Time for a Break

Dear Stevenson Family,

I imagine if you are anything like me, you are exhausted.  It's been a trying few weeks and spring break is now here.  I hope to take a break from school work and I hope you take this time to connect with your families.  Make memories and love well.  Sing, dance, play.  Above all, love and take care of yourself!

More to come after the break but until then, I'm signing out.

💗 Ms. Rempel

Here's a little song to dance your way into the break!

Kinder Dance

The Kindergartens are working on a new dance for our upcoming Music Monday performance.  This is a folk dance from the country of Denmark.  Here is the Danish Dance of Greeting.

Celebration of the Arts

Music Monday 2018

Come and join us at Stevenson as we celebrate Music Monday 2018.  Most students are performing a song or two and we have a variety of songs lined up.  Hope to see you there!

Around the World

Congratulations to all the Grade K-2 classes for a job well done at our 2017 Winter Concert on Tuesday, December 12.  We had a wonderful turn out and we hope you enjoyed the show!

Opening by 2 of our Grade 2 students

December 'Round the World in 4 languages (German, Spanish, Swahili, and Japanese)

Room 7 (white), Room 16 (yellow), Room 9 (red)

Room 12 (orange), Room 14 (green), Room 8 (blue)

Room 7 singing Mele Kalikimaka

Room 8 singing Jump in the Sun (Kwanzaa song)

Room 16 singing the Huron Carol (Canada's oldest Christmas carol)

Room 14 singing Pinata

Room 9 singing in Tagolog (Filipino language).  Thank You Ang Babait Ninyo

Happy Hanukkah from Room 12

Finished our show off with the Santa medley. You'd better watch out!

Show Time!

Congratulations to Stevenson for putting on a fantastic Circus Show and Celebration of the Arts 2017.

Circus Coming SOON!

The circus is coming to town!  Stevenson students are busy getting ready for a fun evening of sharing and the celebration of the arts, mainly circus arts, dance, and visual art.  All students will be performing our "Stand in the Light" song and dance.  Come out and visit our art displays and various buskers around the main level prior to the show.  Doors open at 5:00 p.m.  Show starts at 5:45 p.m.

Examples of Hand-to-Hand / Pyramid Poises

 

Thousands of students, musicians, parents, and community members from Charlottetown to Vancouver will come together tomorrow to celebrate the 13th annual Music Monday to raise awareness for music education. Created by the Coalition for Music Education, Music Monday will bring the nation together for the simultaneous singing of the Music Monday anthem, Sing It Together, on Monday, May 1, 2017.

Honouring Canada 150, this year’s National Showcase Concert will take place in Ottawa with a free concert at the National Arts Centre hosted by MP Seamus O’Regan and opera singer Measha Brueggergosman. The event will be live-streamed at MusicMonday.ca from 12-1 pm EST (11-12 pm Winnipeg time).

Showcase Concert performances include a mass children’s choir, the Métis Fiddle Quartet, singer-songwriter Mimi O’Bonsawin, a harp and soprano duo, youth jazz and strings ensembles, and the Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra. Songwriter Marc Jordan, musicians from the official Music Monday video, and the children’s choir will also lead the nationwide sing-along of Sing It Together.

Sing It Together was commissioned by the Coalition for Music Education and features Inuit throat singing, Métis fiddling, Indigenous drumming, and children’s choirs in celebration of Canadian diverse and vibrant musical heritage.

Events are scheduled in communities across Canada, and participants are encouraged to join the conversation using the hashtag #MMC2C2C.

ARTICLE REFERENCE: musiccanada.com

@StevensonElem

All are welcome!  Come check it out :)

Performances by Room 9, Kindergartens, and whole school singing!

Work in Progress

We are now preparing for our Music Monday concert on Monday, May 1st at 8:50 a.m. on the back playground pad.  Here's a little sneak peak of what we have been working on...

Stand in the Light

Our students have started listening today to our upcoming Music Monday 2017 song.  We will be performing it as a school on Monday, May 1st at our Music Monday assembly and our Celebration of the Arts evening on Wednesday, May 17.

This powerful song has a very important message to us.  Take a listen.  Grade 4/5 students are invited to come audition for the open verse 1, verse 2, and bridge solos on Monday, April 3 at lunch.

Stand in the Light background track

Stand in the Light by Jordan Smith

Global Play Day 2017

Official Global Play Day Song

Global School Play Day is an event promoting the importance of unstructured play in schools. Unstructured play helps children develop 21st century skills. Since our music classes are only 30 minutes, there are some very expensive things in our room and we have a smaller space to play in, the loudness can be overwhelming when trying out instruments, but we still managed to play and explore lots of things. Here are some of the things the kids loved to do.

Dancing with ribbons

Handbells

Exploring the piano - always a hit!

How many sounds can a triangle make?

Everyone's always drawn to the percussion!

Music art

Contra-bass bars and finding the beat.

We love music!

Musical Magic

Congratulations to all the St. James Music Theatre kids, staff, volunteers, and of course the amazing Mrs. Paula Olko (director) for your amazing work on James and the Giant Peach Jr.  The Grade 4/5 classes were able to go on Monday, January 30th and it was very well done.  Way to go Jessica and Kiera on this big accomplishment.  Your singing and dancing were superb!

Spreading the Cheer

Our Grade 4/5s went to a local carehome in December to spread some holiday cheer with the residents.  They were excellent ambassadors for our school.

Cultural Dancing

Understanding music in context is very important at Stevenson and a focus of the Manitoba Music Curriculum. Students connect music to contexts of time, place, and community, and develop understanding of how music reflects and influences culture and identity.

In this season, there are many holidays celebrated by the various families in our community. We can seek to understand and appreciate the beautiful gifts that they give through music, song, and dance, by experiencing them and participating in activities in the music room.

One of those traditions celebrated by some of our families at our school is Hanukkah (the Jewish word for 'dedication'). It is called the Jewish Festival of Lights and it remembers the rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This happened in the 160s BC (before Jesus was born).

As the Grade 1s are learning about this festival and Jewish culture, they were learning a modified dance from this community.  We discovered that the song had a pattern.  Can you guess it?

Folk Dance - Niguno Shel Yossi

Colored Days

On Thursday, the kindergartens were identifying their emotions.  They came up with a great list of feelings we have.  We talked about what color they are sometimes attached to.  We read this fun story "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss and then we listened to music with it and each student got to act out the part of their animal character according to what the music sounded like.  

Puppets we used to express the feelings in the music

Sometimes the music is fast and sometimes slow.  Sometimes its loud and sometimes it quiet. Sometimes its high and sometimes it low.  Depending on what we hear, it can change the way we feel.   Sometimes music can help us relax and be calm.  Other music can make us feel happy or excited.  When we watch a scary movie, the music we hear can make us feel frightened.  

Listen to the pieces of music below.  As you listen, think about how the music makes you feel

 Choose a face that matches the feeling of the music.

Walking Wolf Performance

Last week we had an amazing performance by Ray Stevenson, known as Walking Wolf.  He shared with us stories and taught us about aboriginal drumming, singing and hoop dancing.

Carehome Concert Coming Soon

As we finish up the year, we are celebrating with some very special people in our community.  Calvary Place Carehome is coming to Stevenson on Monday, June 22 and we are going to sing songs, play our instruments and perform dances for them.  Families are welcome to join us.  10:30-11:30.

Music is powerful.  It speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest.  It heals the heart and makes it whole.

Movin' and Groovin'

The music room has been a hopping place these past two weeks as we've been exploring the Drums Alive program.  Here are 2 new dances that Ms. Rempel created.  Enjoy!

La Bamba Remix 2008 - Safri Duo

Moves Like Jagger - Kidz Bop version

Starships - Kidz Bop version

The Gummy Bear Song

I'm a Gummy Bear?!

Learning patterns to the Gummy Bear song

Today the Grade 1 classes were introduced to the Drums Alive program.

Our 3 rules are:

1. safety

2. respect

3. participate (who doesn't?!)

Our first song is learning patterns.  We realize that we have to know our RIGHT and LEFT or we can easily get mixed up and bump into someone.  We also have to be able to count to 8, feel the beat, follow the pattern (teacher) and listen to the music all at the same time.  It's hard at first but fun when we all get it!  Once we know it, we can start singing along!

The form of the song is ABCADBCAEAF.  Wow!  That's alot to remember!

Drums Alive!

For the next few weeks we are testing out our rhythm skills in music as we learn some aerobic routines / music patterns using drum sticks and exercise balls.  Here are a few videos we've tried so far:

Party Rock!

Wipeout!