1st and 2nd Grades Start Their Musical Year!

1st and 2nd graders have been learning how to play various rhythm patterns on the drums and bells.  We have hand drums that each student can hold and either play with the other hand or with a mallet.  They have been learning how to read quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests.  This coming week we will talk about bar lines and measures which are used to separate music into a specific number of beats.  I mainly just want them to recognize these symbols for the moment, and then eventually their function will make sense later in the year.

Last week, we received resonator bell kits!  Each bell is like a piece of a xylophone.  Now we have these and hand bells, and it has been great for the students to experience the music alphabet (ABCDEFG and repeat) in these two different forms.  Some kids like to ring bells, some like to hit them with mallets. :)

Of course, we do plenty of singing.  Singing remains an ever-important activity!-- It works so many parts of the brain and is such a valuable way to express emotions.  I will be sure to write some special post throughout the year about the many ways singing is important.

1st and 2nd grade will be learning about Solfege, a way of singing scale tones with syllables that is probably most recognizable from "The Sound of Music," if you recall the song that begins "Do a deer, a female deer..."  Actually, we use this throughout all grades.  It's something that will be more and more useful as students progress through their music education.

Students will also learn how to use the hymnals (book of church hymns [songs]) and missalettes (books with songs and readings in the back of pews) that they see in their weekly masses.  As their reading and math skills progress, these materials make more sense.  Students really enjoy being able to use the hymnals and missalettes when they are able.

So far we have sung songs that include:
"This Little Light of Mine"
"Peace is Flowing Like a River"
"Hallelujah" (getting ready for Christmas... I promise not to make them sing about snow yet!)
"Alabare" (a Spanish hymn)
a special "Hello Song" where we can work on learning dynamics (louds and softs)
"We are Marching"
"Amazing Grace"

We've really been focused on our bells and drums for the past couple weeks and so have mainly sung hymns thus far since we were learning how to use the church materials.  However, we will be exploring many different songs in many different styles throughout the year.  Coming up, we will be learning more songs in Spanish from various Hispanic countries in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on September 15th.  We will talk about Latin instruments and rhythms and certain musicians with Hispanic heritage.

Here is a picture of Ms. Claudio's 2nd grade class enjoying and learning rhythms on the drums:

I am sorry these aren't bigger and clearer.  I'm working on it!