As the end draws near...

Dear families,
The end of the 2017 - 2018 school year is in sight!
I cannot believe how quickly this year has passed by. We have accomplished so much in the music room and I am excited to share with you what the classes have been working on in these final weeks of the Spring trimester!

Kindergarten

What we have learned:

Four Voices (Speaking, Singing, Whisper, and Calling)
Steady Beat

Fast vs Slow

Loud vs Soft

High vs Low

Beat vs Rhythm

We have been working really hard on solidifying the concept of rhythm in the final weeks of school. 

Students can now alternate between the steady beat and "the way the words go" (rhythm) with vocal cues, visual prompts, and in small groups!

We have some pretty exciting songs and chants to help us practice our beat vs word!

We passed our shoes with our Cinderella chant!

We took turns showing the beat and words with our Bee Bee song!

We picked which song to play the rhythm of with our SMARTboard Game!

We showed off our instrument playing skills with Ebeneezer Sneezer!

One of my favorite practice songs is called Aiken Drum. It is about a silly man who lives on the moon! He wears clothes made from different foods and plays on a "ladle" as his instrument of choice.

First, we learned the song and patted the steady beat.

Next, we clapped the "way the words go".

Finally, the students improvised their favorite foods that Aiken could wear and added them to the song.

As a fun finale to our song, we took instruments from the classroom and split into groups. Each group built their own Aiken drum and sang about the parts we was made of in the original song!

Look at these incredible Aiken Drum's that we created!

We will use the concept of beat vs rhythm to introduce 1st graders to quarter notes and eighth notes!

Take songs from the radio this summer that your students know well and have them clap "The way the words go" to keep it fresh in their minds!

1st Grade

What we learned:

ta/ti-ti (Quarter Notes and Eighth Notes)

So/Mi

Quarter Rest

2/4 Meter

ABA Form

La

1st graders moved musical Mountains this year!

We have learned so many different things, it is truly incredible how hard they worked!

It takes some special kids to get through the amount of content that 1st grade has! 1st grade music brought on some difficult concepts and this class has mastered them all!
Their final weeks were spent practicing their new pitch - "la". We learned that it lives above so and mi on solfa street but is a next door neighbor to so!

It likes to do it's own thing on the staff and doesn't copy so like mi does! 

Students did such a great job dictating so-la-mi patterns on their staff lap boards and their new favorite game? - Poison Pattern!

Poison pattern is a great singing game that requires the students to memorize a 4-beat melody using so-la-mi pitches. The teacher sings various melodies that they students echo back. If they teacher sings the poison pattern and the students echo it back, they must sit out until the next round!

Ask your students about this game and play a few rounds every so often to keep them on their toes! They really LOVE when you try to trick them!

Here are some youtube videos that you can use to help you provide patterns to echo. Simply pick 1 pattern before the video starts to be the "Poison Pattern":

2nd Grade

What we learned:

Half Note

Do

16th Notes

Re

Repeat Sign

Although the list seems small, 2nd grade concepts bring on some complex challenges! These kiddoes did such a wonderful job with rhythm this year and have turned into quite the rhythm reading Rockstars!

For the final weeks of class, 2nd grade has been practicing those 16th notes in songs, games, and dances!

I think that Mama Llama is one of my personal favorites that 2nd grade has recently learned. This excited nonsense song allows students to sing with 16th notes and improvise actions to the steady beat. We sure have been getting silly lately and it seems like we do more giggling than laughing with this new song!

The most important goal in music is the Make Music JOYFULLY so this song is hitting all of the marks!

Please ask your student to sing this song and teach the game to your family! It really is a fun time!

Here are the lyrics (Pro Tip: if it seems wrong, it's probably right! :D)

Mama Llama, Cumma Llama, Cumma la Pizza!
Mama Llama, Cumma Llama, Cumma la Pizza!

Oh! no, no, no, no La Pizza!

Oh! no, no, no, no La Pizza!

Eenie-meenie, dex-a-meenie, Uh-wop-a-lop-o-meenie!

Aba-gatcha, Aba-watcha, X-Y-Z!

Eenie-meenie, dex-a-meenie, Uh-wop-a-lop-o-meenie!

Aba-gatcha, Aba-watcha, X-Y-Z!

3rd Grade

What we have learned:

Syncopation

do-re-mi

Eighth/double 16th and double 16th/Eighth Notes

so-la

high Do

3rd grade had to do some catching up for me this year! Because they got started late on melodic elements, we really had to push to get through all of the pitches they need to know! The good news? WE DID IT! 

I could not be prouder of these students for their hard work and focus as we raced through the solfege ladder this year! They are strong singers and have an excellent start on all of the pitches for next year!

We had some fun improvising with high do (their final pitch to learn). We started with a simple song about a bird and his wife!

In our song, the bird changes his colors based on how his wife leaves him. 

After creating some new verses as a class, we split into groups and each group was assigned a different colored bird! Some of their ideas are simply Genius! Please enjoy a video we took of them sharing their verses below:

In the final weeks of the year, we have been working hard at naming our new rhythm: short-short-Long, or two 16th notes paired with an eighth note, as seen here:

We learned a fun song with an even MORE fun game to help us with this rhythm:

Hogs in the Cornfield!

I don't want to spoil any surprise as far as the game goes so please as your students how it works!

While your at it, ask them about the game for Our Old Sow as well! (I guess our class is in a piggy mood) Both are a ton of laughs to play and sing!

I so look forward to next year! Although I am saying goodbye to the first class I had all the way through, I am excited for them to move to 4th grade and continue learning with Mrs. Nelson!

As for the rest of my kiddoes, we will get right back into new and exciting concepts as soon as that first bells rings in September 2017!

Enjoy your summer!

Stay safe and see you next year,

Abby Hoselton

P.S. Look for my annual "Goodbye" post on Friday. I will include some AWESOME musical opportunities in the summer and what I will be up to in the coming months to be even better for your students next fall!

Kindergarten Concert

Kindergarten Families,

I hope that you all received my "Save The Date" a month ago and the more recent note sent last week regarding the Kindergarten Music Program.

If not, I want to post the details here:

Kindergarten Music Program

Thursday, April 27th - 6:30 PM

MLHS Auditorium

***Please have all students to their classrooms BY 6:10 PM.

***Take all of your child's belongings as they will NOT return to their classrooms afterward.

Students will be lined up on the risers at 6:20 for a picture taking opportunity.

As you all know, for some students this is their first performance in front of an audience. Nerves are completely normal. Please do your best to reassure students that they are singing in a BIG group (not alone, which can seem scary) and that they are ready for this concert! They have been practicing for the past month and a half! 

Finally, be on the look out on Wednesday for a bright PINK "Concert Etiquette" sheet which will contain helpful reminders to make the program go smoothly and respectfully for both audience members and singers!

Thanks so much!
I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday night,

Abby Hoselton

Bring on Spring!

Hello All!

Although the unseasonably warm weather we experiences a few weeks ago seems like it was ages ago, the drastic rise in temperatures got me VERY inspired for the Spring season and what it will look like in the music room this years!

Take a look at what is coming up!

Kindergarten
There is some exciting news for Kindergarten Families this year.... A Kindergarten Concert!
For the first time in Maple Lake history(as far as I can tell), we will be presenting a Spring concert in the Kindergarten classroom.

The concert is set to take place on the evening of April 27th in the High School Auditorium.

This concert will explore the concepts of Kindergarten Music class and showcase what each student has learned throughout their first year in the music classroom.
Expect to see circle games, hear instruments and singing, and experience the Joy of music making for each and every student.
I am so excited to be working with the Kindergarten team in making this evening possible. Stay posted for more information!


1st Grade
Grandparents day at Maple Lake is always a special time! I have enjoyed preparing the students with a few Grandparent appreciation songs to share in the past few years.

This year I wanted to do something a little different: In the coming weeks, I will be sending home notes to all 1st grade families asking them if they have any special lullabies to share. If you are brave, I will request that you come and sing them for me to record. We will be using them for a special surprise come May! :) Stay tuned for more information on this top secret project... Not even the Students know! Shhhhh.....

2nd Grade
As 2nd grade continues to grow in their music terminology and experiences, we will start exploring the incredible connecting power of Folk Dancing. Students already know a few folk dances but March is a month that I really begin to introduce students to some amazing and entertaining folk dances.

Last year, we had the privilege of Mr. Hammerschimdt accompanying us on guitar and we hope to invite him again!
Stay tuned for videos of the joyous dances and the smile that it puts on each students face!


3rd Grade
3rd Grade while certainly be THRILLED with my Spring time activity for them! BOOMWHACKERS!
These are by far my Most requested instrument to play.
They are colorful, hollow, pitched tubes that play by being struck. In addition to bringing in Boomwhackers, students will be playing on desk bells and orff instruments too!
I have several Spring-y folk songs that we will be singing, and adding all of these exciting instruments will provide a beautiful accompaniment!



Things sure will get exciting around here really soon!
And if I am not mistaken, that amazing warm weather will be returning this weekend. Just in time for Spring to arrive in the Maple Lake Music Room!

Enjoy the warm weather and see you soon with video, audio, and pictures detailing all of the excitement in store!

Musically Yours,
Abby Hoselton

New Year... New Musical Discoveries!

Hello All,

Happy New Year!
November and December came to a close with some EXCEPTIONAL music concerts at MLE, I could not be prouder of my students. Their hard work, dedication, and musicianship always shines so brightly when they hit the stage each Christmas Season.

Now that concert season is all wrapped up, the music rooms returns to curriculum and concept building.

While I love the opportunity to share our students successes through performance, getting back to musical concepts is always a great joy for me as a music educator!

KINDERGARTEN:

What we have learned so far:
- 4 Voices: Speaking, Singing, Whisper, and Calling
- Steady Beat
- Fast versus Slow
- Loud versus Quiet

What we will be learning in the next month:
- High versus Low

Kindergarten is working hard on listen to music and discovering if pitches are "Same" or "Different". Later we will label these "different pitches" as either High or Low.

Songs that have been helping up learn our "Different pitches":
- My Little Rooster
- Black Horn
- Sarasponda
- Wind Blow East
- Old King Glory on the Mountain
Each of these songs contains a "Big Leap" between notes and is easier for little ears to tell that they are different. As we hear more and more "Big Leaps", we will start hearing songs that have smaller leaps that will challenge our ears and help us to really understand the difference between High and Low

I will be posting a video soon of an Incredible Instrument Exploration activity we completed with xylophones and drums.
Please stay tuned for a full description and pictures of this exciting activity!

1ST GRADE:

What we have learned so far:
- Quarter Notes
- Paired Eighth Notes
- Quarter Rest

What we will be learning in the next month:
- So and Mi

1st grade is working hard and dissecting our songs and finding the "High" and "Low" pitches in each song. We have been using our heads and shoulders to show when we hear each pitch. High pitches are placed on our heads, low pitches are placed on our shoulders.
This is all in preparation for presenting the new musical terms "so" and "mi", which are the proper solfedge names for "high" and "low".

Songs that have been helping us learn our "High" and "Low" pitches:
- Star Light, Starbright
- Sea Saw
- Good Night
- Some Love Coffee
Each of these songs contain the pitches "so" and "mi" in various patterns. Students have been listening, reading, and writing using picture icons to place "high" and "low" in the proper order for each song.
Here is an example that you can have your students read at home!

In the following week, we will be labeling "high" and "low" with their proper "so" and "mi" names and learning their hand signs! Stay tuned for a audio and video clip of students sight reading using their new solfedge!

2ND GRADE:

What we have learned so far:
- Ostinato
- Repeat Sign
- "la"
- Half Note

What we will be learning in the next month:
- 16th Notes

2nd Grade has been working hard on their rhythm flashcards. We far we can count and clap quarter notes, eighth notes, quarter rests, half notes, and soon we will be adding to that list!
Currently, we are discovering our new rhythm that contains 4 sounds on a beat. We have been labeling it with 4 dots on our rhythm heart beats and counting is as "short, short, short, short".

Songs that have been helping us with "Short, Short, Short, Short":
- Alligator Chant
- Chicken on a Fencepost
- Little Swallow
- Chattanooga Choo-Choo

Students can read and speak our prep symbols for 16ths notes. Below is an example of what our prep flashcards look like on the SMARTboard each day:

Challenge your student to read the above rhythm! My guess is they breeze right through it and beg for a "HARDER RHTYHM!" like they do in class each day!
In the following week, we will be learning the musical name for "Short, Short, Short, Short" and learn what they symbol looks like in written music.

Stay tuned as I plan to post a video of a riveting game of "Ka-Boom!" that will be new to the 2nd grade student that they are sure to enjoy!

3RD GRADE:

What we have learned so far:
- ti ta ti (Syncopation)
- "do"
- "re"
- "mi"

What we will be learning in the next month:
- eighth note, double sixteen
- "so"
- "la"

3rd grade is such an exciting time in music class. Students are so well rounded in music already and are truly starting to dig into complex musical content.
Students have been working hard on discovering our new "long, short short" rhythm in our songs and chants.
We are getting very fluent at reading our prep rhythm symbol, which looks like this: "_ . ."
Students have been reading, writing, and listening for this prep symbol in music class each day.
Here is an example of the symbol in one of our songs:

Students will be learning the counting syllables for our "long, short short" note in the next week! Students will also learn what two notes we already now that combine to build this 3 sound beat!

Stay tuned for pictures and videos of 3rd graders using foam cards to dictate, compose, and improvise 4 beat rhythms using our new rhythm!




Well, that about wraps up what we have been working on in the Primary Music Classroom!
It is a true joy to get back to teaching these exciting new concepts and it is an even greater joy to hear students exclaim, "A NEW NOTE!" What is it?! When can we learn it's name!" upon discovery that we have a new concept in our songs.
I am truly blessed to work at Maple Lake where students are so thirsty for knowledge and eager to learn more!

I hope that the new year has treated you and your family well so far!
Come back and visit soon!

Musically Yours,
Abby Hoselton

Starting Out Strong!

Hello Parents, Gaurdians, and Visitors,

I am SO excited to share with you what has been happening in the K-3 Music Classroom at MLE. Each grade level has been working hard and making some incredible music. If you are interested in learning about your specific students class, please scroll down until you see their grade level heading and read from there.

Here we go....

Kindergarten

Kindergarten is such an incredible time. Students are making new friends, learning new things, and making strong connections. That type of experience moves right into the music room.
Kindergarten started the year by making some very different friends.

"Sammy The Shark" is a daily visitor to the Kindergarten music room. A few important things to know about Sammy is that he loves singing and he HATES fruit. Unfortunately, all Sammy has to eat are blueberries, but naturally, he spits them out whenever we feed him any.
Lucky for me, Sammy's great distaste for blueberries has helped my kindergarteners find their singing voice. Whenever Sammy spits out his blueberry into the air, the student follow it's path with their voices, creating a vocal siren that warms up our voices, helps us find our head voice (high voice), and gets us singing right as we walk in!

Kindergarten also recites our 5 rules of music each day:
M-ake good choices
U-se kind words
S-how respect to others
I-mmediately follow directions
C-arefully care for instruments

These rules help us to stay safe in the music room while exploring, singing, dancing, playing, and moving in all kinds of musical ways!
One of the Kindergartens favorite new ways to move is with my Dancing Scarves. Students have been working on listening to music and moving our scarves appropriately to each new song. I began with the students following my scarf but soon the Kindergartners were able to pick motions for the entire class to follow. It has been great to build our fast, slow, steady beat, and improvisational skills.

Currently, kindergarten is learning all about our Four different voices: Speaking, Singing, Whispering, and Calling. Students can identify these different voices in music as well as perform them when prompted verbally and Visually.

Next, we will be diving into our "Same Pattern" which we will later learn is called the "Steady Beat" in music!

Kindergarten is moving fast, learning a lot, and making Great musical connections. I am so thrilled to see where we will be in the coming months!

Stay posted to find out!


Bonus: Ask your kindergartner to share their favorite song from music class as "dessert" for after dinner this week. Allow students to sing and perform is a GREAT way to grow their singing voices and spend some quality time together as a family. Kindergarten has learned the following songs for you to select from:
Grizzly Bear, Wolf, 3 Little Muffins, Allee Galloo Gallee, Alice the Camel, Johnny Works with 1 Hammer, and Apple Tree!


1st Grade
1st Grade has been reviewing all concepts from Kindergarten: Steady Beat, Fast/Slow, Loud/Soft, and High/Low!
1st Grade soon began working with beat versus "the way the words go", or the rhythm of our songs!

Now, students have been working hard on identifying the rhythmic pattern of what we are singing.
Students can now identify by listening if a beat has 1 sound on it, which we labeled as "long", or two sounds on it, which we labeled as "short-short"!
We have been using picture icons to help us show visual representation of the rhythmic pattern on the carpet as we sing.
A card with two small pictures represents our "short-short" rhythm, and cards with 1 picture represent out "long" rhythm.
1st grade did a fantastic job of building the rhythmic pattern for one of our favorite songs, Apple Tree, using our picture cards!

Now that students are so successful with identifying our two rhythmic sounds, we are now learning their musical names, Quarter Note and Eighth Notes, and how we count them "Tah" and "ti-ti". By using a counting language and giving each rhythm its own unique sound, students are able to process much quicker and accurately count complex and varied rhythms with ease. Also, rhythm syllable systems have been proven to improve music reading skills! Here is a helpful and informative article about the benefits of rhythm language if you wish to learn more about its benefits.

Students will soon move on to the identification of High versus Low pitches in music. We have been exploring songs that contain two of the first pitches that we will learn and students will soon be deriving these two pitches from the music that we sing each day!

Stay tuned for more information all about our upcoming pitch work!

Bonus: Ask your student to sing one of their favorite music songs in the car. Have them first clap the beat while singing, then have them clap the "way the words go". Finally, have the students use their "tah" "ti-ti" language to speak the rhythm of the song!
Here are a list of songs that they have been working on for our rhythm concept:
Hey, Hey Look at Me, Apple Tree, SeaSaw, 2, 4, 6, 8, Bee, Bee Bumblebee, and Rain, Rain.


2nd Grade

2nd Grade has been working hard to review pitches, rhythms, and vocabulary from 1st grade concepts. So far, we have showed mastery of So/Mi pitch work, Ta/ti-ti rhythm work, quarter rests, and repeat signs.

2nd grade also started the year by being introduced to a brand new "long note" and a brand new "mystery" pitch.
Students began identifying our new "long note" in songs as we played, moved, danced, and sang. Soon student identified that the new note received TWO BEATS per note. This is twice as long as our quarter note from last year.

Students began using foam cards to identify rhythms clapped by me in class. They used the symbol of two quarter notes tied together (with a musical device called a "tie") to visually represent our new "Long Note".

Currently, students now know the musical term for our "Long Note" is Half note and it receives two beats of sound! Students can count and clap half note rhythms using a "ta-oh" counting syllable to represent our half note.

2nd grade has been working hard with flashcards, dictation cards, and SMARTboard activities to build, read, and create half note rhythms.

Most students are anxious to learn our new "mystery" pitch as we began identifying it in songs we are singing. Students can hear and identify our new mystery pitch by raising a hand or a thumb each time it is sang. We have discovered that it is higher than both So and Mi but lives closer to So in our voices as we sing each pattern.

Next week students will be learning the name, hand sign, and staff location of our new "mystery pitch"!

Stay tuned for videos and audio clips of students performing our newly named "mystery pitch"!

BONUS: Have students count and clap that following flashcards before bedtime. Then, challenge them by clapping each card silently and having them clap the same rhythm back using the proper counting syllables! Double Bonus: Have them write 2 - 3 NEW half note patterns to add to these!

3rd Grade 

3rd Grade has been working on one of the more difficult musical concepts! Syncopation!
Syncopation refers to displacing the beats in (music or a rhythm) so that strong beats become weak and vice versa. And, Yes! It is just as complicated as that definition makes it sound!

However, despite its difficulty level, 3rd grade has EXCELLED and is confidently clapping, counting, identifying, reading, and creating using our new syncopation language of "ti ta ti"!

This new rhythm brings the 3rd grade knowledge base of rhythms to include quarter note and rest, eighth notes (single and paired), half note, 16th note, and syncopation! They are truly rhythm ROCK STARS! One of the more fun games we were able to play using syncopation was the exciting passing game of Big Bunch of Roses. Students learned the song, identified the syncopated phrase, and began modeling the passing pattern we would use for the game. 
After students had mastered all parts, Out came the roses! Students passed, clapped, and counted their way through the game!

Currently, students are extending their practice of syncopation and identifying some brand new pitches!
Our 3rd graders have been working on the song Hot Crossed Buns for several weeks and using it as a reference for the three neighboring pitches it contains. We have been working hard to compare sections of songs, such as John Kanaka, Liza Jane, Button you Must Wander, and Ida Red, to see if they contain our neighbor pitches! 

Next week, we will be building out knowledge of these pitches by identifying if they are close together, which is highest, lowest, and in the middle!

Stay tuned for new songs, activities, and a DANCE that helps us answer these questions!

BONUS: One of the 3rd grades favorite new games is called "Bump Up Tomato". Ask your student to teach this game to the family, including the song and freeze game. Enjoy 15 - 20 minutes together learning to play and sing as a family! 

Here is a video of Bump Up Tomato being played for reference!


What an exciting year we have going at MLE in the music room!
Soon students will be preparing Christmas songs in addition to all of the Up and Comings I have listed here in this post!

Enjoy singing and playing with your students as you share in the "Bonus" at the end of each section!

Hope to have you all back for a visit to my blog in a few weeks for all of the new music making videos, pictures, and updates!
Thanks for reading!!


Musically Yours,
Abby Hoselton 

"Gearing Up for Great"

I've been seeing a lot of Office Depot commercials lately. All of which are dealing with the same topic: Back to School! Although I can't say that I was thrilled when I first spotted these commercials and ads in the first week of July (Personally, I believe we deserve a summer and should keep it school supply free until August), I will admit their tag line is really capturing my mood perfectly: "Gearing Up for Great!"
I am doing just that in Maple Lake right now. I am gearing up for an absolutely Great start to the 2016-2017 school year.
The music room will have a slightly different look this year with all new bulletin boards, displays, and posters! However, the REAL excitement comes from the changes that will take place inside the music room once the students have arrived back. As some of you might remember from last summer, I was blessed enough to further my music education by enrolling in the Kodaly Music Institute at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. (If you are not familiar, please see here.) I have completed my second year of the institute and am now certified in Levels I and II!
2nd and 3rd grade concepts are the focus of level II and I have been hard at work revamping my lesson plans and curriculum. Students in these two grades will have a more comprehensive, sequential curriculum which will allow for better retention of musical concepts and allow us to work with more complex elements!

Students will be doing much more folk dancing and instrument playing as part of goals that I have set for my classroom for the new year. Students will also be working on singing in cannon, part-work, and simple harmonization for concerts and school performances!

All in all, the music classroom is shaping up to be even more... well, MUSICAL!

I am so excited for the students to return in September but until then, I want to leave you with a few important pieces of information:

1.) I will be teaching K-3rd grade this year. This is a change from last year when I was only teaching K-2nd.
3rd graders will return to having their concert in the WINTER, not the Spring trimester.

2.) I will be accepting new piano students into my studio starting in October. All returning students have a guaranteed place if they choose to continue lessons, however, I have several new slots opening up each day of the week due to my new schedule. I will have a booth at Open House! Come check it out if you are interest!

3.) I am hoping to add some small musical performances for each grade level in the Spring, in addition to the Winter concert. I will be seeking parent/guardian feedback as the school year begins. Please be watching and voice you opinion!

4.) I will be sending out a Newsletter each month with musical happens and activities to share as a family from the music classroom. This is an exciting new addition to my classroom so look for the contact slip in the first few weeks of school!


Enjoy the final, fading days of summer! I am SO excited as the new school year approaches. Please visit in a week when I will be posting pictures as the music room comes together!

Music and Blessings,
Abby Hoselton

The school year in Review!

It hardly seems possible, but I am sitting in an empty classroom with cleaned walls, instruments, white boards, and teacher desks! All undeniable signs that the school year has come to an end. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you reading this post. I want to thank you for your interest in your child's musical education. I would like to thank you for your support of the arts and music here at MLE. Most importantly, I would like to thank you for your child! I am all too fortunate to work in a school system with such disciplined, respectful, and dedicated students and that doesn't happen without amazing support at home! So THANK YOU! Your hard work makes my job possible!

As an end to the 2015-2016 school year, I wanted to take a few minutes and review each grade level and what we accomplished in music class this year! Please feel free to read about each level, or skip to your child's grade and discover what fine musicians your students have grown into throughout the school year! Each grade has a labeled Header for easy reading!



Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a year of foundation laying. Each concept that I taught to the kindergarten kiddoes this year will be built upon next year to reveal a concrete musical concept of rhythm and/or melody!

Students started the year by discovering their singing voices through Vocal Exploration.
Vocal Exploration introduces students to their two singing voices: Head Voice and Chest Voice. Our head voices produce higher pitches while our chest voice sings lower register notes. We used ball tosses, bumble bee flying, note card doodles, and so much more to move our voices up and down the registers and learn the difference between the two!

Students continued their discovery of the human voice with Vocal Timbre. Vocal Timbre refers to the color, texture, and quality of the human voice. Throughout the first few months we learned about the Four Voices: Singing, Speaking, Whisper, and Calling Voice! Students used all four throughout the year in endless combinations with various folk songs. We are Dancing in the Forest, Muffins, Grizzly Bear, Allee Galloo Gallee, and Naughty Kitty Cat are just a few folk songs that we used to learn our Four Voices.

Finally, students were ready for the most basic and common musical element: Steady Beat! Students will use this term throughout music to describe the pulse, or heart beat, of a song or piece of music. Students marched, patted, snapped, clapped, drummed, and played the steady beat! By placing the beat in our bodies we can feel the music and better understand and learn it!

Kindergarten spent the final trimester of the school year learning Comparatives: Fast vs. Slow, High vs. Low, and Loud vs. Soft. Students also learned the proper music term for Fast vs Slow as Tempo and Loud vs Soft as Forte and Piano!
We will work closely with High vs. Low next year and learn a new musical term for these pitches!

Kindergarten is ending the year with singing games, chants, and play in the music classroom. The final concept we are preparing is "The Way the Words Go!" or Beat vs. Word. We will name this as rhythm next year and begin to explore quarter notes and eighth notes in 1st grade!

Kindergarten was a fun musical discovery. Students learned and played each day! I cannot wait to begin building up these young musicians next year! :)



1st Grade

1st grade brings so many new discoveries in music. Our first new discovery dealt with rhythm! Students learned that each beat of music can have 1 sound or 2 sounds. We then labeled a beat with 1 sound as "Long" and 2 sounds as "short short".
We used these two prep terms throughout class while we sang songs like Bee, Bee, Sea Saw, Apple Tree, Queen Queen Caroline, Jean Dressed in Green, and so many more. As we sang these songs, we used the SMARTboard to place picture icons on each beat and identify if they had 1 or 2 sounds.
Soon, students were ready to learn the new term for a "long" beat as a Quarter Note and the "short short" as paired Eighth Notes! We count these two notes as "ta" and "ti ti"!

We continued on to learn about high vs low and review from kindergarten! Students used picture icons to place "high and low" sounds on a two line staff. We would also sing the song using "high" and "low" in place of the words to train our ears to hear the difference! Not soon after, students were ready to learn the new musical words for these two pitches. High = so and Low = mi! We use these solfedge pitches to help us become better music readers and singers all while helping build and train our ears! These pitches also help us write more musically and we got to try our hands at composing for the first time!

At the end of the school year, 1st graders started diving into beats without any sound on them. We identified these as "silent beats" and not long after, we named them with their musical name of Quarter Rests!

1st grade students can now read rhythm flashcards, sight sing So-Mi patterns, hear and dictate (or speak back using proper syllables) So-Mi and ta, ti-ti patterns! It is truly incredible how fast they have grown and how much they have learned!

Next year, we will continue to learn new rhythms, pitches, and musical terms to help us read even more difficult music!

2nd Grade

2nd grade was such an exciting time! Students came in already knowing Quarter Note, Eighth Notes, Quarter Rests, and So - Mi!

We focused much of our year on learning new and complex rhythms.
We started first by listening for and singing "long notes" which we later learned the musical name as Half Notes. These notes receive two beats and are counted as "ta-oh"! We have a fun time exploring these new notes and playing rhythm patterns using them!

2nd graders also worked hard and learned the new terms of "Repeat Sign" and "Ostinato". A repeat sign is a musical symbol that appears at the end of a song or section of music and tells us to play the song or section over again! Students worked on several songs to discover this symbol! Amasee was the main song to help us learn this new term.
An Ostinato is a pattern that repeats itself. Ostinati are generally short phrases, 4 - 8 beats long, that are played together to form complex rhythmic passages. We created our own ostinati with themes that each class got to select! It was a great way to work on composing and ostinato!

The most complex, yet fun, new concept in 2nd grade is the learning of 16th notes. 16th notes are very short rhythms that only take up 1/4 of a beat! We used the term "short short short short" to identify these fast notes in the early stages of working with them.
After a few weeks working with songs like Tideo, Pick a Bale, Paw Paw Patch, Dinah, and Chicken on a Fencepost, students discovered the name for the 16th note and how we count it using the rhythm syllables ta-ka-di-mi! :)

2nd grade learned several new folk dances this year as well.
Folk dances are great teaching tools for musical concepts BUT I love teaching them for their connective powers. Shy students come out of their shells, unlikely friends come together, and students make connections with those around them! It is truly an incredible thing that I feel so passionate about that I filmed each class doing their favorite folk dance. Please find your student's teacher and observe your student connecting, smiling, laughing, and ENJOYING DANCING! (Even the boys!) It will shock you how much fun is had as each class dances and sings together!

Mrs. Skay's Class         

Mrs. Schneider's Class

Mr. Hammerschimdt's Class 

***A Special "Thank You" to Mr. Hammerschmidt for sharing his musical talent with us! We loved having you help us make music! :)

I hope that you and your student have enjoyed each musical discovery this year! I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to be closing my 2nd year of teaching with such incredible, hard working students! I cannot wait for next year!

Exciting side note: All of you 2nd grade parents, My schedule has changed for next year and I will be teaching 3rd grade music again! I AM THRILLED!

Enjoy your summer and stay "Tuned" to my blog as I fill you in on my Summer Music Education courses, changes in the music room, and sneak peaks at lessons for next year!

Stay cool, stay safe, stay musical!

Mrs. Abby Hoselton!