During the coming weeks, preprimary will enjoy three performances by the Primary, Intermediate and Upper Units. In Choir class, each unit chose from two scripts, both fairy tale stories, with instrumental accompaniment and a melodic motif. The scripts were read through, pros and cons discussed and then voted on. Primary chose The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Intermediate chose Silly Jack, and the Upper Unit chose How the Camel Got his Hump. Work on these will begin as soon as we get back from Thanksgiving!
Music class has been full and fun these past two weeks. The children worked at training their ability to retain melodic memory. We discussed motifs, or short musical phrases, and made up our own to ask each other questions. The answers had to be sung in the identical motif, thus challenging our melodic memory. We also reviewed decoding rhythm, or reading rhythm from its written form, and then added encoding rhythm, or listening to a rhythm and writing it out. Finally, the children themselves became rhythm. Using stools to represent a beat, each stool was designated as a quarter note (with one person sitting on it), two eighths (the beat divided in two by two people sitting on it), or a rest (with no one sitting on it). It was great fun writing different rhythms and then using our bodies to represent what was just written!
