The last few weeks have been filled with fun things in music and choir. Lower Elementary wrote their own compositions using terms used so far. Lots of impressive conflict resolution skill were used and they were very proud of what they created. Lower Elementary also learned melodic Sol La Mi melodies and discovered a new favorite game, The Salami Game (Sol La Mi run together). Lastly, they learned how to play a bordun using the songs Acka Backa and Doggie Doggie.
Upper Elementary has been working on body percussion, no easy task but they are so focused on getting it right! In keeping with the Ohio History lessons in social studies, the Upper Elementary learned another Ohio song and dance. They learned the song, Two in the Middle, first. After that was set in their ears and voices we went outside to learn the dance. The dance is a circle dance involving two circles with people moving between the two. It was complicated and they learned it very quickly. They had such fun!
The middle schoolers also learn how to play the bordun and took it a step further, first learning what a vocal ostinato is and then writing their own. We also took a few moments to pay homage to Lou Reed, who passed away recently. We talked about his influence on modern music and listened to the song Sunday Morning. Though not as well known as some of his other songs, it is PG and could be played at school, unlike some of his more famous songs!
The entire school recently finished units on the Baroque period, J.S. Bach and the woodwinds family of instruments. Thanks to Carla for bringing some of her woodwinds in for us to explore. They even got to make some woodwind instruments out of straws!
