Rockin' October!!

We are closing out our first 9-weeks of school at the end of next week!  Can you believe it!!  October is half gone, and at school we are in full "Autumn-Halloween-Veterans Day-" mode.  Here's a quick glimpse of October in the music and technology classrooms at MGS.
Musically speaking, October is a fun fun time! 
Native American Day provided us with the opportunity to hear the Legend of the Flute as well as listen to some traditional flute music and discuss and watch some pow wow dancing.  Many students have been very active in pow wow dancing, and we enjoyed them sharing their talents with the class as they danced for us.  We all learned some basic pow wow dance steps too!
Students are experimenting with spooky movements and sounds, environmental noises, and, as always, practicing keeping the steady beat!  One of the all-time favorites of students is a simple song called "Pass The Pumpkin"  We sing and pass the pumpkin around a circle to the steady beat of the song.  If the pumpkin lands on YOU at the end of the song, you move to the rhythm sticks to play the steady beat!  Another FAVORITE game is "Pass The Witch's Broomstick", especially with the older grades.  This video will give you an idea of the song/game.

Literature comes to life this month as well as we read/sing/act out a variety of stories including, 
"There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly"
"The Monster Mash"
"Pete The Cat: 5 Little Pumpkins"
"Shake Dem Halloween Bones"
"Pumpkin Soup"
"The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything"
"There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat"
"There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves"
"There Was an Old Lady.........." etc. etc.

Jerald holding the Old Lady while classmates
stuffed her with a fly, spider, bird, cat, dog,
sheep, cow and HORSE (She's dead of course!)

As many 3rd grade parents have probably heard,  we have begun to learn how to play recorders!  So far, we have learned B-A-and G!  The students are quick learners and finding out what it means to be a part of an ensemble.  They have found that there is as much listening is involved as there is playing!  Hopefully they will be performing with the 4th graders at the Winter Program in December!

Veterans Day is fast approaching, and the students are looking forward to performing for our Veterans.  Our celebration will be held on Friday, Nov. 11 at 10:00 am at the MGS Activity Center.  Families and friends are invited to attend!

Before this month ends, students WILL be rehearsing selections for their Winter Program, to be held on December 13 for Preschool through 4th graders and on December 5 for grades 5-12.  Both performances will be held at the Activity Center at 7:00 PM.

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Students in Technology Classes are immersed in learning new skills and technological terms as well as how to apply them to real life!  Kindergarteners have become proficient in navigation on the computer.  Activities are helping them locate keys on the keyboard as well as perfect their mouse skills.  They have made some scaaaaaary looking pumpkins this month!

Students in grades 1-2 have explored many ways of improving upon their keyboarding skills, and will soon be creating some of their own products with word processing.

Grades 3-4 have been discussing topics such as Internet Privacy, Cyberbullying, and how to safely and effectively do an Internet Search. A favorite way for them to review technology vocab is through the game Kahoot! The game is energizing, fun, and very competitive!

If you have a 5th of 6th grader, as them what a Boolean Operator is! 

 Do you know what it is??

Copyright, plagiarism, fair use, and royalty free music are timely topics we've been exploring.  The history behind these laws and how they impact both industry and personal creativity has been surprising to many students.

Stay Tuned for more next month!

There's a Spider on the Floor!

Today it was all about spiders in Kindergarten and First Grade!  The traditional song, "There's a Spider on the Floor" gave us an opportunity to not only sing the song, but also act it out!  That spider was EVERYWHERE!  On the floor, on our toes, on our backs....and with each verse, the students quickly recognized that we were rhyming too!  We had fun creating NEW places for that spider to land, and completed those new verses with more rhyming words to match!  Students took home their little spiders, with excitement brewing to teach their family at home this fun song and activity.  Perhaps we will hear about some new verses that they create at home in our next music class!

There's a spider on my toe!.....and he's wiggling his nose!

a spider on my knee!

on my belly...eating peanut butter and jelly!!!

...on my neck!  

...on my hair...I think he's dancing way up there!

There's even a spider on my BACK!

Pumpkin Time!

October is a fun month in music class!  We get to sing lots of pumpkin songs!  One of our all-time favorites is Pass The Pumpkin.  Through the years, we've added various instrumentation to the song, played the passing game, and generally had great fun with it! 

The student pointer

Kindergarten and First Graders are using the song this year to reinforce quarter and eight note patterns.  Students take turns using the display on the SmartBoard as a pointing page while we sing.  This is a quick way for me to assess each student in their tracking skills.  They are also trying their hand at a simple bourdon on the xylophone to accompany the singing game.  Again, a quick assessment of steady beat and mallet proficiency.
While we sing the song, we play the passing game and rotate around to each of the instruments as well as a chance to be the "pointing person."
This week, we've added xylophone, rainstick, and gong to the piece.  Perhaps we will come up with some new instrument choices next week!

We have LOTS of choices for the pumpkin to use in our passing game!

How did Halloween Begin?

Halloween has gotten a bad rap in recent times.  It's been connected to devil worship, Satan, the occult.  In reality, the origins of this holiday are much tamer in nature!  This article by Father Augustine Thompson, O.P., presents a view of the history of what we now celebrate as Halloween that might be different that you expect!  Fr. Thompson is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. 

Read more here!

Blue Moon

There are a lot of Halloween videos to explore...lots of light shows!  I ran across this cute rendition of Blue Moon.  Have you heard any singing pumpkins lately?  If not, here you go!

PUMPKTRIS

Published on Oct 28, 2012 by Nathan Pryor

Pumpktris is a fully playable version of Tetris built into a pumpkin, with 128 LEDs for the display and the stem serving as a game controller. More details on his blog!

Dem Bones!

Here's a bit of music, art, dance science, and Halloween all rolled into one!

Halloween Freaky-nomics

With Halloween Fast Approaching, I thought this was an interesting infographic!  900 MILLION POUNDS of pumpkins!!  9 BILLION kernels of candy corn!  60 MILLION pumpkin pies!   Does YOUR family reflect any of these stats?  Thank you to I Waste So Much Time for publishing!

Pumpkin, Pumpkin

Here's a very cute song for our young children...featuring some of the symbols of Halloween with a slow, easy-to-learn and sing song!  This song was written and performed by A.J. Jenkins. Copyright 2010: All rights reserved.  Enjoy with your little ones!