Here's what we've been doing during the fall trimester in class:

- 6th grade: we've been singing in rounds (that's when different groups sing the same song but starting at different times - like an echo!); we reviewed the rhythms we know so far and then learned a new one - tim-ka! We-ve learned about and played the 12-bar blues on instruments. And we've been accompanying our Halloween round on xylophones. We played in an African drum circle. We also learned a Russian folk dance!

- 4th/5th grade: we've been singing, we reviewed the rhythms we know so far and then learned new ones. In 5th grade: syn-co-pa! That's an eighth, then quarter, then eighth note - a jazzy rhythm found in our folk song L'il Liza Jane which we played on xylophones.In 4th grade we discovered the triplet rhythm - called triple-ti. We played in an African drum circle, then studied the instruments of the orchestra. We learned a Russian folk dance and we've played musical games!

- 3rd grade we've been doing a lot of singing and practicing our solfege (that's do-re-mi!). We've done plenty of movement, reviewed rhythms and learned a new one: tika tika (4 sounds to a beat - 1/16th note). We've played games with these rhythms! We've listened to orchestra music with listening maps and created our own music with instruments representing a story and characters. We played in an African drum circle. We also discovered that music has patterns - called form - like ABA form - and we showed our understanding of this through movement and listening.

- 1st/2nd grade - we too are singing and moving a lot! We've practiced keeping a steady beat, and hearing long and short sounds and no sounds in music. We've learned about our basic rhythms and practiced playing, clapping and writing them: ta/titi and rest (silence)- 1/4 note, 1/8th note and 1/4 rest! We've explored our 4 voices (sing/speak/whisper/call) and the sounds (timbres) of instruments that jingle, scrape, tap or shake. We have recognized fast and slow speeds in music! We played in an African drum circle.