, discovering negative and positive space with bodies