Kindergarten musicians are working hard to sing with gentle head voices, keep a steady beat with their bodies, dance using moods and play instruments.  Kindergarteners have even started to read a few rhythms!  Here, we share three kinds of echoes for you: rhythm, pitch and silly! (Even the silly ones help us understand musical phrasing.) 

First graders are learning so much about pitch, singing, rhythm, and beat.  One of our favorite songs to work on is "Ti-O-O," a Hokkien language folk song from Taiwan.  This song is about a loach!  (Ask your students what it is!). This song was taught to Dr. Huntley by Ms. Jannelle Lo, a music teacher in Newton, who sang this song as a child in Taiwan.  Every student in first grade has had a chance to accompany their peers with a boomwhacker.

Second graders are traveling around the world to explore their musical identities.  We have visited parts of Japan, Ghana and now Mexico!  Students have fun singing "Tia Monica" and adding body parts to wiggle "asi, asi asi!"  While this song is beloved in many Spanish-speaking nations, research shows its roots are in Mexico.  Enjoy seeing us create, dance and sing in Spanish!

It's recorder year!  A recorder is a small woodwind instrument that gives many children their first experience reading notes, blowing and doing a fingering combination all at the same time.  What coordination!  Third graders are using their recorder playing to learn about musical structures.  In "Duke's Place," we get a chance to sing and improvise.  We also did a mini-lesson on the great Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong!

Fourth graders have been studying "marginalized" composers.  We defined the term as, literally, people pushed to the margins because of things like racism and sexism.  One of our featured composers is Angélica Negron, a Latina composer and educator from Puerto Rico.  Ms. Negron created a song called "Un, Dos, Tres" for children to sing and improvise.  Watch and listen as fourth graders perform her work!