What is it like to be a student in music at Memorial School? This page (newly developed and still a work in progress) is meant to give families a "snap shot" of what is happening in the music room. As concepts and skills change throughout the rest of this year, I plan on updating you on what we're doing.

Kindergartners continue to work one of our foundational concepts, feeling steady beat. This week we learned a new song to provide us another way to keep that beat. In I Can Hammer students keep the beat using various parts of their bodies as "hammers".

Students are also exploring high and low sounds. At this age being able to distinguish between high and low sounds is important for their understanding of various musical concepts that will be addressed later (melody direction, head and chest voices when singing, instrument identification, etc.)

Grade 2 students are finding out ways of using their bodies as instruments. In music we call it body percussion. The four types that we typically use are snap, pat, clap, and stamp. Have your 2nd grader show you what other ways they can use their body as a percussion instrument.

4th grade students are just beginning a long term project on composition. We begin with the idea of question and answer, will then move on to the blues and eventually lead to writing their own short pieces. Come back in a few weeks to hear our young composers' work!