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Our arrangement inspired by "Drum Dream Girl" is coming together nicely! Both classes have been working on it for 2-3 class periods so far. Here, you can see an entire class working to put six different musical parts together into one beautiful piece. They are playing xylophone, glockenspiel, maracas, guiro, and drum. One student said, "It's a vibe!" and they were right! Working in this way allows students to practice their ensemble skills. This requires a specific kind of critical listening and aural awareness of the parts happening all around them.
First graders have been playing a favorite game called "Pumpkin Patch" in music class. This poem helps reinforce steady beat and rhythm and also allows student to practice independence in leading the group.
These classes have been learning an American folk song called "Paw Paw Patch". Pawpaw trees are the largest edible fruit trees in North America. The fruit has a sweet, custard flavor suggesting faint traces of mangos, bananas, papaya and pineapple. The game our students are playing here is called a "play party" and originated in Appalachia. This type of dancing lets students move to the form of a song, work with a partner, experience a traditional reel folk dance and have fun!!
4th graders have been learning about Cuban music this past month. The book, "Drum Dream Girl" by Margarita Engle and Rafael Lopez, was inspired by a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba's traditional taboo against female drummers. This story features the bongos, timbales and conga drums along with the determination of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga. In 1932, at the age of ten, Millo joined her sisters in Cuba's first all-female dance band "Anacoana" (photo below). She was the youngest in the family, but made a name for herself in a field previously denied to women.
Students have also been learning about some contemporary female drummers from Cuba such as Brenda Navarrete and Yissy Garcia. (hear them below) In addition to listening and learning, students have been playing. We hope to share their arrangements inspired by Millo's story using xylophones, glockenspiels, guiro, claves, and of course, DRUMS in the next few weeks. Our 2nd grade students have been thoroughly enjoying our return to SINGING in music class! They sing to say "good morning", they sing to play games, they sing to create stories, and they even sing to line up and say goodbye. They have been exploring their 4 different voices; singing, talking, whispering and calling. In the video below, you can see some brave students volunteer to lead the class in our welcome song. Talking and singing are welcome voice choices in this call and response song. It's been exciting to hear students singing more and more in their upper register which usually allows for better pitch matching at this age. This routine greeting also allows them to practice their best audience manners complete with raucous applause and some fantastic bows. Our 5th graders have begun working in small groups to compose original pieces based on the rhythms and melodies found within their names. We began this project by reading the book "Your Name is a Song" by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow. In this story, a little girl named Kora-Jalimuso begins at a new school where no one takes the time to learn or appreciate her name. She feels devalued and dismissed. Even her teacher mispronounces her beautiful name. This story led to some great conversations in music class about what names mean to people and how they connect to identity. Many students shared personal stories about their own names including times that they felt frustrated or disappointed by people mispronouncing or misunderstanding them.
Each student has worked on creating an original rhythm or melody to express their name. They are now combining these musical ideas to build more complex music. Through this work, students are reviewing basic music notation, transcribing ideas, improvising, composing and collaborating. Please see below for an example of student work, a group presenting their work in progress and a read aloud of "Your Name is a Song". Hello everyone,
It's been a very busy month of music making for all. We are overjoyed to be safely singing again!! Weekly updates on what your students are learning will begin the week of October 11th. Please see the welcome letter sent via email to families here. See you soon, Anne |
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