CRAZY YEAR!!!

Wow! What a crazy year it's been already!

In February we had some snow days so I didn't get to see my APS students as much as I'd planned on, but we've still had a blast in music. In February at APS, we mainly worked on our music for Fine Arts Night. We have now learned all 5 songs for Fine Arts Night. We are now continuously singing through those songs and refining them to help make our program sound the best it can. We have also sang "Old MacDonald Had a Band." In this song, our students learn how instruments can sound like different animals. For example: castanets sound like horses clip clopping, bells sound like cows wearing bells, guiros sound like cats scratching, and egg shakers sound like rattle snakes ready to strike. Each child would receive a card with a different animal on it, then they would go get the instrument that sounds like their animal. We would then sing the song "Old MacDonald Had a Band" and the students would stand up and play their instrument when their animal was called. The students loved this. This was also a great lesson for listening skills.

At BSLK in February, we also played the "Old MacDonald Had a Band" song and played the instruments. We also learned about the Music Staff: 5 lines & 4 spaces Quarter Note: 1 beat. We have worked on clapping rhythms using just the Quarter Note. The students have done a great job with this. We also learned Kodaly hand sign "fa" and met Largo, the snail. The students also sang at Sweets & Songs at the end of January and did a fantastic job. Some classes performed in the February PTO meeting and did a fabulous job then as well.