We had a great first week here in the Music Room, with lots of familiar faces and some new friends too.

Preschoolers are learning the Rivendell Song along with some other fun songs and movement activites. Younger Kids, Middle Kids and Older Kids also brushed up on some familiar songs that we love to sing for Group Sing, like the Rivendell Song and Obladi Oblada, and we are also learning a song with Spanish and English words called Somos El Barco, to go along with our school-wide topic of Oceans.

Middle Kids also worked on learning a half note accompaniment on mallets and steel drums to the song “Hey Ho, Nobody’s Home”. We hope to perform it in Group Sing this week and have the rest of the school sing along.

In Preschool and Younger Kids music today we listened to “Morning” by Edvard Grieg (October’s Composer of the Month) while small groups were on the stage pantomiming things that we do or see in the morning. So fun! The “audience” then guessed what was being acted out. We had some VERY creative actors. Some of my favorites were:

A sleeping tiger, just waking up
A butterfly looking for food
Showering and shampooing hair
A cat stretching and sleeping in the windowsill
A dad shaving
A baby playing in his crib

We have such creative kids! Thanks for sharing them with me every week!

Our Composer of the Month for October is Edvard Grieg. This week we are listening to his piece titled, “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and talking about the musical terms piano, forte and crescendo/decrescendo. Here is a recording of the piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQxsyA6s90Y

We are also working on some new fall songs and Halloween songs in Younger Kids and Preschool. Older Kids have received the parts for the musical and are working hard on songs and choreography. Middle Kids (Bryce’s Class) did a bang up job performing on steel drums, recorders and xylophones for Group Sing on Wednesday, and we hope to do that again soon with Suzanne’s Class performing. 

Have a great week!

Holly’s class was the first class to earn some free choice time in the music room today, yay! Here’s some kiddos having fun playing dress up on the stage.

Each month (September through April) Rivendell music students will be learning about a special composer. For September, our Composer of the Month is Gustav Mahler! Some facts we have learned so far are that he was born in 1860 near Austria (what was then the Austrian Empire anyway) and that he was both a conductor and a composer. We listened to the Finale from Symphony No. 2 in class. Here is a link to some more information on Gustav Mahler – http://www.sfcv.org/learn/composer-gallery/mahler-gustav

Check back here for updates and news about what’s happening in our music classroom.