All Decorated!!

I've been working to decorate for MIOSM for the past few days, and we're all done! Take a look at the awesome decorations! I really love my door, guess where it's themed from? ;) Each balloon has important things we do in music class that assists with the things the students are learning in other classes. Never knew music helped so much!

The teachers all have awesome secret musical backgrounds! I compiled them, and now we have a guess who wall! You read the paragraph about the teacher or staff member of BCPS, and guess which person it is; check your answer by flipping the white paper up. What a great way to get to know everyone a little better, and to see that not EVERYONE who loves music is a rockstar or a music teacher; you can be anything and still love to enjoy music :)

The hall is so much more colorful now! I love Music In Our Schools Month :)

First Grade Program

First graders are working hard to prepare for their upcoming program, "Our Musical Traditions," which explores folk song and dance from the United States! The program will be on March 23rd in the Primary School gym. As we get closer, costume ideas, performance times, and the lyrics to our songs will be sent home so that these awesome kids can practice! Ask your children as they come home to sing for you the songs they are working on, so that they can practice singing in front of people before the concert; we don't want any nervous kiddos, we want confident kiddos!

Composer of the Month: Duke Ellington

February's composer of the month is Edward Kennedy Ellington, better known as Duke Ellington! Ellington was born in 1899 and died in 1974, and is thought of by many as America's GREATEST composer,  bandleader, and recording artist. During his 50 year career, Ellington composed over 3000 pieces of music! He was awarded, by President Richard Nixon, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on his 70th birthday. Funny enough, Duke hated his piano lessons when he was young, saying they were "boring" and quit! Thank goodness he didn't give up music, because piano became his forte! In 2009, Duke Ellington became the FIRST African American to be featured on a US coin, which is also pretty cool, since he was one of America's first African American composers. Among his 3000 compositions, some of his best known are It Don't Mean a Thing, Satin Doll, Take the "A" Train, and Mood Indigo. Watch this video of his Big Band "The Cotton Club Orchestra" play It Don't Mean a Thing" with him at the lead on the piano!

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