Mrs. Morton's Music Class - Blog

Mrs. Morton's Music Class

Welcome Back!

8/23/2016

The new year is off to a great start!

The kids have been learning new welcome songs, reviewing rhythms, and starting some new dances! The music room is full of sound and life again, and it's great!

Please look for class updates on Twitter! Follow me @MrsMorton_Music.

A Summer Opportunity!

5/24/2016

Fox Country Players offers a summer theatre arts academy to develop skills in acting, dancing and singing! It's a fun two week program that culminates in a show at the end. This year's theme is "Scenes that Go BUMP in the Night."

Click here for more information! You can also contact Jennifer at [email protected] with any questions!

Congratulations!

5/2/2016

Congratulations to the kindergarten and first grade students at BGS and YGS on fantastic concerts! The kids did such a wonderful job, and I was so proud of their hard work and dedication in ILT and music getting ready for the show. It was an amazing experience to see Brad Meltzer's books come to life, and we are so grateful to him for giving us permission to use his words and artwork during our show. Below, find a video of the BGS concert as well as a few pictures from our rehearsals and show!

If you'd like to check out more of Brad Meltzer's books, click here!

Spring is 'almost' in the air!

3/7/2016

Students in kindergarten and first grade have been working hard to get ready for the concerts in April! Mrs. McHugh and I have created a biography unit centered around the book series Ordinary People Change the World. Each week, the kids have been reading one of the biographies and learning a song for their concert related to that specific hero. The concert is centered around these books, and has become such a fun collaborative project! We can't wait to share it with you!

Check out the K/1 Concert Information page for more information!

Second graders have just finished up a composition project! They had to choose a song from music class and make a Theme & Variations of that song. The theme is the original song and the variations are 're-mixes' where the composers make small changes to make the song new and fresh. For example, composers can change the tempo, add instruments, and change the lyrics slightly to create a variation.

Third graders have been learning about a symphonic poem called "Peter and the Wolf." A symphonic poem is a story told through music. In Peter and the Wolf, the composer assigned each character in the story a specific instrument and theme. As we listened, the kids were challenged to pick out those specific instruments and themes throughout the story.

A New Year Full of Learning!

1/15/2016

Students have had a few busy weeks in music class!

In kindergarten, students have been exploring high and low notes with a song called "Handy Dandy." Students show whether they are hearing high or low notes by raising their arms or pointing to the floor. We've also learned a great new game called "Doggie, Doggie, Where's Your Bone?" The student in the center of the circle has to guess which student stole the bean bag just by using their ears. This game helps students get used to each other's voices and gives students a chance to sing a solo.

In first grade, students have been learning about solfege. Solfege is a set of notes that composers can use to make songs. We've learned two notes so far: so and mi. Ask your child to show you the hand signals for both notes! We sang a song called "Snowflakes" that uses so and mi, added instruments and some creative movement. See pictures below!

Second graders are also learned solfege. We reviewed what we learned last year in first grade and added a new note this week: do. We learned that "do" is the home note in most songs and is the note our ears are drawn to. We also learned where to put solfege notes on a musical staff. The kids are doing a great job distinguishing between all the lines and spaces!

Third graders have been learning how to count rhythms with numbers just like adult musicians do. They're pretty excited about it! We also sang a partner song called "Lil Liza Jane/Hello Eliza Jane." Partner songs are two separate songs that sound great when you sing them together. The kids have done a great job getting used to singing in two parts! We also took Lil' Liza Jane and added instruments to it.

Stay tuned for more class updates! Enjoy your long weekend!

2nd and 3rd Graders Rehearse!

11/16/2015

Our 2nd and 3rd graders have been working hard on their musical, "The Grumps of Ring-A-Ding Town" in music class. I think you're going to enjoy the songs and the story! The YGS concert is December 8th at 7pm in the Yorkville Middle School Auditorium. The BGS concert is December 10th at 7pm in the Autumn Creek Elementary School Gym. Please stay tuned for more information and see the '2nd and 3rd Grade Musical' link above for more information as well as practice tracks!

Kindergartners Compose!

10/22/2015

Kindergartners in Mrs. Shue's PM class composed lyrics to a song! They took a familiar song we learned in music class called "Listen to the Ducks" and changed the lyrics to "Listen to the Computers."

See the video below!

I Bought Me a Cat!

9/21/2015

Second graders learned the song "I Bought Me a Cat." In the song, the narrator buys various pets, and some of them say crazy things. For example, the cat says, "fiddle-i-fee." We added instruments to go with each animal and later talked about the rhythm that went with each animal sound. We discovered a new note! The half note, or ta-ah, takes up two beats in common time.

The kids had a great time singing the song and the crazy sounds the animals made!

Down the River!

9/9/2015

Third grade started off the year with a folk song and dance called "Down the River." In a longways set, the students had to come up with a way to travel "down the river" when it was their turn. They were not allowed to walk because we decided that was boring! The students loved being creative and coming up with different ways to travel down. Some of our favorites were 'the worm,' 'walk like an Egyptian,' and 'the sprinkler.'

A Great New Year!

8/25/2015

Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year! I hope you've all had a wonderful summer and had some time to recharge with your families!

I've had an exciting summer complete with a name change! I was married on July 5th. The day was everything we hoped it would be. I have a picture of my husband, Ryan, and me below. Then, we spent two weeks in Greece for our honeymoon. Neither of us had been there before, and we were amazed at how beautiful it was!

I look forward to see all of you and your students next week!

Our Holiday Concert for YGS is December 8th, and the concert for BGS is December 10th. More information will be coming to you soon!

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions for me about music class!

Author

I am the music teacher at Bristol Grade School and Yorkville Grade School teaching kindergarten through third grade students. It's such a fun and rewarding job!

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