Our videos are now up online on the CBC Music Class Challenge YouTube page. Check them out using these links:

We are and will be singing songs in many languages. Singing is the act of making musical sounds with one’s voice. We are able to sing in languages in which we don’t necessarily speak. I teach the children to make the appropriate sounds with their voices to pronounce the words correctly. I also teach them the meaning of what they are saying. But, singing in other languages does a few things for us.
1. It teaches us empathy for others trying to sing in our native tongue
2. It teaches us about the sounds other languages make that may not be in our language
3. It “evens the playing field” for our ELL kids
4. It exposes us to more music from other countries, cultures, times in history, etc.
5. English is often a difficult language in which to sing because of our hard consonant sounds, diphthongs and ugly vowels. Other languages lend themselves better to proper singing technique

Here is “O Canada” in French. All of the classes except the Kindergartens have been learning this song. We sing it in French at every assembly. Maybe you would like to practice it at home? Did you know that the original song was only in French?

And our listening program this year will focus on French as we are a bilingual school. Vive le français!

Welcome back to a new school year!
“Music Class” is always a mixture of learning in the performing arts. Music encompasses dramatizations of the music we are learning, movement to express the music, and performance skills that translate into any performance situation. I like to think of myself as a performing arts teacher, and not just a music teacher. I will be teaching Drama, Music and Dance in integrated ways throughout the school year to all classes, and will be reporting on the students’ learning in all of these areas.

The expectations in my class are that students are as attentive as they can be, and put effort into all of the activities in my class. The learning can only happen when kids engage with the arts. I will create fun and engaging activities that challenge the students and offer useful learning goals. The students need to meet me halfway. We can have a lot of fun exploring the arts together. When children are excited about playing in the realm of the arts, exciting things can happen! We can create amazing artistic experiences together. When children come with a poor attitude and are not willing to learn, everyone in the room can get frustrated.

I realize that families have different comfort levels with the performing arts. Some families do artistic activities daily and those children are very willing to engage with arts activities. Other families are more reluctant and exploring the arts can feel more uncomfortable for the members of that family. I offer a space where everyone can feel safe and welcome to try out artistic activities with an educated teacher to guide your child through the basics of any art form. Encouragement from home can go a long way in helping your child open up to exploring artistic activities, even if you yourself are not learned in that realm. Elementary school arts offers a introduction to the possibilities of creativity and artistic activities people can engage with throughout their lives. My job is to open those doors to the children so they can choose their interests and possible passions for their creativity. Yours as a parent are to support them through that goal. The children will find what interests them and what they want to pursue. A positive environment will make them brave.

The only expectation I have is that they TRY and ALLOW OTHERS TO TRY. If a child is unwilling to try or is preventing others from trying, I will make contact with a parent to help adjust the mindset of their child so we create and maintain that safe space for the other children in the building to try as well.

I’m excited to introduce your children to some wonderful artistic activities this year and have amazing performing arts experiences!

A new program has been launched for the City of Burnaby to get instruments into the hands of people who may not be able to afford it.

Here is a link to the website where you can apply:

https://www.burnaby.ca/recreation-and-arts/programs-and-activities/arts-and-heritage/harmony-for-all

I know many of our students at Armstrong are interested in playing instruments more at home and in taking at home lessons. This will make practicing an instrument possible for a lot of our families.

Email me if you need a referral to the program – you need one from either a music teacher or a school administrator. Anything I can do to help, I will!

email me at sonja.karlson@burnabyschools.ca

Last week we viewed the concert “Colours” written by Ms. Karlson, filmed by students in Divisions one, two and three, and acted by our entire school population. The students were delighted to see themselves in the film. It was the first time in two years that we attended an assembly as well, so a very different kind of event than what we are used to!

Divisions 1,5,6,7,9,11,13,15,17 and 19 are in one movie labelled “Movie Two”.

Divisions 2,3,4,6,8,10,11,12,14,16 and 18 are in “Movie One”.

We are excited to share our concert movies with the parent group and community soon. We are just sorting out the best and safest way to stream the movie to families so everyone can enjoy our students’ hard work.

Most of the filming has been done for our Concert Movie!

There are a few groups and one class that still has a to be filmed. Hopefully we will be picking up those shots by the beginning of May.

Then the crew from Divisions 1, 2 and 3 will get to work on post-production of our film. The editing process will take a while, but our goal is to have the film ready by

May 17th!

Thank you to all of the parents/famillies who helped their child get a costume for this show. Thanks to everyone at home who encouraged their child to practice and get ready for their performance. And thank you to Kryshan Randall – our guest director who taught us how to make a movie!

This type of concert is a new venture for our Armstrong community, and I know we have all learned a lot by taking on this new challenge.

I truly hope you will enjoy the show once it is complete.

We will be filming our concert scenes next week and the week after!

Here is a list of the dates and times that your children will be filmed. Please make sure they have their costume at school on that day. And practice at home will really go a long way to make sure filming is expedient and at top quality to create a wonderful Concert Movie!

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We are working on a Spring Concert in the form of a movie!

You must have heard about it as the kids have been learning songs and dances and working hard on this project in music class up until Spring Break.

Rehearsals will continue after Spring Break for two weeks. Then it will be time to film our movie!

Students from Divisions 1, 2 and 3 will be the crew – filming and editing our movie together.

Other students from those divisions and divisions 4 and 5 will be acting the story for our movie.

All of the students of Armstrong are encouraged to be a part of this school wide project, and there are plenty of jobs to take on.

Here is a list of the costumes that families need to put together for their kids.

Remember that they need their costume for the filming weeks of April 11-22nd. Your classroom teacher will let you know on which day your child will need to wear their costume. The theme is “colours” so your child will need to wear as much of one colour as possible, unless they are a rainbow character. The rainbow characters will wear as many colours as possible at one time.

Please email me if you have more questions about this project or your child’s costume.

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Saw this post on Facebook and thought it was perfect! Some of the kids want me to wave a magic wand over them so they can play instruments! Sorry kids – it’s practice! But, luckily we do get to practice in music class and get better at our performing arts skills. Don’t give up! Once we practice enough we can do wonderful things!

We are preparing for a Spring Concert in the form of a video!

Each class is learning a song in music class. The grade 6/7s have the script and behind the camera roles. Together, we are creating a musical movie!

The theme is Colours!

Divisions 4 & 5 – Yellow by Coldplay
Division 6 – Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson
Divisions 7 & 8 – Ebony and Ivory by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney and Black and White by Michael Jackson
Divisions 9 & 10 – I’m Blue by Eiffel 65
Division 11 – True Colours by Cindy Lauper
Divisions 12 & 13 – It’s Not Easy Being Green – by the Muppets
Divisions 14 & 15 – The Rainbow Connection – by the Muppets
Divisions 16 & 17 – Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond
Divisions 18 & 19 – Three Primary Colours by OK Go

Here is the YouTube playlist so kids can practice at home or see the original version of their song. There are also some tutorial videos here of the dances we are learning.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQiC3VdKU_i1qj-D0x135hrGIIqZTqdcN

And here is the link to the OK Go song

And the Finale song that everyone is learning is called “I Can Sing A Rainbow”