2017 Term 1, Week 5: Surprise!

Add bar lines to make 5 bars with four beats in each. 

Relaxing and focusing music: Lullaby time 
Songs:

Shark Song
Loud and Soft - Forte and Piano 
Threw it out the Window (Scroll down for lyrics and score) 
BINGO 
Rose, Rose  - round (scroll down for lyrics and score)
The Fox - See "Songs we Sing" tab.  

Dances: 
Hokey Tokey
Yakkety Yak
Skip to My Lou
The Freeze Game  
Kidz Bop Shuffle 

Viewing: 
Elmo tries to help Kermit the Frog learn about loud and soft.
Hayden's Surprise Symphony :Look and listen for these things when you watch this video. 
(1) The audience applauding  as the conductor leaves /arrives. 
(2) The conductor shakes hands with the violinist. This is the orchestra leader who makes sure everyone is in tune and ready for the conductor. It is tradition for the orchestra leader to be a violinist and this person always sits on the left of the conductor. 
(3) Th conductor acknowledges the audience's applause and bows. 
(4) The conductor prepares his music, looks to see that the orchestra is ready, then raises his hands to start. 
(5) What is the dynamic at the beginning of this piece? When and how does it change? 
(6) Why do you think Haydn used these dynamics?  
(7) Listen to the main tune or theme of the music. How does it change during the pice? What stays the same? 

Ukulele: 

Scroll down for the last two weeks' posts for the chords images.
Coconut song (C7)
Banana Boat Song (F, C7) 
La Bamba (C, F, G)
You are my sunshine (C, F, G) Fast forward to 35 seconds in. 
The Lion sleeps tonight (C, F ,G) 

Silo Park Children's Day Out (Free Concert and Events) Sunday March 5th.

Throw it out the Window 

(This is a nonsense song based on nursery rhymes. 

It's certainly not a good idea to throw anything out the window.)

(F)Little Jack Horner sat in a corner

Eating his Christmas (C7)pie; 

He stuck in his thumb 

And pulled out a plum, 

And threw it out the (F)window, 

The window, the second-storey (C7) window

He stuck in his thumb

And pulled out a plum,

And threw it out the (F)window.

Mary Had a Little Lamb,

Its fleece is white as snow, 

And everywhere that Mary went, 

She threw it out the window…

Three blind mice 

See how run 

They all ran after the farmer’s wife

And threw her out the window . . .

Hickory, Dickory Dock,

The mouse ran up the clock

The clock struck one, the mouse ran down

And threw it out the window.

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard

To fetch her poor dog a bone, 

But when she got there,the cupboard was bare, 

She threw it out the window...

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep,

And doesn't know where to find them; 

Leave them alone, and they’ll come home,

And throw them out the window. . .

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, 

Eating her curds and whey; 

Along came a spider and sat down beside her, 

and threw her out the window . . . 

Jack and Jill went up the hill 

To fetch a pail of water; 

Jack fell down and broke his crown, 

And threw it out the window . . . 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, 

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men 

Threw him out the window…

You can accompany this on ukulele with F and C7, or C and G7. (See last week's blog for chords)

2017, Term 1, Week 4 Dances and Dynamics

Dances:

Juniors: 

Hokey Tokey, 

Follow the Leader 

Yakkety Yack 

Skip to My Lou 

Seniors: 

Best Day of My Life 

Kidzbop Shuffle 

Kung Fu Fighting 

Intermediates:

Beat it 

Brooklyn Hustle Line Dance (Saturday Night Fever) 

Songs: 

(Juniors) 

Shark Song

Loud and Soft  Forte, piano, fortissimo, pianissimo, decrescendo, forte, forte, piano, forte, forte, piano, forte!

Buenos Dias 

Uno, Dos, Tres

Listening (Lesson warm down - Juniors): Listen to Lullaby Time by Claudia Robin Gunn. What pictures do you see in your mind when you listen to this?  

Theory Practice: 

Put bar lines in to make 5 bars with four beats in each bar. 

Here's a fun rhythm pattern with hands clapping and snapping.  See if you can keep in time counting the beat. 

Here's some patterns we can clap in groups. Can we all keep in time?  Note the two dots at the beginning and end of each line. What do they mean? 

Revision - Dynamics: Dynamics means how loud or soft (quiet) music is played.   This helps make music sound more interesting. When a piece of music - or lyrics (words in a song) are repeated, changing the dynamics each time helps create a different feeling.  We have learned the words pianissimo, piano, forte and fortissimo. But other words for dynamics are mezzoforte and mezzopiano. What do you think they mean?  We remember that crescendo means getting louder and decrescendo or diminuendo means getting softer or quieter. 

Dynamic Terms - Write the missing letters in the boxes to complete the words which describe dynamics in music, then say the words aloud. 

Here's a short video of Kermit the Frog and Elmo discussing loud and quiet.  When are they talking forte and fortissimo, and when and they talking piano and pianissimo? (Talking normal volume is mezzo forte or mezzo piano). 

Intermediates/Extension: Ukulele - play along with the song

La Bamba 
Surfin' USA

A Bit of Fun 
Anyone (any thing?) can learn to play music! Check out this video to see what I mean.
                                        

2017, Term 1 Week 3: Getting used to the Ukulele

Add bar lines  to make 5 bars with four beats in each bar. 

Keeping the beat:  See if you can clap and keep in time with the beat of this Muppets song. It goes quite fast so you will need to concentrate and listen carefully. It might help if you count one, two three, four to yourself to help you keep in time. 

Songs: 
Buenos Dias 
Uno, Dos, Tres
Loud and Soft  (Piano and forte) Sing along with this. What do each of the words below mean? 
Forte, piano, fortissimo, pianissimo, decrescendo, forte, forte, piano, forte, forte, piano, forte!
Listening and Viewing: 
Listen to this piece by Chopin called The Funeral March. Can you hear when the music changes from forte to piano and back to forte? Why do you think Chopin used loud and soft in this piece?

Dances: 
(Juniors/Seniors) 
Best Day of My Life   
Skip to my Lou 
Shout 

Seniors 
Kidz Bop Shuffle 

Intermediates 
Beat it 

Juniors:
Yakkity Yak 

This term, some classes are learning to play the ukulele. It helps if we can all use and understand the words to describe parts of the ukulele.  (You may find more than one name for some parts of the ukulele.) 

Parts of a ukulele 

Now tune your ukulele. 

The chord F (Click on link to hear how it sounds.)

The Chord C7 (Click on link to hear how it sounds.) 

Practise playing and changing these chords. 

Now you can play and sing some songs.

How Much is that Doggie in the Window 

 

(Play C7 where you see C)

Ukulele: 
Follow these links and you can sing and play along with these songs:

Coconut Song (C7)
Banana Boat Song (F C7)
You are My Sunshine ( C, F, G/G7) Fast forward to 35 to begin.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (C,F,G/G7) 
La Bamba (C,F, G/G7) 
Iko Iko (F, C7) 

Juniors: 
 Follow the link to  a lovely lullaby by New Zealand children's songwriter and singer Claudia Robin Gunn. It's called Lullaby Time.    You can join Claudia  at Uxbridge  Arts and Culture, Howick,  on Tuesday February 21st at 6pm. 

2016 Term 4 Week 9: Our school choir and orchestra

This is a recording of our little choir singing  Silent NIght in a medley of other Christmas songs, including one verse in Spanish.



This is our orchestra, conducted by Mrs Lee, playing Canon in D.  Some students only started to learn their instruments half way through the year, and we think they are pretty awesome. 

2016 Term 4 Weeks 3 and 4: History of Halloween and Guy Fawkes

Follow this link to a previous blog post about Guy Fawkes. 

In 1605, Guy Fawkes was one of a group of men who had plotted to blow up the houses of parliament in London to kill the king.  They were caught and executed. The king was so grateful that the plot was discovered that he ordered a celebration. 

Here's a Horrible Histories version of the Guy Fawkes story. 

Here's a very old poem about Guy Fawkes. Practise saying it aloud, and try to find a rhythm to it. Hint - try saying Guy Fawkes two times at the beginning of verse 2.

Time to practise our notes on the treble clef again:  I Knew You Were Treble

And time to bring out some of our Christmas dances: 
Crazy Santa Dance 
Jingle Bells 
 

 

The history of Halloween goes back a very long time. What it means to people, and how it is celebrated has changed several times over the course of its history. 

Celebrating Halloween originally started as a pagan ritual over two thousand years ago in the areas now known as Ireland, northern France and the United Kingdom.  It started as a Celtic festival Samhain (pronounced Sow-in) to celebrate the end of the harvest season on the 31st of October before the beginning of the long, dark, cold northern hemisphere winter and the new year beginning on November 1st.   It was also believed that a change of seasons was a bridge to the world of the dead.  Celts believed that on the eve of the new year, the ghosts of the dead returned to the earth.  There were bonfires and celebrations to mark these events. 

When the Romans conquered most of the Celtic lands, they included some of their own traditions in the festivals. 

In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III decided that all saints and martyrs would be honoured on November 1st. It would be called "All Saints' Day", and the night before  All Saints' Day was called "All Hallow's Eve". Over time it became shortened to "Hallowe'en" - e'en is an abbreviation for evening. 

In 1000 AD, the church made November 2nd a day to remember and honour all dead, and this became known as "All Souls' Day" and was also celebrated with festivities. 

 

Over time, the the festival changed from a religious festival to a community celebration and involved children dressing up and trick-or-treating.  Hallowe'en celebrations  continued to change even further as immigrants brought their traditions and festivals with them to America. It changed into a community event and lost any of its connections with religion. Further over time, and with commercialism and advertising, it has evolved into a huge industry with billions of dollars spent on decorations, costumes, parties and special foods. 

 Here's a Monster Dance (Just Disney Dance) Calling All Monsters . 

And our favourite - Banana Boat song. 

Here's an old recording of children reciting the witches' spell from MacBeth. 

 

Juniors 
 This is another dance called the Skeleton Dance . It helps you learn your left and right sides - and the names of your bones. 

Here's an easy dance called The Monster Shuffle.  Follow the words and mirror what the group are dancing.  

Here's a Halloween song and dance you can easily follow. 
And another one - Let's Get Spooky.