Froot Loop FUN!

Fourth and fifth graders have been practicing really hard to learn the notes on the treble clef. Fourth graders will soon begin to play recorders and fifth graders will start playing the ukulele's. Music class this past week was a sure treat! The students not only got a snack but also got to play with their food! (Which a lot of students said we were breaking their mom's rule)

Here are some pictures from our fun musical experience!

Can you read what this spells? If not, ask your fourth or fifth grader too!

We also played a fun game afterwards and it goes like this:

Face in a space

Face in a space

Every Good Boy Does Fine on a line

Start at the bottom and now you got'em!

The students had a blast passing the ball around the circle to find out who was going to get out!

Welcome!

Welcome to Mrs. Mergan's Music Blog! 

I will do my best to post information, pictures, videos and many fun exciting events happening within the music classroom weekly. So far the students have learned a tremendous amount of music information and experiences within this semester. 

When your child comes home from school and you ask, "How was your day?" Do you always here, "Good!" Or when you ask, "What did you learn today?" they might say, "I don't know?" Well if you flip to the back of the newsletter and look within your child's grade level at the bottom I post questions or activities to prompt your child to be able to answer a specific question or even sing you a song we have learned in class. Hopefully this will help you to learn a little more about your child's music education!

Please do not ever hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. 

Bubbles bubbles and more bubbles!

The Kindergarten students have been working really hard on learning their songs for the Ocean of Fun concert in May!

We have learned so many interesting facts about animals that live in the sea! The kids are always amazed by some of them especially finding out that jellyfish do not have brains. As one student stated, "So they aren't smart right?" Those comments make my job so much fun!

The Carnival of Animals is a musical suite of fourteen movements. One of the movements the composer Camille Saint-Seans wrote is called Aquarium. It is a beautiful piece you can listen to it here

The students were split up into two groups. One - the bubble blowers and the other second group- the fish puppets. Students were asked to blow bubbles to make it feel like we were down in the ocean while the puppet fish people were swimming around the classroom to the music. Then of course we had to switch roles or it would not be fair at all!

 

CONCERTS GALORE!

Students at Century Park Learning Center, Cummings Elementary, and South Elementary will be participating in a music concert at the end of the year! The students are preparing and having a lot of fun singing and learning their songs! We can't wait to perform them on the stage at the

 MIDDLE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM in May for friends and family. 

SAVE THE DATES:

Century Park Learning Center 

Kindergarten- Ocean of Fun – Tuesday, May 20

Students will need to report to the

Middle School Auditorium by 5:45pm and the concert will begin promptly at 6:00pm.

ATTIRE: Students need to bring in a white t-shirt to their classroom teacher. They will be tie-dying them to look like the ocean water for the concert. Jeans are acceptable to wear for the night of the concert.

1st, 2nd, 3rd Grade Classrooms – Rock and Roll Forever

 Monday, May 12

Due to the large numbers of classes, I can’t fit all 8 classes on the stage at the exact same time. We have split up the classrooms and took into consideration siblings within other classrooms.

1^st CONCERT: O’Callaghan, Beekman, Hall, Kopec

Students will need to report to the Middle School Auditorium by 5:45pm and the concert will begin promptly at 6:00pm.

2^nd CONCERT: Stutzky, Kalman, Griffith, Kloppe

Students will need to report to the Middle School Auditorium by 6:50pm and the concert will begin promptly at 7:05pm.

ATTIRE: Students may dress up in 50’s attire. You may get as creative or as little as you would like! Poodle skirts, jeans and white t-shirts, leather jackets, or even saddle shoes the possibilities are endless!! 

Cummings Elementary

Kindergarten- Ocean of Fun – Thursday, May 29

Students will need to report to the

Middle School Auditorium by 5:45pm and the concert will begin promptly at 6:00pm.

ATTIRE: Students need to bring in a white t-shirt to their classroom teacher. They will be tie-dying them to look like the ocean water for the concert. Jeans are acceptable to wear for the night of the concert.

2nd Grade – Rock and Roll Forever

 Thursday, May 29

Students will need to report to the Middle School Auditorium by 6:50pm and the concert will begin promptly at 7:05pm.

ATTIRE: Students may dress up in 50’s attire. You may get as creative or as little as you would like! Poodle skirts, jeans and white t-shirts, leather jackets, or even saddle shoes the possibilities are endless!!

South Elementary 

 Kindergarten- Ocean of Fun –

Wednesday, May 14

Students will need to report to the

Middle School Auditorium by 6:15pm and the concert will begin promptly at 6:30pm.

ATTIRE: Students need to bring in a white t-shirt to their classroom teacher. They will be tie-dying them to look like the ocean water for the concert. Jeans are acceptable to wear for the night of the concert.

2nd Grade – Rock and Roll Forever

 Thursday, May 15

Students will need to report to the Middle School Auditorium by 6:15pm and the concert will begin promptly at 6:30pm.

ATTIRE: Students may dress up in 50’s attire. You may get as creative or as little as you would like! Poodle skirts, jeans and white t-shirts, leather jackets, or even saddle shoes the possibilities are endless!! 

YEE HAW!

This week in first grade the students have been working to correctly use their, "head voice". We practice many different ways by acting like sirens, roller coasters, airplanes, animals and even acting like cowboys and cowgirls.

The students heard a story about Cowboy Joe who likes to use his cowboy call! The students had to listen to the story and every time they heard, "Cowboy call" they had to let out a, "Yee HAW!" I bet you can guess they all did a fabulous job!

The next activity I brought out my noodle horses and the students got to ride the horses around the classroom when the music was playing. When the music stopped they had to freeze and let out their best "Cowboy call".

Do you think this first grader was having fun??

Smiling faces for the camera

Thanks Mrs. King for the fabulous idea of the noodle horses! Mrskingrocks.blogspot.com

Kindergarten Singing

This week we have started to prepare songs for the Kindergarten concert: Oceans Of FUN! A newsletter will be sent home next week explaining the date, time, and location. We are learning about many different animals that live under the sea. We began our Shark Attack song and the students are having a blast learning all about Tiger Sharks, Hammer Head Sharks, Blue Sharks and Great White Sharks! 

In Kindergarten we start to explore the different ways we can use our voice. We discovered we have a singing, speaking, whisper, calling (loud voice- because shouting is not allowed in music) and of course our silly voices.  The students have been working really hard and practicing using their, "head voice" which is developed by using proper singing technique. In order to achieve this students have been practicing with various vocal warm-ups: Slides, echo, ball bouncing and many more fun visuals and instruments that can help achieve a proper singing voice. 

MUSIC OLYMPICS

2014 Music Olympics

This year 2nd grade students at South and Cummings and then the 1,2,3 classes at CPLC will be partaking in the Winter Music Olympics! The students were put into groups of four and then were able to choose a country that they would like to represent. I provided numerous books of different countries that they could look through and learn new facts about them. It was amazing to see how the students would look at a map and then recognize how close or how far the countries that they had previously looked at were from each other. I also loved watching them get excited about learning new ideas about the countries and comparing them to Michigan! 

This student was SO excited about the MONEY!!!

Learning new facts about France

This week students picked out the country they would like to represent! Make sure to ask your child what country they will be representing during the Winter Olympics! Each group got to decorate their flag and hang it up in the classrooms. 

Next week our first Winter Olympic event is: Ice Skating 

Make sure to ask your child how it went! 

The opening ceremony for the Olympics begins Friday night! Try to watch it and look for the country that you are representing! 

TIC TAC TOE Cont.

Tic Tac Toe Challenge At Cummings

On Thursday, the 1st graders at Cummings Elementary were given a challenge to complete at home!

I am so excited to go to work tomorrow and see which one of my students have completed the music challenge. Each first grader created their own tic tac toe board, and were suppose to bring it home and play it with a family member! 

So who won? Cats game??

Please comment and share!!

2nd Grade and 1,2,3 CPLC Compositions

In music class I am always trying to spark the childrens creative side and allow them to compose and play instruments as much as possible.

 

In this activity the students were given a chart and had to work as a group to compose a composition that they would play in front of the whole class. This project took about two-three music classes due to practicing, composing, and playing with new instruments.

 

 

For the first and second graders they drew pictures of each instrument in the boxes according to how many beats each one recieved. For instance, if they wanted to use a TI TI which is two eighth notes  they would have to draw two instruments in one box, because it has two sounds. If they wanted a TA which is one quarter note they would need to draw one instrument. If they wanted to use a Z which is a quarter rest they would need to draw a Z and say "sh" instead of playing a sound.

 

The third graders I challeneged them in two different ways: 1. They had to write the correct notation out (not draw pictures) 2. Color code them for each instrument. This was tricky for them and at first they did struggle but it was amazing once they got the instruments in their hands they excelled with this activity so well! I loved to watch all the smiles on their faces when they would practice their piece slow, fast, or even backwards!

 

Here are some pictures in action!

Action Shot!! Clapping out the rhythm as a group!

 

 

CPLC third grader writing out his rhythms!

 

 

2nd graders creating wonderful compositions! NICE WORK!

 



Tic Tac Toe!

The first graders this week are reviewing rhythms in music class. So far they have learned

Ta= Quarter Note Ti Ti = Two Eighth Notes Z = Quarter Rest (shh) and Ti Ri Ti Ri = Four Sixteenth Notes

 

We first started out as a class playing boys vs. girls rhythm tic tac toe!

 

 

The next class students paired up with a partner and played four games of tic tac toe! It was great to walk around the class and listen to the students help each other say the correct rhythms!