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Shepard Hill Elementary
Music News
Report card information!
Report Cards are coming this month. I will be giving you student four marks and two grades. The marks are based on objectives from the curriculum the first one is: performs and creates music with others. When we sing I expect your child to sing, when we play instruments I expect them to play and so forth. The second one will not be graded this marking period; responds to music with appropriate movement. We have started doing this but I need more time with the students to fully assess it. The next one is; sings grade level songs using appropriate vocal technique, whenever I hear them sing alone I am grading this and coaching the children on singing technique. The final objective is demonstrates appropriate behavior and follows directions, this one is self explanatory. I have rules posted in my class and we have gone over what is expected of them during every activity. The two grades are an overall look at the students performance in class, grade and effort. Grade could include any paper or tests that we have done as well as any performance assessments. Effort is how much the student puts into what he or she is doing, if we are all singing and the student is just sitting there then that would be poor effort. If we are singing and the child is actively singing along with us that is good effort. If you have specific questions about your child's grades please feel free to make a conference time with me or call or e-mail me at school.
Welcome to Shepard Hill Elementary school music web page. Here at SHE we have music once a week for 45 minutes. We create, perform and respond to music. We sing, play instruments, read and write music. We listen to music and analyze what we hear. We make connections between what we learn in music and the world around us. We move to music and study the history of music from our culture and others around the world. We even improvise music! At this web page you will be able to see what we are currently working on in class and see if there are any important events coming that you don't want to miss. Please check back each month to see what new is happening in the SHE Music room.
| If you would like to see a copy of the State Standards for grades K-4 click here. | If you would like to see the music objectives for grades 1-3 click here |
| First Grade News | Second Grade News | Third Grade News |
Our first grade musicians are working on the woodwind family now. We listened to the brass and even got to see a trumpet and trombone in person. We know that the smaller the instrument the higher the sound and the larger the instrument the lower the sound. All sound is a vibration and that will not change even when we are learning about the woodwinds.
You might be hearing us sing in Spanish! We have learned two songs in Spanish a lullaby and a fun movement song.Our singing skills are improving each time we learn a new song. We are still working on matching the pitch on our patterns and the patterns are getting harder each week.
We are very excited that we know six instruments that we can play! We keep adding new ones every other week and we are getting better at keeping the beat. If you would like to try this at home just put on some music and tap the beat! You can also make your own sand paper blocks with two blocks of wood and some sand paper. Staple a strip of sand paper to one side of each block of wood and rub them together!
Second grade students have been singing up a storm! We are working on a song in German, some of you might know it as "The More We Get Together" we know it as "Ach Du Lieber Augustine". It is one of our folk songs that we have been discussing and singing. Our singing patterns have changed this year, we are using solfedge syllables or Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do! This is the first step to sight reading melodies.
The students have added more instruments to their repertoire, we recently played a part of a tune on the glockenspiel which is a small metal barred instrument. We do still continue to play our un pitched percussion but we will be moving to playing more pitched instruments this year.
We have also moved onto the woodwind family to study. In grade two we look more in depth at the families and instruments and our tests are harder too.
The third grade students have completed the first music symbol test and the results were very good! We had many students with score of 100 and many more with scores of 90. No one failed the test, congratulations studious students!
As you may already know we play the recorder in the third grade and the students are really looking forward to getting their instruments. The permission slips for the recorders will be going home at the end of this month and the recorders will be given out in December. To prepare for this we are working on following directions, staying together as a group and knowing our music signs. More information will be on the permission slips be sure to read them.
The third grade students are expected to know all of the instruments that we have studied in the past. We will be doing a very quick review of the four instrument families and the basic instruments in each. If your child has not been in our school they can review the families using the links at the bottom of this page.
Students may click below to review the instrument families!
| Brass | Strings |
| Woodwind | Percussion |
To E-mail Mrs. DeLuca for more information click below.
Last update November 4, 2009