Robert Munsch

The Grade 1s have been working really hard to learn instrument parts for the song "Clang Clang" from the famous Robert Munsch story, Mortimer.

Check out Robert Munsch telling the story!

Celebrations

For term 2, our classes did a variety of music activities and practiced many instrument and team building skills.  One of our highlights was playing together on the barred instruments and creating songs and stories.

Grade 1 Abiyoyo by Peter Seeger

Grade 2/3 playing Old Mother Hubbard

Old Mother Hubbard Songs

The Grade 2/3 classes have been making couplet poems that we are turning into songs.  Wow!  I am amazed at how well they are turning out and we're excited to sing you some.  Right now we're in the process of writing lyric drafts.

PART A

 PART B (students wrote these)

Global School Play Day

Today was http://www.globalschoolplayday.com/ and we got to have 'play time' in the music room.  We explored the arts - music, visual art, drama and dance.  Lots of great ideas and time to express ourselves.  One of my favorite quotes from musician and supporter of music play is from  Carl Orff -"Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study.  They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play; they will find that what they have mastered is child's play."

The animals like to talk to each other - Questions and Answers!

Writing songs and playing them.  This is Twinkle Twinkle :)

Working as a team, making up a drum song.

He even came and sang it for me!  Nice job!

SJCI Sr. Jazz Band came and jazzed us up today.  Awesome talent!

What is Orff?

The Orff approach to music education for young children was founded by the well-known German composer and music educator Carl Orff (1895-1982), and developed by Gunild Keetman (1904-1990). The Orff approach to music education was introduced to Canada in 1974 and advocates that music teaching be experimental and elemental.

The basic elements of music (rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, form, and expression) are experienced through a pedagogy of imitation, exploration, literacy, improvisation, and composition.

The Orff teaching process involves speech, song, movement, recorder playing, playing of pitched and unpitched percussion instruments, and listening. The pitched instruments used are primarily barred instruments, or Orff instruments as they are also called, as Carl Orff designed them to be used by young children for making music.

You can read more about the Orff approach by checking out the Manitoba Orff Chapter website: http://www.manitobaorff.org

The Manitoba Orff Chapter provides workshops and resources to elementary music teachers throughout the province.

Orff Club

There is an Orff club that will begin in the second half of the year for any interested grade 4 and 5 students and grade 2 and 3 students. This once-a-week lunch time club will explore playing more challenging instrumental pieces with the Orff instruments, with the addition of song, speech, movement and recorder.

Don't Say Goodbye

Recording for a song contest

Today I am saying good-bye to a really amazing person, collegue and friend.  I have had the honour and privilege of working with this talented man for the last 4 years and I'm very sad to see him leave our school.  Yet, I am excited that he's moving into his next career opportunity in which I'm hoping will still see us collaborating.  We've written and recorded many projects over these years and I'm really going to miss his 'popping' in to check out the sounds we're making, his creative ideas, his helpfulness in coordinate events, being a sound board for my ideas and cheerleading the kids and myself into whatever projects we find ourselves in.  Thank-you Mr. Miller for all you are and all you've done for us at Stevenson.  We will miss you!

Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy anthem recording

Year End Reflections: Celebrate and Create!

Every year I like to go back and look through the blog postings.  This year was full and rich of musical moments at Stevenson that were hardly captured in photo and video.  A student first discovers their singing voice.  A group of students feel the power of teamwork in playing music in unity.  Students creating their own songs for the first time and celebrating this with their peers.  Responding with spontaneous movement to the sway of the beat.  Hearing a mastered production for the first time.  Getting chosen to play or sing a solo.  Using many parts of the brain and body to make music.  Hearing a kid say they hate music and then turn around and do something brilliant.  Surprise! Finding hidden talents.  Rediscovering an instrument.

Music is powerful and it moves us.  What moves me is watching my students and collegues make it and experience it.  We've found joy and the moving beyond initial fears and challenges, to find freedom, voice and expression.

Thank-you students and staff for making my job fun and oh so rewarding!  Have a great summer.  Until we meet again...

Here's a short little video of Stevenson music highlights 2014-2015.

Tapping Our Potential

It's hard to believe that Mrs. Kaczmarz's class just learned to tap dance this year.  Here is their amazing video produced by Mr. Miller and Mr. McKiel of their culmination piece.  Thank you for sharing your talents Mrs. Kaczmarz.  You are an inspiration.  Room 5 - hats off to you for your dedication and determination to learn something new.  Your dancing has been such a treat to see and your hard work has payed off.

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!

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.

Springing into Break!

What a week of fun.  We drummed, we laughed, we sang, we danced, we cried, we read, we played.  So many exciting things coming to you from the music room after spring break so I hope everyone gets some good rest and relaxation.

Ending off the week with a video brought to you by Room 4.

Incredibox

Today some of our music classes had a few minutes of fun time and we learned about the website called "INCREDIBOX."    Here is a link to the website:  www.incredibox.com

You need a desktop computer to create free songs with a mix of fun rhythms, beatboxers and sound effects.  You can also record your mix and share it.

Art is Music - Music is Art

Listening to the following musical selection.  Imagine this song is a picture.  What do you think this song is about?  How would you draw this music using lines, shapes and colours?  How does this song show contrasts?

The following are some initial markings of Grade 4/5 students as they listened to this piece.  Where do you see the music in these pictures?  How do they show contrasts, interest, energy and excitement of this musical piece?

Art-astic!

 The Grade 4/5 classes have started their exploration of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) songs they will be hearing on the music field trip to the Concert Hall on Tuesday, March 10.  We've been exploring the 'mystery art contest song' and how musical elements can be translated into feeling and messages through art.  We look forward to sharing our art pieces and interpretations of the song in the near future.

Group discussions on how this art piece shows contrast through lines, shapes and colours.

When these students were asked to think of words that would describe this work of art, these were the words that came to mind: wacky, math, school stuff, geometric, outrageous, volume, surreal (Picasso), colourful buildings, war, nighttime

The Dream Game

The Grade 1's played our first 'dream' game today.  We listened to a piece of music and imagined what the song was about.  As you listen to it, what pictures or story comes to mind?  We talked about the feeling of the music.  Most felt it was kind of scary sounding.  We heard short, detached sounds and learned the word for this is 'staccato.'   We talked about the instrument that makes the loud crashing sounds (cymbals) and practiced moving our bodies to it.  We all agreed that the music got louder and faster at the end.  It was like something crazy was happening.

Composing on the Instruments

Grade 3 students were hard at work creating melody patterns for their poems on the barred instruments.  We set up our instruments by taking off F and C.  The melody was only on B-A-G notes.  We got to share some of our patterns with the rest of the class and then we sang them.  Will blog about them another day.

How would you sing this?