December News

1st grade started their Nutcracker unit for the month of December. We have been reading the story, listening and moving to the music and learning about the composer Mr. Tchaikovsky. The students have been helping me act out the story by adding sound effects and motions when they hear certain words or phrases. They have also been marching to the steady beat of the March of the Toy Soldiers.
So far we have listened to 5 of the movements. Yesterday we took some time to compare three different from The Land of Sweets (Arabian, Chinese and Russian Dances). Our next movement of the Nutcracker to study will be the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. We will be learning the rhythm part from the A section to perform in class.







Kindergarten had the opportunity last week to play the barred Orff instruments. We had a mini "workshop" with them. They learned about the Glockenspiel, Metallophone and Xylophone. The students had a great time adding the instruments to a poem we learned. They were able to explore all the notes going up and down as well as create their own part at the end. Every student got to play each instrument. Today, our mystery instrument was the Trumpet and we learned that trumpets are in the Brass Family and play very forte (loud). Our song of the month, (per student request) is Jingle Bells. Each time, I ask the students what we can add to the performance of the song to make it more fun to sing. We have had some great additions so far, such as lifting our arms up on "hey" and changing the words "jingle bells" to the rhythm syllables "ti-ti ta" We have also started practicing moving with flow to the music. The students are connecting their singing to their movement (eurythmics) moving while singing and stopping movement when they stop singing.


Both groups have been practicing their solfege syllables (Do, Mi and Sol) and are really doing well. I can sing a pattern without the syllables and many students are able to sing it back to me with solfege syllables. This is very exciting to me because it shows me that they are internalizing the musical patterns, which is part of their "music vocabulary".

Chandler Children's Choir Auditions

 Good afternoon!

The Chandler Children's Choir is holding auditions for students 7 years old and up. 

I am not sure if any of our first graders meet this criteria but I wanted to put it out there just in case. It is a great opportunity for students to grow in their musicality, singing, and performance experience.




Happy Thanksgiving!

Congratulations!!!

 

Congratulations to our students on a job well done!!!

I am so pleased with how well the concert went. It was so great to see all the friends and family that gathered to support the students and celebrate all their hard work. I'm proud of all they have accomplished and I know that you are as well. :)

Thank you for your continued support of what we are doing at Archway Lincoln. I hope that you are seeing growth in the lives of your students in every area.

We spent part of Friday in class making a list of what we did really well at the concert and then talked about a few things we could do better next time. We also filled out a worksheet to reflect on our concert experience. I had them take the worksheets home so that you could enjoy seeing and hearing about their reflections as much as I did.

Thank you also for all your kind words of encouragement to me! It means a lot to know that you enjoyed the program. :)

Have a great weekend!

Ordering a Concert DVD

If you are interested in purchasing a DVD of the performance, we will be having the music concert professionally recorded. Here is the link that can be used to order DVD's of the Music Concert. The company is called Esthetics in Motion.

http://www.estheticsinmotion.com/archwaylincoln

Concert Night!

The concert night is quickly approaching!
A week from today, your students will be getting ready to sing their little hearts out. :)

Here are a few logistics that you need to know to make this first concert go as smoothly as possible.

Concert Night Drop-Off

Parents should drop off K-2 students at the Archway Building Entrance at 5pm. 
Students report straight to their classroom. 

Concert Night Pick-Up

Students will not be dismissed until the end of the concert. We ask that you promptly pick up your student from their classroom at the end of the concert. If you have a student performing in both the 5:30 PM Concert (K-2nd Grade) and the 7:30 PM Concert (3rd-5th Grade), please have one parent go to pick up the student who performed in the first concert and bring them back with you to the gym once all the K-2 students have performed. 

Parking

Should the need arise, we would recommend parking in the JC Penney's parking lot as overflow parking for the evening of the concert.

The concert will be professionally recorded and available for purchase.

As always, feel free to email me with any questions you may have.
rboswell@archwaylincoln.org

Thanks!

Drawing Eighth Notes

1st grade spent part of music class today drawing eighth notes.

Below are a few pictures of excellent student work.