Kindergarten

QUARTER 1:

Through movement, listening, reading, and music-making activities, Kindergarten students will practice their listening skills, and explore the elements of music such as Beat, Rhythm, Melody, Tempo, and Mood.

The Kindergarten Movement Playlist can be found here.

Reflecting on our Listening Walk

In Kindergarten, we spend lots of time practicing our listening skills. One way we do this is by going on a Listening Walk and paying attention to the sounds we hear, especially LOUD and SOFT sounds. Then we spent some time drawing and categorizing the sounds we heard.

Some LOUD sounds we heard on our walk were:

A slammed door
An airplane
A milk truck
A siren
An airconditioner

Some SOFT sounds we heard were:

The wind in the trees
Water dripping
Birds singing
Crickets

My Many Colored Days

Text by Dr. SuessIllustrations by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher

We can feel different things on different days.
The music that we listen to can change the way we feel.
- - Exciting music might have a fast tempo and loud dynamics.
  - Calm music may be slow and soft.
We can move our bodies to show the different elements of the music.

The photos show the students being "sleeping bears" whilst listening to the "Pines of Rome" by Respighi. This music is slow and low and makes us feel sleepy.

"On other days, I'm other things. On bright blue days I flap my wings."

Students listened to "Little Bird" by Edvard Grieg and pretended they were little birds flapping their wings to the high sounds of the flute.

"Green Days, deep deep in the sea. Cool and quiet fish, that's me.

We listened to "Aquarium" from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens and imagined being fish swimming smoothly through the seaweed. We also took turns playing the glockenspiel, which we can hear in the music like sunlight glinting on the water.

"Then come my BLACK days. MAD and LOUD. I HOOOOOWL! I grrrrrowl at every cloud."

As we listened to "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana, we drew MAD pictures and made our maddest faces!

Practicing Mindful Listening

We do lots of movement activities in Kindergarten, so that students have an opportunity to move their bodies, demonstrate appropriate movement that matches the music, and practice their gross motor skills. But after we move, we need to be able to re-focus our brains for listening. This is when we practice our Mindful Listening, concentrating on breathing deep and slowing our heartbeats.

QUARTER 2:

Winter Sing Performance 2023

Click HERE for Winter Sing Videos

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

A-weema-wah, A-weema-wah, A-weema-wah, A-weema-wah...

The kindergarten classes have been singing and playing instruments along with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." They picked out different rhythmic and melodic patterns in the song, and followed the cues of a conductor to know when it was their turn to play.

Frog Guiros

Monkey Shekeres

Lion Drums

Wind Ribbons

PXL_20220114_195807257.mp4

Quarter 3:

Through movement, listening, reading, and music-making activities, Kindergarten students will explore how music can be used to tell stories.

Peter and the Wolf

"Peter and the Wolf" is a musical fairy tale in which each character is played by a different instrument of the orchestra. Written by Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev, and first performed about 100 years ago, it's still a favorite of primary students every year!

Students listened to the story and identified the characters by the instruments and melody that's played. They discussed the way the music helps tell the story, and identified the mood and tone quality (timbre) of each character's theme. Then, they had a chance to act out the story and add instrumental accompaniment of their own!

Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt is another musical fairy tale about a boy who has an adventure in the mountains of Norway and meets the mighty Troll King. Peer narrowly escapes being made into a troll himself!

Kindergarten students practiced playing drums to the steady beat and listened to how the music got faster and faster as Peer was trying to escape!

Abiyoyo

Abiyoyo is a storysong, adapted by Pete Seeger from a South African lullabye. Kindergarten students learned the song and practiced using soft voices to sing a baby to sleep. They also used soft instruments like finger chimes and sand blocks to play gentle sounds.

Going on a Bear Hunt

After reading "Going on a Bear Hunt" kindergarten students used classroom instruments to create a soundscape to accompany the story. Then, they took turns playing instruments and acting it out!

Arts Residency

In partnership with Urban Gateways, Kindergarten students will be taking ballet lessons on Friday afternoons. Lessons will include practicing body awareness and personal space, performing using the whole body while warming-up, improvising, learning movement combinations, and performing walks, runs, jumps, hops and marches.

Kindergarten Residency Videos and Photos

Quarter 4

Through movement, listening, reading, and music-making activities, Kindergarten students will explore how music is experienced in different cultures around the world.

Canada

In connection with their Great Big World unit in the classroom, Kindergarten students have been exploring how music and dance is enjoyed around the world. In learning about Canadian music, students learned about First Nation pow wow, played a gathering drum, and listened to the theme song of the Mounties.

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