Sweets & Songs Info

Parents,

I am sending home this letter with your child this week. Please make sure you check your child's folder on Tuesday. I will also be sending home a ticket order form. I will post the order form in a separate post.

Sweets and Songs: January 25 and 26, 2014

Albertville Fine Arts Center

Dear Parents,

Your child will be participating in our annual “Sweets and Songs” program.

This event features musical performances by students from BSLK School, AES, EES, AMS and AHS. 

AES will be performing Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 2:00 pm. Students need to be at the Albertville Fine Arts Center 30 minutes before the performance.  Students will be wearing their school t-shirt. Students may wear a long sleeve shirt under their school t-shirt if weather conditions permit. Please do NOT send coats or jackets with your child. If your child leaves anything backstage, AES will not be responsible for the items.

Two types of tickets will be available:

·      General Admission $10 (all three performances)

·      Reserved Admission $20-Saturday evening (includes 5:30pm Spaghetti dinner and reserved seating section) and Sunday matinee (includes 12:30pm Spaghetti luncheon and reserved seating section)

If you would like to purchase tickets, please send money and ticket order form in a sealed envelope with your child to school for them to give to Ms. Rogers.

If you would be willing to help monitor students, please contact Ms. Rogers through a note, email or call to the school.

A DVD of the performances will be available for purchase in the lobby of the AFAC.  Please be prepared to complete the order form with necessary funds and leave in the drop box.

Thank you for your support of this event.  We look forward to an amazing experience for our students.

Sincerely,

Tracy Rogers

AES Music Teacher

tracyrogers@albertk12.org

256-878-6611

Goodbye 2013! Hello 2014!

Music class in December has been a fun month of learning and excitement.

3rd Grade: The third graders have been working extremely hard on learning the songs for their "Sweets and Songs" Performance. They have also been learning about Peter Tchaikovsky, listening to his music, and watching some of "The Nutcracker" ballet. The students have been using their listening maps to "Trepak" from "The Nutcracker" and having a blast while listening and following along. This week the students are playing a "Tchaikovsky vs. Beethoven" game. The game is boys against girls. I will ask questions, if the girls miss, then the boys have a chance to steal and vice versa. There are tie breaker questions as well.

4th Grade: The fourth graders have also been working on their music for "Sweets and Songs." They have worked really hard on words, so now it's time to add some motions in there. We'll see how it goes. They have also been learning about Peter Tchaikovsky, listening to his music, and watching some of "The Nutcracker" ballet. They also have used the listening maps to "Trepak" from the Nutcracker and have done really well following along.

I also would like to announce the winners of the "Good Behavior Contest!" These classes have shown respect and great character to me, others, and themselves every time they came to music this first semester. You should all be very proud of your children. It shows what great examples you are being in their lives.

GOOD BEHAVIOR CONTEST WINNERS:

3rd grade: Mrs. Shankles and Mrs. K. Harris

4th grade: Mrs. Burns, Mr. Young, and Mrs. Stewart

December Composer of the Month

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I had my gallbladder removed on the Monday before the break and I'm just now getting back in the swing of things. I can't believe that December is here and we're already talking about Christmas and our Sweets & Songs performance that will take place in January.

The 3rd and 4th graders are working on their music for Sweets & Songs. I'm am still waiting on conformation of the time of Sweets & Songs, but I believe the date is January 25th. I will be sending home letters with all of the information about Sweets & Songs as soon as I hear from the high school. I am ecstatic about the childrens' performance and I am confident you will enjoy it if you come and join us. Tickets are $10 a piece and half of the ticket sales come right back to your students for their music classes. I am really hoping we can earn enough money to buy 2 more iPads for our stations. So please come support us in January.

Since it's getting close to Christmas, I thought it would be a great time to have Peter Tchaikovsky as our "Composer of the Month." The kids have learned a lot about him this week. Each child has a music journal and they write the facts about the composers in them as I teach. We will continue this composer through the month of December. These are the facts that your child should know as of this week.

Peter Tchaikovsky:
*born and lived in Russia
*started piano lessons at around 5 years old
*parents did not want him to choose a career in music
*when he became an adult he decided to start a career in music anyway
*most famous for his music in "The Nutcracker" ballet

We have listened to "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and the children seem to recognize this piece of music from the movie, "Home Alone" as well as commercials, "Tom & Jerry" and much more.

At the end of the class, if time has permitted, we have read and sang along to "Pete the Cat Saves Christmas."

Time to relax...NOT!

As much as I'd love to say things are slowing down after our Veteran's Day program, I can't because it's just as crazy as ever. The students have started preparing their music for Sweets & Songs which takes place in January at the Fine Arts Center. I will post more information with dates a little later.

3rd Grade: This week 3rd grade is working on songs for Sweets & Songs, singing to Forte the lion, learning new vocal warm-ups and exercises, playing rhythms on the instruments, and singing a few Christmas songs for fun. This time of the year the students always beg to sing Christmas songs even though we don't really have time to learn them, but we still sing them anyway. How can you say no to kids when it's the most wonderful time of the year?

4th Grade: This week 4th grade is working on songs for Sweets & Songs, singing to Piano the mouse, learning new music notes, playing rhythms on the instruments, and singing a few Christmas songs as well. These students have done so awesome with learning the quarter notes, quarter rests, eighth notes and half notes. They can now play rhythms containing those notes on the instruments.

I absolutely love books. So I always try and incorporate books in music. Since it's Christmas time I will be sharing these books with the students while they listen to the songs. I have went to iTunes and downloaded the versions that match my books. The kids LOVE this.

Here Comes Santa Claus

The 12 Days of Christmas

Frosty the Snowman

The Night Before Christmas

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas

Thank You, Veterans

Our Veteran's Day program and parade ended just a few hours ago and I just had to get on and blog about what a great job the AES 3rd grade students did. They worked so hard and I hope those of you who came enjoyed it. I hope it touched your hearts in a special way because we all know what the Veteran's sacrificed so that we can have so many of the freedoms and liberties that we take for granted each day.

I know I say it often, but thank you so much for sharing your children with me. It is an absolute honor to get to teach each and everyone of them about music, which is something I love so much and am so passionate about. I want them to love and appreciate music as much as I do.

Next Tuesday, November 12, I am sending home Horizon Communication order forms with your child in case you would like to purchase a DVD or VHS of today's performance. If you did not get to see the performance, I would love for you to order one where you can see how hard your child has worked on this program. The order forms will need to be turned back in by Monday, November 18.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Veteran's Day. Let us not forget the true meaning of Veteran's Day. Thank you, Veterans! God Bless America!

REMINDER

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! Just a reminder that our Veteran's Day Program is coming up next week. If you have a student in the 3rd grade we would love for you to come see how hard we have worked on the Patriotic songs. Please feel free to invite a Veteran. Hope to see everyone there.

Veteran's Day Program

Friday, November 8, 2013

at 9:00 am

in the Cafetorium

Parade will follow the program!

October

This month has flown by! So much has happened this month. We were out of school the 14th and 15th of this month for our fall break, 3rd grade classes have gone on field trips, we've had a recycle bowl kickoff, and went to the Fine Arts Center to see a food play. So I've missed quite a few classes this month because of all the scheduling conflicts. 

3rd grade: This month has been entirely dedicated to our Veteran's Day program which comes up in 2 weeks! I can't believe it's so close. Some of my classes have learned all of the songs for the performance which is great because we can just refine those songs and make them sound great; however I have about 10 classes that have not learned one of the songs and 6 of those classes have not learned two of the songs. So, of course, I'm in a panic. Maybe we can learn them in time. If you would like to review some of the songs with your child or let them listen to them, here is a list we are singing: God Bless America, The Star Spangled Banner, You're a Hero, Thank You Military, Military Medley.

4th grade: This month we finished up our music stations, worked on playing rhythms with our rhythm sticks and egg shakers, learned about how music is just sound waves, and so much more. We also started learning a song by Louis Armstrong called "What a Wonderful World." The students love this song. It has such a wonderful meaning. The students will probably sing this song at a performance we have in January called "Sweets and Songs."More information about that later.

Hope everyone has a spooky rest of the month! Happy Halloween!

And don't forget......

Veteran's Day Program

Friday, November 8, 2013

at 9:00 am

in the Cafetorium

Parade will follow the program