In the upcoming quarter, kindergarten is going to begin by revisiting steady beat in the first three weeks. This time, we're going to expand our ability to keep a steady beat to the xylophones, so students can accompany themselves with a steady beat while they sing. We will also be transferring what we know about short and long sounds into official music notations when we learn about quarter notes and two eighth notes. In weeks 4-7, we will be focusing on understanding the difference between rhythm and steady beat. Toward the end of the quarter, we will revisit high and low sounds and transfer that to improvisation while singing.
Kindergarten has been very excited to learn to play the xylophones for the very first time at the end of the second quarter! Now that they have mastered correct playing technique, we will be using these instruments to accompany stories and songs while we learn the individual instrument names and discover how to play up/high and down/low during the first part of the 3rd quarter. As we enter weeks 4-5 we will be focusing on loud and soft in music and will practice controlling our loud and soft singing voice. Then in weeks 6-7 we will be listening to some classical music and playing some games that will help us learn about identifying fast and slow in music. For the last weeks of the quarter, we will be focusing on identifying long sounds and short sounds in music, which will set us up to learn all about quarter notes and 8th notes very soon!
I have been so impressed with how quickly kindergarten is learning! In October we learned all about keeping a steady beat while singing Johnny Hammers, and playing with boomwhackers! October was very focused on vocal exploration as well, and we did a lot of work with finding our speaking, shouting, whisper, and singing voices. We have also been gradually introducing percussion instruments, especially while working on a chant called Five Little Monkeys. Going into November, we're also starting to work on high and low with a song and game called Andy Pandy. Soon we'll begin working on fast and slow as well, and we'll also be expanding our exploration of instruments to include the xylophones when we learn Wee Willie Winkie!
We're off to a great start in kindergarten! We've been doing lots of movement activities that help us identify different ways to move and help us practice moving to musical cues during the first month of school. We sang "This is My Space" to work on finding our own personal space to stand in, and we learned different ways to move around the room to music, such as run, walk, gallop, slide, skip, and others! We've also been working on identifying our four voices: our speaking voice, whisper voice, shouting voice, and singing voice! Coming up in October, we'll be learning some fun Halloween music and we'll start working on finding a steady beat!
We're off to a fun start in kindergarten! In the first week, we've been practicing responding to musical cues and showing high, middle, and low statues with our bodies while playing the Freeze Dance. We also practiced listening, moving, and singing with the song Shake My Sillies Out. We're going to be working a lot on movement in September, as well as learning to identify our singing voice, speaking voice, shouting voice, and whisper voice. My kindergartners left music this week with smiles on their faces, and I'm looking forward to lots more singing games, movement activities, and musical stories with my new friends!
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February 2016
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