Music

St. Dominic School Fine Arts Program

During music classes this year, one of my goals has been to provide real-life application skills for each group of students.

For most grades, one of those real-life skills includes public speaking. When students perform in our annual Christmas

program, or for our daily morning assemblies, or reading petitions at our weekly Mass or performing with our choir, or giving an

oral report in the classroom, it is my goal for them to be able to sing or speak clearly, to be able to project their voices so

everyone in the room can hear and understand each and every word.

We are working on this through, among other things, a series of public speaking tutorials from Toastmasters International.

Students learn the best practices necessary to write a good speech and then deliver it effectively.

Another goal was to acquire new hymnals for our students to use at weekly Children's Masses. Through a very successful

program, we have achieved this goal. Parishoners of St. Anthony Church and St. Dominic School families were invited to

purchase hymnals in memory of a loved one or family member. As usual, they rose to the challenge and raised the funds

necessary to purchase a new hymnal for all students. In return, there is a memorial label on the inside of each hymnal in whose

name the book was purchased. This is a great reminder to our students to pray for those who have gone before us, as well as

to demonstrate the importance of giving back. We are very grateful to all those who contributed. Their generosity has provided

beautiful new songbooks to replace ones that we have used for over 20 years!!

In addition to acquiring public speaking skills, students will learn many new Praise and Worship songs for our weekly

Masses, incorporating our new hymnals. We also focus on Music Theory, Music History, Famous Composers and Music

Comprehension. Another popular addition this year has been Drumming. With the addition of a set of drumsticks for every

student (thanks to a Magic Match donation), students are learning how to read rhythms and perform in different time

meters. Each class accomplishes these activities through interactive SmartBoard lessons, games, listening exercises, and with

the many resources that have been purchased through grants and our generous Magic Match supporters.

Below are several of the grants that were used to purchase items for our music classroom:

The KHQA “One Class At A Time” program is sponsored by KHQA TV, Continental Cement, Green America Recycling and Titan. These sponsors awarded St. Dominic School $1000.00 for new percussion instruments, new sheet music, interactive Smartboard music software, CD’s, Music Express curriculum, and numerous teacher resources. We continue to use these instruments every week - they are very popular with the students!

Another grant was awarded from the Mary Ridder Cherny Fund through the Community Foundation of West Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri. $375.00 was given to St. Dominic School to design a Digital Keyboard lab. New keyboard stands, benches, sustain pedals, and piano and harp music has been purchased to be used with our six digital keyboards and harp. This has allowed many students to now take private lessons after school. Currently 21 students are enrolled in piano lessons. Parents pay $10.00 for a 30 minute lesson with Mrs. Nan Wood, the Music Instructor, but those funds are used to purchase materials for the music classroom. It is a win-win situation for our school families as well as our school.

The Mary Ridder Cherny Fund also granted funds to purchase Piano Marvel software. Our piano students use this software during their weekly piano lessons. With Piano Marvel, a digital keyboard is connected to a computer. Students play along with music that is projected onto the monitor, while musical accompaniment plays in the background. They complete each lesson to earn virtual trophies in an attempt to fill up their entire virtual trophy case.

Western Catholic Union (WCU) awarded St. Dominic School the “Classroom Assistance Program” grant of $250.00 to purchase a two-year subscription to Music K-8. This curriculum provides new music, CD’s, student reproducibles, and teacher lesson plans. It incorporates hands-on teaching with Orff instruments as well as articles and lessons on famous composers, music history and music theory. All of their resources are correlated with state and national standards, and work well with the new instruments that were purchased with the KHQA “One Classroom At A Time” grant.

Mercantile Bank of Quincy awarded our music department a grant to purchase Music Express, one of the most respected music curriculum on the market (along with Music K-8). Students receive full-color music magazines with many musical activities, stories, games, instrumental activities and hands-on fun!

Another grant was provided by the Adams County Medical Alliance. With these funds, we purchased a large 12' parachute and musical CD's and games to use along with the parachute. This "healthy student" grant material allows students to be physically active during the school day while focusing on music. But all they know is they are having fun!

We also have had a very generous Magic Match sponsor, which has allowed us to purchase new music resources including Music K-8 Student music magazines, the Teacher Handbook and CD's that go along with the curriculum. We also purchased the very successful "Music Ace" Software program. Both are very nice additions to our music program.

The students of St. Dominic School now have many ways to showcase their musical talents, explore their creativity, learn how to speak and perform effectively, be physically active, and advance their musical knowledge and experiences. We are profoundly grateful to each of these organizations for their support, and proud of the way it has allowed us to make so many opportunities available for our students.

As you can see, we have many new, exciting additions to the music department. We are anxious to showcase all that our students can do with these new materials.

Very sincerely,

Mrs. Nan Wood

Music Instructor