June
Recorders Heroes is almost finished! The children have to finish playing their quests (especially the key quest) by June 13. Then Ms. Karlson will add up the points for all of the Kingdoms and award a winner!
After that, there is only one or two more classes. The students will compose a very short melody on the recorder or xylophone. They can work with a partner on their composition. They will start the composition thinking of a rhythm. Then they will assign each group of notes a specific pitch. They will write it out, practice it, and play it on the last day of music.
Parents, I’m sure you will have fun listening to them play their fresh composition when the come home on that final day of music. Make sure you ask your child to play their song for you!
May
Students in Divisions 7, 8 and 9 are picking up their recorders once again for Recorder Heroes Level Two!
And students in Division 6 will be joining those classes with the playing of recorders.
The grade 4s will continue to develop skills on the soprano recorder – tonguing, note reading, posture, finger position for each note, reading, listening and playing at the same time, playing unison songs in a group.
The song for continuing to develop on a soprano recorder is Aiken Drum.
Here is a video of another music teacher teaching the song online:
And a challenge for the grade 5s – we have started Alto Recorders!
Alto recorders are slightly bigger than the soprano recorders that we have been using in music class. They have some lower tones and a nicer sound than the sopranos. Also, they play in a different key! We will need to get used to some new fingerings.
There are a variety of songs the students will have the choice of playing.
For alto recorder on it’s own (solo playing) I have given the students Suo Gan and Old Brass Wagon.
Another challenge will be playing in small groups. Here is the song list for small group playing:
- Entre le boeuf et l’ane gris – this song is for a soprano recorder, an alto recorder and a xylophone. Students will play this in a group of 3.
- This Old Man / Michael Finnegan – these two songs will be played together at the same time. They are partner songs. One person will play Michael Finnegan on the soprano recorder while the other person plays This Old Man on the alto recorder
- Old Brass Wagon – this song has an alto recorder melody, three different xylophone parts and a temple block part layered together. We will focus on the alto recorder part, but we may add in the other parts too!
Students in Division 10 will begin recorder playing this May. They will play recorders on Friday’s music classes starting on May 24th. We will begin with Recorder Heroes Level One, the beginner songs.
The songs Division 10 will be learning are Hot Cross Buns, Ice Cream Cone, Merrily We Roll Along, and Hop Old Squirrel.
Scroll down on this page to get the teaching lessons for Hot Cross Buns and Merrily We Roll Along.
March/April
We are finished Recorder Heroes for now.
Next we will be performing in the Intermediate Choir Festival!
This festival combines elementary schools in Burnaby with one high school They share a song together and sing songs for each other. An adjudicator will be there to work with our group on their singing technique. We will learn a lot about singing, performing and being a good audience while preparing for and participating in this event. We perform on April 23rd in the morning at the New Westminster Christian Reformed Church (8255-13th Avenue, Burnaby). We will be walking to the venue that day.
.
Together We Are by Brian Tate is our massed number. Here is video to practice along with:
The songs we will be singing by ourselves are Shanendoah and The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
January/February
We have begun Recorder Heroes this year!
Students have been put into one of 4 Kingdoms
-Monarchs
-Emperors
-Sultans
-Chiefs
They are starting to learn or review how to play simple melodies on a recorder and how to read simple treble clef and rhythm notation.
Through this, they will earn points and go up in their rankings, also earning points for their Kingdom. There are prizes and privileges that go along with their rankings.
Here are the list of songs for points this term:
– Merrily We Roll Along (this is the Key Quest for beginner recorder players)
– Hot Cross Buns
– Ice Cream Cone
– Fanfare For Recorders
– Old MacDonald Had A Farm (this is the Key Quest for advanced recorder players)
– Babylon’s Fallin’
Here are some videos to help you learn to play those songs!
*Please make sure you practice before you try to complete your quests for Ms. Karlson!
If you want to submit a video of yourself playing a song, send it to sonja.karlson@burnabyschools.ca
November
Here is the choreography to practice along with for Ms. Melton’s, Mr. Kroeker and Mme. Guguin’s classes.
Here is the choreography for Ms. Wilkie’s and Ms. Chi’s classes.
Here is a video to learn a little bit more about Belsnickel:
Here is a video to learn more about Krampus:
And here is a video explaining more about Gryla, the Yule Lads and the Christmas Cat, Jólakötturinn.
Costumes for these classes:
Divisions 5, 6, and 7 are the more sinister characters of the season. The idea is that they live in a cave in Iceland, so they wear rags and furs. See what you can do with that! Wear old, neutral coloured clothes that maybe have stains and tears on them. Even cut things up so they look ragged. Any fur, fake-fur or fur-like material is great too! If your child is a “Minion of Krampus” character (not an assigned “Yule Lad”) they should wear some kind of antlers or horns on their heads too.
Divisions 8 and 9 are part of Mother Earth’s gathering of creatures and plants. They should either dress as a tame forest animal such as a deer, rabbit or squirrel. Or they can dress in green and twine leaves and/or flowers on themselves. Again, get creative and have fun making your costumes!
October
We are finishing our drama activity in October. Then we are moving along to rehearsals for our Winter Concert. The students will perform a dance in the Winter Concert. When the choreography is ready, I will post it below here so kids can practice at home.
We are also singing a song for Remembrance Day.
Divisions 8 and 9 will be singing “Amani Utupe”. Here is another choir singing “Amani Utupe” so kids can practice along:
Divisions 5, 6 and 7 will be performing “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield. Here is recording that they can practice along with:
September
Welcome (back) to Armstrong grade fours and fives!
We will begin the school year with drama activities.
We will play some games, and then act out a story that is created by the students using the Mad Lib format.