4th Grade – August September
We begin each class with Five Fact Fun. This year we are studying instruments. Our first family of instruments has been the brasswinds. We look and listen to each instrument. We have studied the trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba and sousaphone.
1. We have listen to “Jupiter” by Gustav Holst from his suite called The Planets.
2. We are singing “Good Morning”, “Wake Me! Shake Me!”, “Frere Jacques”, “Chester”, “Shine A Light For Peace”
3. We are preparing “We Live The Dream” for our musical performance during Catholic
Schools Week. It is from the musical I Have A Dream.
4. We are singing solo on “Jolly Jolly Rhythm”, dynamics on “Black Snake”, and call and response on “Bill Grogan’s Goat”.
5. We have learned/reviewed crescendo, decrescendo, accelerando, ritardando, sixteenth notes, bar line, measure, whole notes, note reading on the treble staff, moderato, allegro, and presto.
6. We are singing “Frere Jacques” in canon while notating the sixteenth notes.
7. Students have learned/reviewed music has a planned out form such as ABABAB and that the chorus is also called a refrain.
8. We have also discussed vehicle safety in regards to a bicycle-car-semi-train and what it means to “draw nigh” and “flag down a train”.
5th Grade – August September
We begin each class with Five Fact Fun. This year we are studying styles of music. Each week we listen to the “new” style. We have studied Paul Simon, Simon and Garfunkel, jazz, Diana Krall, Charlie Parker (bebop), Louis Armstrong (Dixieland), scat singing, improvisation.
1. We have learned the following songs: “Good Morning”, “Pass the Stick”, “The Sound of Silence”, “A Long, Long Journey to Heal”
2. A metronome keeps a steady beat.
3. We have performed a canon with “Out Goes the Rat”.
4. We perform tempo, dynamic, and pitch changes on “Boom Chicka Boom”.
5. We have performed solos on “Concentration”.
6. We have identified the I-V chords and listened for chord changes.
7. We have listened to the string bass.
8. We’ve learned about the Mason-Dixon line.
6th Grade – August September
We begin each class with Five Fact Fun. This year we are studying performers. Currently, we are learning about famous jazz performers and listen to their music each week. We have discussed Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Wynton Marsalis.
1. We are working on singing harmony with a descant part on “Barges” and with partner songs “Rufus Rustis/”Chicken”.
2. We are learning about scat singing and improvisation in jazz and that the Lincoln Center is a hub for jazz now but it began in New Orleans.
3. We identified quartet, quintet, and septet.
4. Metronome use helps keep a steady beat.
5. We have reviewed reading treble clef lines and spaces.