5th grade has finally learned all of the notes in the solfege ladder, and has really improved their singing both in quality and range during the 2nd quarter. We are going to continue our work with solfege melodies into the first 3 weeks of 3rd quarter as we learn to play a melody on the xylophone that uses a full octave range. At week 4, we will begin learning a new song that uses a full octave range, but this time in a minor key! Toward the end of the quarter we'll be switching our focus to rhythm again and learn about syncopated rhythms. 5th grade continues to work hard on the note E on recorder, and we'll be continuing to practice songs using BAG and E throughout the 3rd quarter to help increase our comfort level with the note!
5th graders just wrapped up their unit on African music, and we have had a ton of fun with it! We sang 3 African songs called Funga Alafia, Bwana Awabariki, and Abiyoyo. The students learned lots of interesting facts and learned how to play several African instruments, including the djembe drum, the shekere, and the balofon (we're using the Orff xylophones as a substitute!) We wrapped up our unit by using the rhythms we've learned to compose an 8 beat chant about the African folk tale of Abiyoyo, and the students did a great job coming up with creative words for their chants!
We've been learning all about African music in 5th grade! Students have learned all about the djembe and tubano drum in the last month, and we've been doing lots of playing on the drums! We've been singing songs in African languages too, like Funga Alafia in Yoruba and Bwana Awabariki in Swahili. We're learning how to play ostinatos to accompany our own singing with chants and instruments as well! Coming up, we're going to be learning more African songs and using the xylophones to play melodies and accompaniments.
I am very excited to get started on the 5th grade African Music unit! This quarter we will be learning to sing songs from different parts of Africa, and we will be doing lots of drumming on Disney's djembe and tubano drums. The focus in September is all about rhythms, so 5th grade will be learning to read, improvise, and compose using the rhythms we learn!
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February 2016
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