Milwaukee's Florentine Opera company puts on an opera for kids each year. An opera is a story told on stage with singing. 

This year, the opera was L’elisir d’amore ("Elixir of Love") by Gaetano Donizetti. We learned about the plot of the opera (which was adapted to be appropriate for students). We listened to some musical examples from the opera in class.

We also learned about the Italian composer, Gaetano Donizetti. He composed "bel canto style" (beautiful singing) opera. He wrote 71 operas in his lifetime!

Click here if you would like to watch the opera at home. Put in "St. Joseph School" as the school, "Caila Greco" in for the name, and the number of people watching at home.

Our prayer song for the month was "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)."

In December, we put the finishing touches on our Christmas Concert music. The students did so well at the concert! "O Come, Little Children" had a lot of words and movements, and I am so proud of them for learning the whole song! We watched our Christmas Concert videos during class.

We spent the month getting ready for our Christmas Concert as well as learning a few other songs, such as...

• "God Bless America" (our prayer song for the month)

• "Go Round the Mountain"

• "Caney Mi Macaro" (an echo song)

• "Riding in a Buggy"

We learned about fast and slow music. Some of their favorite songs and activities that we did during this unit were:

• Playing sand blocks with "The Train is Coming"

• "The Grand Old Duke of York"

• We played a game with the song "The Old Gray Cat" and illustrated a book to go with it.

• “Wild Donkeys” from Carnival of the Animals

• We ended the unit by playing Kahoot on the iPads! They had to listen to a video with music on the board and they answered on their iPads if the music was fast or slow.

To access the MusicplayOnline song links, click on "Access some fun" after clicking the link.

Our October prayer song was "Hail Mary: Gentle Woman."

The curriculum that we use in K3-1st Grade Music is called “First Steps in Music.” This curriculum prepares young students to become “tuneful, beatful, and artful” musicians. I love this curriculum because it encourages students to be musically independent, creative, and expressive, all while being fun and playful! 

Students will learn “Simple Songs” as part of the curriculum. You may have seen a few 1/4-sized papers with the words to these songs in your child's take-home folder. These are short songs that they have learned to sing independently. Your child should sing the song for two people at home. If you want, you can keep the song sheets that are sent home throughout the year, staple them together, and make a little song book for your child!

In addition to the First Steps in Music curriculum, we have units in 1st Grade Music that focus on the basic musical concepts. For instance, we started off the year learning about our four voices - singing, speaking, whispering, and shouting. Some of their favorite songs and activities that we did during this unit were "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee" and "Brush Your Teeth".

We just finished a unit that focused on keeping the beat with music. We have been keeping the beat with music since K4 Music, but we never actually called it the "beat" until 1st Grade. Some of their favorite songs and activities that we did during this unit were:

• Listening to "Stars and Stripes Forever" and learning about how a marching band has to keep the beat together

• Playing instruments to the beat with the song "Play Your Instruments"

• Students came up to the front of the room to lead the beat on different parts of their bodies with the "Gigue" from The Water Music Suite by G.F. Handel.