We act out the song and then stand and bow to appreciative applause by our Kindergarten audience who is sitting politely with their (fake) popcorn and beverage. Of course, we continue to get our brains working and our selves ready for learning by starting each class with a Brain Dance, always accompanied by the most calming music of various genres.
Grade 1 & 2s have been practicing their sixteenth note rhythms in games and practice claps. Our most difficult game involves ear training: we listen to the spoken/clapped rhythm and try to recreate it using popsicle sticks!
Grade 1&2s also work on critical listening, analyzing the tempo and dynamics of a mystery piece, then illustrating what scene they imagine when they listen to the music.
Most young ears are highly intuitive when it comes to guessing what the scene should be!
Grade 3 & 4 are not only practicing a performance piece for the Remembrance Day Assembly coming up in November, but they are also perfecting ukulele mastery and reading tab diagrams. We have already swept through four different chords and incorporated them into various songs! We also have learnt a fun and spooky song about Trolls. It's full of staccato (separated, bouncy) and sforzando (marked, strong) notes, and it's also full of delicious vocabulary!
Grade 5 & 6s have continued their ukulele journey this year on harder strumming pieces. Each class we try to play a different, slightly harder song, and of course we continue to work on our island strum in order to play the first half of "Lava" from the Pixar short film. We also are singing a spooky song called "The Ghost Ship", and we're starting a Liberian piece on the xylophones, drums, maracas, and agogo bell. Hopefully we can synchronize our beats to play a lovely piece together!
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