Inside Dear Parents and Families, We have had an exciting year at PSS, culminating in this week’s student performances. Band and chorus students worked exceptionally hard this year, and I could not be more proud of what they were able to achieve. 2 nd graders so exceeded my expectations in their ensemble as to be invited to perform with our older students in band and chorus. As some of you may know, this will be my last year serving as music teacher at Pleasant Street School, due to district wide elementary budget cuts in the arts. It has been a wonderful year, and I have enjoyed working with the great students, families, teachers, and administrators at Pleasant Street. Sincerely, Mr. Mercier Music Teacher Pleasant Street School Kinder, 1 st , and 2 nd Grade Review of this year’s music class for Kindergarten through grade 2. 3 4 Pleasant Street School x Summer Music Notes x June 2014 Letter to Parents Mr. Mercier Band Recap of this year’s band activities and performances. 2 Chorus Recap of this year’s chorus and show choir activities. 3 rd and 4 th Grade Review of this year in music class for grades 3 and 4. 5
Transcript
Inside
Dear Parents and Families,
We have had an exciting year at PSS, culminating in this week’s student performances. Band and chorus students worked exceptionally hard this year, and I could not be more proud of what they were able to achieve. 2nd graders so exceeded my expectations in their ensemble as to be invited to perform with our older students in band and chorus.
As some of you may know, this will be my last year serving as music teacher at Pleasant Street School, due to district wide elementary budget cuts in the arts. It has been a wonderful year, and I have enjoyed working with the great students, families, teachers, and administrators at Pleasant Street.
Sincerely,
Mr. Mercier Music Teacher Pleasant Street School
Kinder, 1st, and 2nd Grade Review of this year’s music class for Kindergarten through grade 2.
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Pleasant Street School
x Summer Music Notes ��x��
June 2014
Letter to Parents
Mr. Mercier
Band Recap of this year’s band activities and performances.
2 Chorus Recap of this year’s chorus and show choir activities.
3rd and 4th Grade Review of this year in music class for grades 3 and 4. 5
Lorem Ipsum Dolor [Issue] :: [Date]
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Summer Music Notes
Thank you, students, families, and teachers who helped make PSS band a success this year! Students have
Kindergarten and first grade have had a very busy year in music! We started out the year with a lesson inspired by the book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See.” Using the book as a starting point, students learned how to speak, chant, clap, tap, read, and write rhythms, using a color / syllable relationship system inspired by Kodaly. Red = 1 quarter, Purple = 2 eights, Indigo = triplet, and Watermelon = 4 sixteenths. For Thanksgiving students learned a Native American lullaby in its native language and English. Students learned to ‘sing a line’ during our vocal exploration unit, while learning about pitch and dynamics. Students also had a lot of fun coming up with their own verses for “Down by the Bay” and “The Ants Go Marching In” this year which they sang at their end of the year performance.
Second grade began the year learning about rhythm and reading music. They learned how to ‘sing a line’ and explored
new ways to use their voice, altering their pitch and volume. They learned about steady beat and tempo and sang several Halloween songs in October (“Trick-orTreat Song”, “5 Little Pumpkins”), as well as others throughout the fall (“Entry Kentry”).
We learned about Orff instrumentation on Xylophones and rhythm instruments. All second graders have learned to play metalophones, xylophones, glockenspiels, guiros, hand drums, and other percussion instruments as part of an ensemble
Beginning with learning to read music and play the recorder, PSS third graders have learned a great deal about music this year. The students worked on recorder during the fall semester and later moved on to world drumming. We began a drum circle and students learned about music from around the world. We talked about timbre and pitch and learned specific drumming techniques for producing a variety of pitches on hand drums like the djembe (pronounced jem-bā). We wound down the year working on singing and learning the solfege scale (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do.). Students used their voice to apply concepts about pitch, dynamics, melody, and harmony. It’s been a great year!
This year, 4th grade started a unit on world drumming, focusing on traditional African drumming of Ghana. Students started learning drumming the way many traditional villages teach drumming to children, through rock passing games. (We substituted balls of yarn for rocks.) Students learned to play traditional “Call and Response” and “Echo” drumming patterns. Exploring Eastern music allowed us to work with uncommon rhythms and instrumentation.
4th grade also spent a great deal of time singing this year. We worked on the solfege scale (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do) and the traditional note scale. Students participated in regular singing exercises. Students worked on sight singing, harmonies, and intervals. They have become excellent musicians!
