"North Winds Blow" and Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep

Sanjana, Neil, Shiloh
We sang, moved, and played along to wintery songs and stories as we practiced playing rhythms with notes and rests.

Love Makes a Family
Korelle, Ishaan, Cohen, and Ahaza
We sang and used sign language to accompany the story,
Love Makes a Family, by Sophie Beer.
We also sang to share what love is to us and created our own rhythms using hugs, kisses, and pauses to represent quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests.

Quiet and LOUD
Amina and Quinn
We wrote our own Quiet and LOUD stories based on the writing style of author Leslie Patricelli's book, Quiet and LOUD.

Penguin Sings Please

August and Cameron with a special guest, Dad
After singing along to Michael Dahl's book, Penguin Says Please, we wrote and sang our own variations of the story. Some of us even had our families join in to help sing our stories!

"Rain, Rain, Go Away!"
Andi Claire and Leslie
We grabbed our umbrellas to sing and dance in the rain, and we continued to practice reading and placing the pitches mi-sol-la on the staff.

One Love

Jalaia, Nathan, Vivi, and Nevaeh
We read and sang along to Cedella Marley's book, One Love. It was based on her dad, Bob Marley's song, "One Love." We recorded ourselves singing the refrain of the song and shared what love means to us.

Musical Meteorology
Bryson and Sophie
We mixed music with meteorology with the help Huda Harajli's book, All About Weather. As we read the story, we sang new versions of the song, "Rain, Rain, Go Away," by singing about different kinds of weather. Then, we created our own 5-day forecasts and recorded ourselves giving a musical weather report.

Encanto Inspired Latin Groves

Valerie, Malachi, Amy, and Skah
As we continued exploring the music of Encanto, we learned about Germaine Franco, one of the few women working full-time as a composer and music producer for film and television. While Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the songs for the movie, it was Germaine who orchestrated the songs and composed the instrumental music. We pretended to help Germaine and Lin-Manuel create a new piece of music to add to the movie. We used QGrooves to arrange our own Latin Grooves.

Dim Sum for Everyone

Ishaan, Timothy, and Annora

We celebrated the new year again in music by learning about the Lunar New Year. What better way to celebrate than to make music about food! We used Grace Lin's story, Dim Sum for Everyone, to sing, explore new foods, and practice composing and playing rhythms.

Beautiful Black Bird

Amaia, Blakely, Myla, and Skylar-Jo
During Black History Month, author Ashley Bryan caught our attention with his book, Beautiful Blackbird. The folktale's theme of being proud of who we are on the inside and appreciating what makes us each unique on the outside inspired our songs and artwork. Mrs. Grim helped us create art based on the book, we created graphic art using Peardeck, and Mrs. Kerechanin hosted "Crafting with Kerechanin" to make our own flying birds.

Orchestra Adventures

Alexander
We transitioned out of Africa using Carnegie Hall's interactive game,
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Instrument Safari. The game introduced us to British composer Benjamin Britten, the four families of the orchestra, and the instruments in each family. We also experienced these instruments in Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.

Encanto Inspired Latin Groves

Valerie, Malachi, Amy, and Skah
As we continued exploring the music of Encanto, we learned about Germaine Franco, one of the few women working full-time as a composer and music producer for film and television. While Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the songs for the movie, it was Germaine who orchestrated the songs and composed the instrumental music. We pretended to help Germaine and Lin-Manuel create a new piece of music to add to the movie. We used QGrooves to arrange our own Latin Grooves.

Beautiful Black Bird

Britney, Grayer, Katherine, and Mariah
During Black History Month, author Ashley Bryan caught our attention with his book, Beautiful Blackbird. The folktale's theme of being proud of who we are on the inside and appreciating what makes us each unique on the outside inspired our songs and artwork. Mrs. Grim helped us create art based on the book, we created graphic art using Peardeck, and Mrs. Kerechanin hosted "Crafting with Kerechanin" to make our own flying birds.

Encanto Inspired Latin Groves

Avery, Harper, Micah, and Stephany
As we continued exploring the music of Encanto, we learned about Germaine Franco, one of the few women working full-time as a composer and music producer for film and television. While Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the songs for the movie, it was Germaine who orchestrated the songs and composed the instrumental music. We pretended to help Germaine and Lin-Manuel create a new piece of music to add to the movie. We used QGrooves to arrange our own Latin Grooves.

Bob Marley & "One Love"

Avery, Ellenie, Finley, Braelynn, Khalise, and Isabella
During Black History Month, we looked at the life and music of Bob Marley. We listened to his song, "One Love," found imagery to show what it made us think of, and then wrote about why we chose the image. We also examined the chord progressions in the song, practiced playing them using virtual instruments, and recorded ourselves performing the refrain of the song.

Drumming Along to "Jabu Na Simba"
Genesis, Liv, and Emily
At the end of the quarter, we began a unit on African American styles of music. We experienced African music and found items to use as percussion instruments to drum along to the syncopated rhythms of "Jabu Na Simba."