Kindergarten Christmas Program

Over Thanksgiving Break, I will be sending home a lyrics sheet with all of the Kindergarten students so that they may practice all of the songs they've learned and can practice singing in front of people! If they lose the lyrics sheets, the words are all under the "Program" tab on here. Parents, if you could go over the words with your children or allow them to sing and dance for you, this would be a fantastic opportunity for your children to share with you what they are learning in music class each day! It would also help get them ready to sing and dance in front of an audience and not just me! I hope you have a fantastic break, and your little ones put on awesome shows for you this week.

Studying Dvorak!

In first and second grade we have begun our study of our Composer of the Month for November, Antonin Dvorak. For their first introduction to the composer, students learned a little bit about him, and had an activity afterward to do!

First grade listened to the second movement of the symphony he wrote while visiting America called "The New World Symphony," and colored a cartoonized picture of Dvorak.
Second grade is working on a word search that includes words from the provided biography of Dvorak, while also listening to the second movement!

We are all having so much fun learning about our new composer and listening to the music he wrote while visiting our country!!

Any images used are used solely to show the activities done within the classroom, with parental permission from signed audio/videography/photography release forms distributed at the beginning of the year. If your child is posted without your permission by mistake, please email me and I will be more than happy to fix my error. Thank you for such wonderful kids!

Composer of the Month: Antonin Dvorak

For the month of November, our first and second graders will be taking a look at the composer Antonin Dvorak. Dvorak was born in the Czech Republic in 1841 and died in 1904. During his life, he was able to make the trip across the Atlantic and visit The United States of America during it's early years as a country! While in America, he discovered African-American and Native American music. This became mixed with his longing for his home country. Together, these sounds meshed into a fresh, inviting sound that has lasted through the ages. The piece he wrote based off of these sounds was called a symphony, or a large musical composition made up of four parts or movements, and was nicknamed "The New World Symphony," after the country he wrote it in. While in class, the students this month will listen to each movement of the piece and do a small activity based on each movement.

Piano Lessons!

I am offering Piano Lessons to any students interested! These will be after school, Tuesday-Friday for 30 minute time slots, offered to any grade level. Students will learn the basics of piano, including music notation reading. This will enhance what they are already learning in music class, as it will improve on their rhythm reading and their sense of steady beat, or the pulse of the music. Depending on the amount that sign up and the parent's own schedules, lessons will either be every week or every other week. Please email me at: mary.bryan@banks.k12.ga.us    if you and your child are interested in having piano lessons at BCPS!

Ms. Bryan

Important Information!

Kindergarten Parents: Take a look under the "Programs" tab. It has the date of the Kindergarten program, and I will be adding song lyrics as we learn new songs so that your children can practice at home if you would be so kind as to help them!

Second Grade Parents: Take a look under the "Community" tab. There is an opportunity for any second grader who wants to try and any parent willing to drive to Athens for your children to participate in Georgia Children's Chorus. Your children would participate in the Prelude chorus, which is made of 2nd-4th graders. Students have to audition, so if you would like me to help them prepare, I would be more than happy to!

All Parents: Take a look under the "Community" tab. On October 22, the University of Georgia Wind Symphony is participating in the Arts' "Saturday Morning Club." They are performing a children's concert where they will teach the children about each instrument in a wind ensemble, and then they will perform a concert. This year's concert is Star Wars! After the concert, children will have an opportunity to try out playing the different instruments, make their own, and many more fun activities! Please consider this opportunity!

Aiken Drum

Our Kindergarteners have sung a song about a man who lives in the moon, and his name is Aiken Drum! But he's no ordinary man, he's made of food! Below are the Aiken Drums created by our Kindergarten classes, made of all their favorite foods!! (Excuse my drawing abilities, it's hard to draw with an expo marker)

Composer of the Month: Danny Elfman!

This month, first and second graders are learning all about the composer Danny Elfman! Danny Elfman is a very famous American composer, most known for his movie and television scores. Elfman is best known for movie soundtracks that he has written, most notable among them being: Spiderman 1, 2, and 3, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ('05), Alice in Wonderland ('10), Alice Through the Looking Glass ('16), Men in Black 1 and 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, and Frankenweenie. His most notable television score is for the long running TV series The Simpsons. Elfman has written the film score for every sing Tim Burton movie excluding 3; Ed Wood, Sweeny Todd, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, due to scheduling issues or personal conflicts. I chose this composer as our COTM for October because of his love of the weird, scary, and mysterious, which fits the mood of Halloween perfectly! We began our study of Elfman with excerpts from his film scores for The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. We will not be watching any of these films, simply listening to the musical excerpts chosen to compare his musical stylings to those of our first COTM, John Williams.

Long Legged Sailor is Done!

We finished our Long Legged Sailor activity today, and these kids worked really hard to get down all the motions and the song to line up! It turned out fantastically!

Any images used are used solely to show the activities done within the classroom, with parental permission from signed audio/videography/photography release forms distributed at the beginning of the year. If your child is posted without your permission by mistake, please email me and I will be more than happy to fix my error. Thank you for such wonderful kids!

Long Legged Sailor

In second grade, we have begun working on a hand game called "Long Legged Sailor." It is a silly song about a long legged sailor and his long legged wife. The point of the game is to be able to sing and do motions at the same time to a steady beat, created by your own hand motions! These two girls are the first to get the entire thing down! I'm sorry it starts after they've already started, my camera wouldn't record for some reason. Look how awesomely they go! They decided to change sailor to soldier, and I decided since Veteran's Day is coming up soon, that's an okay change by me!

Any images used are used solely to show the activities done within the classroom, with parental permission from signed audio/videography/photography release forms distributed at the beginning of the year. If your child is posted without your permission by mistake, please email me and I will be more than happy to fix my error. Thank you for such wonderful kids!

Kindergarten Cars!

In this activity, we are again exploring locomotor travel to a steady beat around the room, this time as cars! Everyone got to be a steering wheel or a driver! The steering wheel was the person holding the paper plate, and the driver was the person holding the shoulders of the steering wheel. The driver had to steer the steering wheel around the room to the beat of the music without bumping into any other cars and having a wreck! Students had to figure out how to steer their cars, especially if the driver was shorter than the steering wheel. The students who "drove" to the steady beat of the music the best won stickers! What's better than a sticker?! I don't know! We had a whole lot of fun in this activity.

Any images used are used solely to show the activities done within the classroom, with parental permission from signed audio/videography/photography release forms distributed at the beginning of the year. If your child is posted without your permission by mistake, please email me and I will be more than happy to fix my error. Thank you for such wonderful kids!

Composer of the Month: John Williams!

This month, first and second graders are learning all about the composer John Williams! John Williams is a very famous composer, most known for his movie music. Now just what is a composer? A composer is a person that writes music. Williams is best known for movie soundtracks that he has written, most notable among them being: Jaws, all seven Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potters, all 4 Indiana Jones movies, '93's Jurassic Park, and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. We began our study of him this week, learning about the compositions he created for the Olympics in '84, '88, '96, and '02. We listened to his piece, Summoning the Heroes, and discussed how it sounded like it was written to call the heroes (the Olympians) to the Olympics!

What are we doing in first grade?

 This week we are playing a freeze dance stick man game. As the music plays, students dance! When the music pauses, they had to quickly look at the board to see what flash card popped up and try their hardest to match the position showing on the board. These two lovely children are demonstrating one of the most difficult positions to quickly get into, because it was a partner position! We were practicing locomotor movement, and learning about spatial awareness with this activity. Why don't you practice some statue positions at home? It would be fun for the whole family!

Any images used are used solely to show the activities done within the classroom, with parental permission from signed audio/videography/photography release forms distributed at the beginning of the year. If your child is posted without your permission by mistake, please email me and I will be more than happy to fix my error. Thank you for such wonderful kids!

Second Grade: Felicity the Fish and Mr. Crabs!

Our second grade kiddos are learning about improvisation, or singing without given words or melody. They just make it up! We usually work on this with our friend Copy Cat, but this week we decided to let our creativity shine through with our friends Felicity the Fish and Mr. Crabs. On the neutral syllable "Lu," students used their imaginations to have a conversation between these two characters. And what colorful conversations they were! Hopefully Felicity and Mr. Crabs will come join us again soon!

Any images used are used solely to show the activities done within the classroom, with parental permission from signed audio/videography/photography release forms distributed at the beginning of the year. If your child is posted without your permission by mistake, please email me and I will be more than happy to fix my error. Thank you for such wonderful kids!

New Drums!

We received new drums for our music program! Thank you to the wonderful principal, Mrs. R.! Without her support for the music program and understanding in the need of new equipment, we would not have these wonderful new drums for your children to learn on. I'm just loving the bright colors on the wall now!

Kindergarten Families!

This week to practice spatial awareness, locomotor movement to music, and working together in groups, we played a game called "Houses." Each hula-hoop on the floor is a house. While the music is playing, students travel around the room walking to the steady beat of the music. When the music pauses, students rush to get into the closest hula-hoop near them. Now all of the children within this hoop are one family unit, and when the music returns, students must now hold hands or link arms to travel around the room as a family. Hula-hoops are taken each time the music restarts until we are down to one hula-hoop for one family! This game was a blast when we ended as just one big happy musical family!

Any images used are used solely to show the activities done within the classroom, with parental permission from signed audio/videography/photography release forms distributed at the beginning of the year. If your child is posted without your permission by mistake, please email me and I will be more than happy to fix my error. Thank you for such wonderful kids!

Kindergarten's first time in music!

 For our first couple of weeks in Kindergarten music, students learned to show music in different ways using colorful scarves and their bodies! We used scarves in this activity to show the "Steady Beat," or heartbeat of the music! We had a blast dancing to the music in our own unique ways using all of the different color scarves! What fun!

Any images used are used solely to show the activities done within the classroom, with parental permission from signed audio/videography/photography release forms distributed at the beginning of the year. If your child is posted without your permission by mistake, please email me and I will be more than happy to fix my error. Thank you for such wonderful kids!

Getting Ready for Open House!

It's nearly open house, and I can't wait to meet all of my wonderful new students!! The room is nearly ready to meet you all too! I can't believe school starts on Friday! How exciting!!

Music "Under the Sea!"

Here's our bulletin board for the year!! This year's music class theme is music "Under the Sea," where 'each little clam here' will 'learn how to jam here under the sea!" (I LOVE the Little Mermaid!!) Get ready to learn kiddos!

Reading Corner

We read in music too! But when we read in music, we bring the story to life with sound! When we read a story, the students pick instruments that might fit the sound a character could make, like if there is a snake in the story, a student might choose to shake maracas when the snake appears. This way the students get to explore reading in a whole new way! I'm excited for the many books available to us that I have filled the table with, and I can't wait to create these "Sound Scapes" with the kids!

New Floor!

Bye Bye Duck Tape, hello Puzzle floor! Shout out/Thanks to my awesome mom, sister, and fiance for helping me be able to make this happen for the kiddos! I can't wait to see everyone's reaction to the new seating arrangements!

A POP! of color!

We've been cleaning and now it's finally time to start decorating!! How about some colorful buckets for instrument storage on the bookshelf??

 And let's get those Boomwhackers out of the closet and on display!

How about some colorful fabric on the desk and a blue chair?

And I'm super excited about this new colorful musical curtain!

CLEANING UP!!

We're getting ready for the new school year and I can't wait to meet all of this year's Kindergarten, First, and Second Graders!! But before they show up, I need a room that's exciting and fun! First things first, down goes the tree!! Bye Bye Spike!!

Now we have more space in the room!! This is already getting exciting!

Here's my first glimpse at my new classroom!! I'm so excited to start getting it ready for the new school year! Follow along as I get us ready for the new year, and reveal the newly decorated classroom soon!