To say the start of this school year has been crazy would be an understatement. It has, however, been a great start.
As a parent, I now have 2 girls in Middle School and my son is still here in the elementary as a 4th grader. In terms of my own children, they have had an awesome start to the year.
At the elementary, we have had a great beginning, but very unique. This is the first year of our TLC grant for the district. We now have coaches and leaders throughout the building whom you can go to for ideas, help, guidance, etc..... We also have 11 new staff this year! Yes, 11! For some districts that may not seem much, but our building is full of change.
In the music classroom it has felt like we just picked up right where we left off from May. The students remembered expectations, trained the new students and we are just continuing on from last year. It's been fun to see/hear what they have retained
Another thing my 5th grade students have been working on is 16th notes or (tiri-tiri patterns). 16th notes are a fast-sounding group of four notes that fit into one beat time. We've been practicing this using a song called "Tideo". Unfortunately for them, we have been stuck on this song for 3 weeks drilling this concept, but working on it in different ways. We learned the song and activity, then we moved to a racing game listening for tiri-tiri in the pattern. Then we moved to popsicle stick notation and now we have moved the song to barred instruments. Take a peek at two of the ways.
The other major achievement of this beginning of the year is always 5th grade band. This year I am starting 55 students. One of my largest groups ever! We begin with small groups (sectionals) but have already progressed to large group band. Considering there are so many of them, we are making great progress.
