"Don't Worry About a Thing, 'Cause Every Little Thing's Gonna Be All Right"

This week has been Songs That are Stories and Stories That Are Songs.
We had music classes in the library where we read a storybook called Every Little Thing inspired by the Bob Marley song "Three Little Birds".  We even learned the verse and chorus and some got up to dance as they sang.

We also watched the 1949 Disney film, Peter and the Wolf, a classic story-song.
Each character has its own instrumentation that we listened for.
We then drew pictures inspired by the story as we listened to the orchestration again.

Bravo, grades 3 to 8!

Congratulations to the grade 3 to 8s on a wonderful Arts Night Performance!
You all worked hard and did a great job.

"Oh, What a Beautiful Morning! Oh, What a Beautiful Day!"

The first couple days of this week have been absolutely gorgeous (and HOT!) so we took music outdoors! 

... and we looked cool doing it!

Oh, no! There's a spider on my
face, on my face!  There's a
spider no my face, on my face.
It's such a big disgrace.
There's a spider on my face!
There's a spider on my face,
On my face!

The JKs had lots of fun learning a couple new animal songs including There's a Spider on the Floor.

And of course, there were lots of Green & Speckled Frogs hopping in the pond.

Outside is also a great place to play the Song Game, Chay Chay Koolay.

The grade ones learned a new silly song Corner Grocery Store and we took turns coming up with silly rhymes of what we might find in the store (we also learned that "pineapple" and "oranges" are very difficult to rhyme!)

[Video by Zoya]

Finally, we all learned the new song, Lying in My Sleeping Bag.  We made all the sounds you can hear at night including crickets, dogs, owls, sirens, sprinklers, and even the sun rising (imagine what the sun might sound like!)  At the very end, we "finally fell asleep".

Listen to all that snoring!

Feelings, Animals, & GoNoodling, Oh My!

Now that we have wrapped up Arts Night (for the JK-2s at least) for another year, it's time to learn some new songs and dances.

The SKs have been learning songs about feelings this week.
We've sung "If You're Happy and You Know It" but remixed it to include other feelings.
We've danced to "Can't Stop That Feeling" from Trolls and freeze danced to "Happy".
We've learned Raffi's "I'm In the Mood" and the traditional song "You Gotta Sing" and, of course, we added our own lyrics to include what we were in the mood to do.
We've also learned "How Are You" a song that includes sign language. 
We've been looking up and trying to learn signs for different emotions.
We've also been practicing being very expressive and showing the feelings on our faces.
Check out these sad and happy faces!

The JKs have been learning songs about animals this week.
We've learned The Chicken Dance.

We did The Animal Hokey Pokey (here we are putting our antennae in and taking our antennae out  and putting our antennae in and shaking them all about).

And we were Five Green & Speckled Frogs (sitting on our speckled logs and eating our most delicious bugs - Yum Yum!)

We also listened to music inspired by animals.

The Carnival of the Animals by Camille St. Saens features different pieces about different animals. 

We listened to the music and tried to guess which animals it was about based on how it sounded.  Then we listened again and moved to the music like the animals.

In The Aquarium we even had some hungry sharks trying to eat some starfish!

While the JKs were singing about and moving like animals they also met some animals today.  The grade 1s also got to meet some very interesting animals today during their music time.  This week the grade ones completed their top GoNoodle level.  They got to GoNoodle for the entire music class after missing their GoNoodle time to work so hard rehearsing for Arts Night. We're looking forward to learning more new and fun songs on Monday!  

Bravo for Arts Night!

While I unfortunately could not attend the Arts Night Performances on May 17th, if our Wednesday "performance" for the videographer was any indication, I am sure that you all were able to enjoy a great show.  The students should all be very proud of their hard work.

I did manage to get some photographs to share with you.

ARTS NIGHT REHEARSAL @CITY CHURCH

ARTS NIGHT PERFORMANCE (05/16/2018)

Photos by HMHphotography

Let Us Entertain You

Arts Night is TOMORROW!
Today we are rehearsing and filming on stage at City Church.  We can't wait for you to join us tomorrow evening (and or afternoon) so we can entertain you!

Arts Night! Arts Night! Arts Night!

Arts Night is soon upon on Thursday, May 17th! and we are working very hard at our rehearsals.
Rehearsing can be a tough job, especially for the youngest students, as it takes a lot of patience and a lot of repetition.  The students are doing a great job. They've been practicing entering and exiting the stage.  They've been practicing projecting their voices to fill the stage (it's going to be a big stage).  They are polishing up their choreography.  And they've been practicing their bows in preparation for the rounds of thunderous applause! 

We definitely have a fun show in store for you!

This week, some of our JK classes also have had the opportunity to start exploring music about animals to accompany their UOI of "Is It Alive?".  We've been listening to excerpts Camille St. Saens Carnival of the Animals and trying to guess what animal it sounds like.  We then have been moving to the music like those animals.

Here we have some little chickens pecking the ground for some yummy grubs.

Here we have some birds flying around the aviary.

And here we have a stampede of elephants!

While our JKs are learning animal songs, our SKs are continuing to explore different feelings in music.