Thursday 23 April 2015

Melodies on the Move


Thank you to the fantastic SJASD Grade 5 Children's Choir and their director, Mrs. Harochaw and accompanist, Mrs. Hahn-Tomchuk for coming today to sing for us.  It was exciting to see 4 of our Stevenson students singing and hear/see all your hard work.  We really enjoyed it!

Rockin' Robin

One of our student leaders introducing the SJASD Children's choir.






Landfill Orchestra


Did you know that trash can be someone else's treasure?  In some areas of the world, people are creating instruments from trash.  Watch the video above and see how music is transforming a nation and giving hope to wasteful places.

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Black Belt... Hiya!

Our first Grade 5 student chopped it up today with his black belt in Recorder Karate.  A HUGE win for this Room 4 student!  #celebrate  #karatechop #recorderrocks


Reduce / Reuse / Recycle


Today at Stevenson we had Lights Out Canada day.  Here's one of our favorite Earth Day songs: 3Rs by Jack Johnson.


Friday 17 April 2015

Wavin' Warm-Up


The Orff Club has been warming up the drums and instruments as we are getting ready for Music Monday 2015.  This year, we will be filling the skies with music on Friday, May 1 to kick off the month.  Please join us outside on Friday, May 1 at 9:00 a.m. as we share "Wavin' Flag" and video tape from the rooftop.


Learning Notes



Grade 2/3 classrooms are learning to read music this week and we ended off our classes with some music games and center time to practice our skills.


Check out this funky song!

We were also playing the app "Staffwars" on Ms. Rempel's ipad.

Staff Wars is a free game for the computer, but it does need to be downloaded by an adult before you can play it. Click HERE for the link. You can also buy the app for the Ipad for $0.99. There are many other cool games that you can download from this page. Some do cost money, but there are others that are FREE!

Recorder Karate


Grade 4/5 students are well on their way into our recorder karate levels.  We spent a couple of classes talking about what we need to do during recorder practices.  This is important so we can get our work done and advance in our skills.  Please see "Recorder" tab for songs if you want to practice at home.


Tuesday 14 April 2015

Tweeting Rhythms


Today our Grade 1 classes figured out the rhythms to these sentences.  We then practiced them on the instruments and repeated them 4 times each.  We noticed how important it is to stay on the beat or it sounds like a messy noise.  Our instruments need to sound like one.

We chose 3 of these patterns and layered them into a musical piece.  Can you hear which 3 patterns we picked?

Room 16's Birdy Rhythms

Saturday 11 April 2015

Playoff Anthem - Shout it Out!

This just shakin' down, the Winnipeg Jets are in the playoffs and Virgin Radio has released a new playoff anthem.  We'll be moving and celebrating at Stevenson this coming week as we enjoy it during music listening time.

Shout it out True North!

Dansez Avec Moi?

The Grade 1/2/3 classes are learning some French dances.  These take good listening, patience and cooperation.  

Check out Room 12's rehearsal today!

More to come with our progress.  The dance you see in the pictures above is not the original dance to the music.

Here is the real dance:  Bourree des Dindes

Here is a very fast version of Cercle Circassien.  We have adapted ours and our music is a bit different.



Friday 10 April 2015

Sound Story Videos

Finally, all the videos are made and recorded.  Enjoy our performances by our Grade 1-3 classrooms.

Room 17 - One Hundred Hungry Ants

Room 18 - Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock

Room 11 - Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon

Room 12 - Swimmy

We've had a lot of fun for the last month working on creating music, sounds and movements to a variety of stories in our music classes.  We've had to learn to work together as team, patience, playing techniques and proper care of the instruments.  We've had to make decisions about what instruments to chose and the best sounds for parts as well as taking turns letting others get parts.  We had a lot of fun.  Enjoy the shows!

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Musical Audition Time


Each year up to 120 students from across the St. James-Assiniboia School Division are selected to make up two casts for a selected musical production (Grades 4-8).  By teacher invitation, students are chosen to audition for next year's production, 'Disney's Lion King Jr.'.  The show will run Jan. 30 - Feb. 16, 2016.  This year's producer, director and choreographer is Mrs. Paula Olko.

Guidelines consist of the quality of audition (strong singer, dancer, actor, excellent behaviour), the character needs of the musical, and parental commitment to take student to one weekly rehearsal on Mondays or Tuesday (this is VERY important and students must make up missed practices by attending the alternate cast's day).  Rehearsals will start in September.

Audition dates @ Westwood Collegiate in the cafeteria.

Grades 3 & 4 - May 7 or May 8  4:20-7:00 pm
Grades 4 & 5 - May 4 or May 5  4:20-7:00 pm
Grades 6 & 7 - Apr. 30 or May 1 4:20-7:00 pm

* Reminder to parents who children are auditioning that you are responsible to practice the following with them:
- Choose a character / memorize part (see the sheet in package for character suggestion)
- Learn song that matches the character (see song links in letter that went home)
- Practice marching in time and box step
- Fill out the application and bring it to the audition (in package)
- Sign up for an audition time on line (see link in letter that went home)

Congratulations to the students invited from Stevenson to audition.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.  Email Ms. Rempel

Tuesday 7 April 2015

Bird Song


Spring has sprung and with this new awakening is the sound of many birds.  I was in awe over spring break after stepping out in the quiet of an early morning to be ambushed by thousands of song birds happily singing their songs.  This week our Grade 1 classes have been discussing the bird/creature sounds we've been hearing around us.  We hope to take these to create a song over the next few week.

Our homework assignment is to stop and listen to the various sounds of birds and try and recreate them.  What birds do you know and what sounds do they make?


Check out this fun Walt Disney movie called Birds in the Spring from 1933.