Music Recitals

Some students have had the opportunity to take instrument lessons with me throughout the year. Their lessons have culminated into a Spring Recital. The recital consisted of music from many young musicians playing piano, ukulele, and violin. I am so proud of their performance and look forward to their growth in the coming years. If you are in want of having your child in lessons for a musical instrument, email me @ mary.manning@banks.k12.ga.us and I will be more than happy to discuss this option with you!

Second Grade Program: DONE!

The Second Graders performed their last performance at the Primary School today. It was a bittersweet moment for me, as they were my first group of awesome kiddos that I had the privilege to teach all 3 years of their primary school life. While they were performing for their classmates at school, some of their awesome teachers jumped in and danced our longways set, "Turkey in the Straw," right along with them. It just went to show that you don't have to be a musician, a music teacher, a performer, to participate in and enjoy music. You just have to be a human who enjoys connection and good music. Thank you to Mrs. Nicholson and Mrs. Ott (and Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Giles who I wasn't able to snag a picture of) for giving such a great example of life-long enjoyment of music. I teach a 30 year plan- in 30 years, I want these kids to enjoy singing lullabies to their children or be able to sing Happy Birthday in tune with a group, enjoy dancing at weddings or birthday parties with friends, and appreciate the heart and community music creates. These lovely ladies were someone's 30-year plan gone right, and a wonderful example for these kids. So long second graders; I will miss you next year, but you will grow up to do great things! Remember, no matter what anyone tells you, you CAN sing!

Second Grade Program Practice

The second grade program, "The Cheese Stands Alone," is set for May 9th! Here is a PowerPoint with all of the words and the music, so that your kiddos can practice at home for the big show! It is farm themed, so be sure to get your farm outfit ready to go! See you soon!

Bring Your Family to Music Week!

This week was Bring Your Parent (or Family Member) to Music Week and I feel like it could not have been any better! The kiddos had so much fun dancing with the family members who came and showing them how to do the dances and songs we have been learning in music class!

First Grade Practice

Second Grade Rhythm Stations

After many years of sound, these second graders have finally put musical rhythm to sight! We have been working on sound to sight for the past few months, and this week, we are showing Mrs. Manning our achievement of successfully creating our own rhythmic patterns using the rhythms quarter note (du), eighth notes (du-de), and quarter rest (sh!). Check out the stations we got to participate in!

Fly Swat:

At Fly Swat, one member of the group, the caller, picks a fly to read out loud to the group without telling the group which fly they are reading. Each fly has a different rhythm pattern on it. The group's job is to listen to the caller's rhythm and "swat" the fly with the correct rhythm on it. Whoever swats first (is on bottom) gets the fly! Whoever has the most flies at the end gets to be the caller of the next round!

Instrument Memory:

At instrument memory, there are many instrument cards face down. Each player takes a turn to try and find the matching instrument cards (violin to violin, etc.). Whoever has the most matches at the end wins!

Snowball Rhythms:

Using spoons, students scoop four "snowballs"(ping-pong balls) out of the snowball box. Students rearrange the snowballs they draw out of the box into a rhythm pattern they like and then write the rhythm they came up with on the accompanying worksheet. This worksheet is then turned in for an assessment on forming rhythmic notation correctly. It's so fun to create our own rhythms!

Egg Matching:

Students have mini Easter egg halves. Each half either has a rhythmic notation, the name of a rhythm, or the syllable said when reading the rhythms out loud. The students' job is to match up the rhythm's name (top) with its notation (bottom) OR the rhythm's notation (top) with its rhythm syllable (bottom).

We have learned so much this year and it was so fun showing off our rhythm reading skills during music stations today!

Christmas Program Practice