September 2017

K TO GRADE 3 MUSIC PROGRAM – Taught by Mrs. Martin

The goal of the Music program is to teach students the elements of music through singing, playing, creating, moving and listening. Music education is incredibly important to the overall development of a child.  At St. Brigid School, students have the opportunity to participate in music classes, the choir program (Grades 2 to 6), Hymn Sing (K to Gr. 3) and concerts, where they practice learned singing skills and repertoire.  For more information on the Junior Choir, please read below.

JUNIOR CHOIR NEWS

The Junior Choir will begin on October 24th for all students who love to sing in Grades 2 and 3. Practices will be held every Day 3 @ 12:30 pm. Parents of interested students should look for a choir note coming home after Thanksgiving. 

Looking forward to a fun-filled year of music!

Mrs. Martin

Gr. 1 -Talent Pictures

Sharing of Gifts and Talents

Hello Parents and Students,

A big thank you to those students who shared a talent in Music class today. 

All the talents were fun to watch and we could tell that the students really enjoyed their chosen activity. 

Thank you for an excellent year of Music. See you in September!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Martin

Rocky

Juliana and Sophie - singing and dancing

Dylan and Faith - Gymnastics

Iggy - Singing

Felix - Magic

Bradley - Hockey

Grayson - Singing 

Ashton - Fidget tricks

Ms Ripplinger and students enjoying a song

Grade 1 Piano students: Kaleb, Brianna, Caleb, Nathan and Rocky

Grade 1 Athletes: Dylan and Faith, Brad, Dimeji and Keira

Grade 1 Singers: Caylin, Ryan, Grayson, Uwa, Sophie
Adison, Karly, Iggy and Juliana

Emma and Ruth - Dancers

Gr. 3 - Talent Pictures

  Sharing of Gifts and Talents

Hello Parents and Students,

A big thank you to those students who shared a talent in Music class today. 

All the talents were fun to watch and we could tell that the students really enjoyed their chosen activity. 

Thank you for an excellent year of Music. See you in September!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Martin

Our piano students: Kai, Isaac, Michelle, Taylor, Isabel and Anya

Our singers: Ethan, Peter, Ore, Lulya, Natalia, Uyi, Jacquelyn, Champ,
Audrey, Arianna, Keatyn, Ella and Irelynn

Our Hula Hoopers: Yasmine, Dasha, Varvara and Reecy

Other talents: Oliver and Nathan(Magic), Hayden(puppet), Woye(soccer)

Taylor and Michelle

Addy (Yoga poses)

Keaton, Ella and Irelynn (Singing "Our God")

Yasmine (Hula)

Isabel

Hayden (puppetry)

Dara (Singing "Giants Fall")

Champ and Jacquelyn (The Cup Song)

Nathan (magic trick)

Peter Singing "Lord of the Dance"

Reecy - Ballet/traditional Chinese dance

Kai 

Natalia, Ore, Lulya and Uyi - Singing

Gr. 2 - Talent Pictures

Sharing of Gifts and Talents

Alyssa and Anna - A very polished performance!

Julia (Cartwheel Expert), Owen (Baseball), Preston (Baseball),
Avery & Lucas (Soccer) and, Colton (Soccer)

Justin (Piano) - Excellent recital piece!

Erin  - A talented artist!

Alexia (Solo singing) - Pretty in pink

Lydia - Our Beautiful Ballet Dancer

Evalina (piano) - A short and sweet piece

Ty sent in a video of the many and varied sports he participates in.
It was awesome to watch!

Kayley (Country Line dance) - How appropriate for Stampede!

Thanks for teaching us Kayley - lots of fun!


Here's hoping we will have more students participate next year. It's such a fun, informal event .
Wishing you and your families a wonderful summer!
See you in September!
Mrs. Martin

June Talent Sharing

Over the past 9 months I have had the pleasure of singing, moving and playing instruments with your child twice a week in Music class. Therefore, as the year is drawing to a close, I would like to invite your child to share a talent with their classmates and me.  A talent is a skill that the student practices regularly. It can include: singing a song (with appropriate lyrics), reciting or acting out a well-rehearsed poem, dancing, demonstrating magic tricks, playing an instrument, martial arts, acrobatics or other activities that showcase talent skills.

If your child has a talent but cannot demonstrate it fully at school, they are welcome to bring in an object that represents the talent (i.e. swimming badge, basketball or a paint brush). If bringing in an object, your child should be prepared to talk about this object and share a few interesting facts.  

If your child would prefer to share their talent in a video format, please send the video clip to my school email account or save it onto a USB stick and have him/her bring it to school on their sharing day (see below).

A time limit of 1 to 1-½ minutes should be observed in order to allow all students the opportunity to share. At the students disposal are: CD player, piano, mats (from the gym), music stands, my computer (if sending an MP3 audio accompaniment or video clip).

The date of talent sharing in their Music class will be:

Gr. 2 – Monday June 26^th (Day 5)

Gr. 1, Gr. 3 and K - Wednesday June 28 (Day 1)

If you have any questions, please email me at maryellen.martin@cssd.ab.ca

Musically Yours,

Mrs. Martin

(Music Teacher)

                  

May Music News

April Showers, brings May Flowers

Let it rain, let it rain,

Sunshine melts the winter snow,

Raindrops makes the flowers grow,

Up they spring! Up they spring!

Kindergarten News

This month we are working on the comparative slow and fast as well as spring based movement and action songs.

• Slow and fast is being introduced through games such as Snail, Snail (windup song), The Old Gray Cat (who chases mice at the end), The Roller coaster (slow up and fast down) and the story of The Tortoise and the Hare. 
• For spring, there are so many lovely songs to sing such as: Puddles, Listen to the Water, Robin in the Rain and May There Always be Sunshine by Charlotte Diamond. She is a Canadian singer song writer whose music I have always loved for her catchy melodies and easy to learn lyrics.  
  

Grade 1 News

We are studying shorter and longer sounds, pitch using proper hand-sign names and a variety of spring songs.

• The students have recently learned that soh is the higher pitch in our greeting and mi is the lower pitch. Next, we looked at songs using just these 2 pitches such as: Rain-Rain, Engine-Engine, Cobbler- Cobbler, The Bluebird and The Flower Song.
  
• We have had a lot of fun studying the names of flowers and how many sounds each flower has. 
  
• Then we recorded the number of sounds with fruit flavored Cheerios on a sound map. 
  
  
  
• The students are enjoying singing songs spring such as Puddles and Each of us is a Flower by Charlotte Diamond.We are also doing movement/choreography to The Winds of Spring (a Taiwanese folk song) and Spring from the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (a personal favorite). If you would like to listen to this beautiful music by Vivaldi, please use the following link:  https://youtu.be/e3nSvIiBNFo

Grade 2 News

The Gr. 2s showed much practice and preparation for our Marian Liturgy. They led the gym in our opening and closing song, sang The Hail Mary beautifully on their own and recited a choral speech poem titled Our Guardian Angel. Many moms/grandmothers were touched by their lovely tribute to Mothers and by Deacon Tom's lovely song, "Holy is His Name".

• This month we are also focusing on dynamics (forte/loud and piano/quiet), identifying (ta-a) as a half-note worth 2 beats and where the note-doh-lives on our 5-line staff.
• Spring by Vivaldi is an excellent vehicle to examine movement, dynamics and story telling without words. Students love acting out the season of spring with playing outside, flying like birds, hiding during the thunderstorm and returning to play after the storm breaks. 
• In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg is great for teaching about how a composer can create suspense during the troll chase.
• Here Comes a Bluebird was a favorite game in Gr. 1. Now, we can break down the rhythm to discover longer notes such as the half-note on the words "Heh" and "day".
  
• Who's that? is a new song to Gr. 2 and is demonstrates a lot of half-notes and the kids will have fun playing the Orff accompaniment and adding drums.
• The new note doh has been introduced through the song, Here We Come. It will be reinforced through the game Mouse, Mousie. The kids will have fun being the cat and chasing the mice around the room. 
  

Grade 3 News

This month, we are looking at all kinds of M-R-D patterns, playing and identifying the families of Orff instruments, clapping 8 beat rhythm patterns, discovering more dynamics as well as how mood can affect how you sing a song.

• In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg is an excellent piece to study rhythm, dynamics and tempo. This piece describes Peer Gynt’s adventure in the underground Kingdom of the Trolls. Can you hear the trolls creeping up on Peer? They are coming faster and faster! Whew...luckily, Peer Gynt gets away from the trolls by the skin of his teeth. The main them repeats 9 times with only a slight variation and a coda. The students had fun creating their own variation of the theme by either: adding body percussion, making it louder or softer, faster or slower. They also illustrated the piece and I have included a few samples.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• You can watch an orchestral performance of this piece using the link: https://youtu.be/dRpzxKsSEZg

• Hot Cross Buns is an "oldie but a goodie". Students are learning where Mi-Re-Do notes can be found on a staff, how to hand-sign these notes as well as how to play A-G-F melodies on the Orff instruments.