Ms. Kasper's Music Pages

(Still the same Mrs. Westhaver but with a new name :)

 School Song 2023/2024

Everyone at WSRS will learn this song so we can sing it when we're all together.  What a great way to bond and strengthen our family!

"Work Hard and Be Nice" by Michael Franti

Work Hard and Be Nice lyrics

 School Song 2022/2023

Everyone at WSRS will learn this song so we can sing it when we're all together.  What a great way to bond and strengthen our family!

"Hooray for the World" by Red Grammar

Musician of the Month 2023/2024

Over the course of the year, WSRS students learn about 10 musicians who have made a huge impact on the world with their music.  Not every student will get to see every video included on the slide show so maybe you'd like to explore a little bit with your child or check them out for yourself!  I always learn so much when I research various musicians every year and I love sharing with my students.

Wolf Swamp Musician of the Month 2023-2024

Musician of the Month 2022/2023

Over the course of the year WSRS students learn about 10 musicians who have made a huge impact on the world with their music.  Not every student will get to see every video included on the slide show so maybe you'd like to explore a little bit with your child or check them out for yourself!  I always learn so much when I research various musicians every year and I love sharing with my students.

Musician of the Month 2022/2023

Our focus in Music Class...

Tuneful - I have melodies in my head and I can sing them in tune by myself and with others!

Beatful - I can feel the beat and move to it by myself and with others!

Artful - I can perform with expression and I can appreciate and be moved by music!

Dr. John Feierabend, one of the world's leading authorities on music and movement development in children and a  fantastic educator of students of all ages (I loved the class I took with him last summer!),  has developed a music curriculum which he describes as a "30 year plan".  He wants to teach children to be tuneful, beatful, and artful so they can confidently and independently ~

~ sing lullabies to their children, join in "Auld Lang Syne" on New Year's Eve,  and  sing "Happy Birthday" at parties

~ dance at weddings and clap along to music at ball games

~ enjoy and appreciate concerts, participate in community music events, and be inspired and moved by music of all kinds

I was inspired by his ideas and want to bring them to the students at Wolf Swamp Road School so we can be Tuneful, Beatful, and Artful for the rest of our lives!

First Steps in Music 

~A curriculum for emerging musicians from birth and up, First Steps is a musical workout that grows tuneful, beatful, and artful individuals.  Each class is a workout that contains some or all of 8 activities:

* Pitch Exploration - vocal warm-ups to develop head voice/singing voice

* Song Fragments - echo songs and call-and-response songs encourage independence with short phrases

* Simple Songs - short, easy to remember songs which will encourage independent singing and lead to early solo singing

* Arioso -  tunes which are spontaneously created by children first using nuetral syllables (mooing, whale talk, ghost sounds), then familiar words, and then improvised words based on conversations

* Song Tales - musical stories sung to the children in an expressive and entertaining manner

* Movement Exploration ~ warm-up movement which explores ways to move our bodies through space and also as a way to express music

* Movement for Form and Expression ~ children experience the expressive qualities in music as well as musical form through movement

* Beat Motion Activities ~ developing an intuition for the beat beginning with child initiated movements and tempi and eventually being able to feel beat in groups of two and three