On this page, you will find information on upcoming events, activities going on in the music classroom, and extra-curricular music programs at Mary Queen of the World School.

"So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany it and sustain it." - Aaron Copeland

Music Activities to Try at Home

Here are some ideas for students to try while at home during this period. I will update this list every week so keep checking back.

1. Complete Musical Choice Board #1 Just click on the "Home" drop down menu in the upper right hand corner of this page to gain access.

2. Combine Music and Science with some great sound experiments. Follow the link to the Kids Academy website for 7 great sound experiments. https://www.kidsacademy.mobi/storytime/sound-science-experiments/

3. Take part in the NSO's Weekly Rhythm and Recess. Each week a member of the orchestra hosts a video discussing different instruments of the orchestra. The videos will go live on Facebook and Youtube every Wednesday at 11:00 am.

4. Have Fun with Body Percussion. Turn your body into a drum by clapping your hands, patting on your lap, snapping your fingers, thumping your chest, and much more. Body percussion is something that we do all the time in music class simply by keeping a steady beat, and performing songs and games like "Boom Snap Clap," and "Bim Bum Biddy." We also have fun with hand clapping games that we can do with a partner. There are so many things you can do with body percussion. This week, try making up your own hand clapping pattern or game. You can also try creating an awesome beat to go with a song that you love. Have fun and be creative. I would love to see what you come up with. You can also check out this great YouTube channel from Splash Games that has lots of hand clapping games that you can do with a partner. https://www.youtube.com/user/ldssplash1.

5. Play a Silly Sound Guessing Game: Think of different animal sounds and do your best to copy them. Ask someone in your house to guess what animal you are. You could also do this with other types of sound such as computers, vacuums, cars, and so on. Be as silly as and creative as you can.

6. Do the Bunny Hop! Listen to the lyrics of the song to figure out the dance steps. It is best performed in a conga line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UwOa3agg2w

7. Make some Egg-cellent Shakers. All you need are some plastic Easter Eggs, tape, and dried rice, peas, or beans. Put the rice, peas, or beans inside the plastic eggs, tape it shut, and give them a shake. If you don't have plastic eggs at home, try other materials like plastic cups. What other materials could you use? Get creative.

8. Play Musical "Hot and Cold": Choose one person in the house to hide an object and another person to find it. Whoever hid the object, will then guide the person looking using sound. If the sounds are fast, the person looking is close to the object. If the sounds are slow, they are far away. You could also do this with loud and soft sounds, or high and low sounds. You can make the sounds on an instrument, or anything that you may find at home like a table, or pot, or tin can. You could even do some body percussion like patting your lap or making silly sounds with your voice.

9. Go on an Adventure With Flat Beethoven: Check out this fun activity from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. In this activity you will print, color, and cut out a picture of Ludwig Van Beethoven. Then you try putting him in different places around the house and take a picture. You can upload your pictures to their website, or you can just keep them for yourself to look at or even turn into a story. You can find the PDF for Flat Beethoven by clicking on this link: https://www.mydso.com/dso-kids/activities/flat-beethoven

10. Put on a Lip-Sync concert or have a contest with your family. Pick your favorite song and pretend to sing along. You can add dance moves, or put on silly costumes. Be creative and have fun!

11. MusicPlay Online is available for free for students to use during this time. It is full of great activities, songs, and other music related things for students to continue their learning. MusicPlay is the resource that we use in school. Click on the link below.

http://www.musicplayonline.com

Username: snow

Password: 2020

12. Want to find out what it’s like to play in an orchestra? Check out this link from the London Symphony where they have posted videos taken from the musicians’ perspective.

https://play.lso.co.uk/

13. Take a walk and make a list of all the different sounds that you hear.

14. Make a list of all the different sounds that you hear around your house.

15. Make a list of Spring words and see if you can figure out the rhythm. You can clap the syllables to found out if the words have one sound, two sounds, three sounds or more. Then try and find a way to write the rhythm of the words using music notation (ta, ti-ti, etc.), shapes, or pictures. Finally, try making a pattern out of your words and see how many rhythms you can create. Here is an example: Pattern: sun flower bunny grass Rhythm: ta ti-ti ti-ti ta

16. Draw a picture while listening to your favorite song, or a piece of classical music. "An American In Paris" by George Gershwin is a wonderful piece of music for drawing pictures. The composer tried to capture the sights and sounds of Paris while he lived there in the late 1920's (almost 100 years ago!). Paris was a very busy and noisy city at that time, and still is today. If you listen carefully, you might even hear the sounds of old fashioned cars rushing about and beeping. Click the link below to watch an orchestra perform the piece. Of course, "An American in Paris" is just one of a million different pieces of music to use for drawing. You can create a picture to go with any kind of music from any genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PBpOXn3Iqg

17. Have a dance party! Put on your favorite music and have fun. Get creative with your dance moves, and be silly.

Music Makes Hand Washing Fun

Given the current global situation, here are some videos for kids about washing your hands and germs for kids.

The Kiboomers: Wash Your Hands Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaePayB_pC4

The Wiggles: Wash Your Hands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDe3wmOLvk0

Jack Hartman: Wash My Hands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ3oSvfiwU4

Sing Song Along: Germs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whbxePmMNbE

Do you want to make washing your hands more fun? Try singing the chorus to some of your favourite songs on the radio. Many pop songs have choruses that last 20 seconds which is perfect for hand washing. Just pick your fave and sing away. You can also check out these awesome 20+ second videos:

Hand Washing Song (The San Diego Symphony): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7BMrvE_J5I

Africa (Toto): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7BMrvE_J5I

Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnqItp2XlQo

Ms. Stokes' Winter Playlist

Check out this list of songs that we will be enjoying throughout the second term. You can find these songs on different music and video streaming sites such as Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, MusicK8, and others.

1. Winter (from The Four Seasons) - Antonio Vivildi

2. Sisi Ni Moja - Jacob Narverud

3. Take 5 - Dave Bruebeck

4. The Syncopated Clock - Leroy Anderson

5. Bogannin’ Hill - Lee and Sandy Paley

6. Peter and The Wolf - Sergi Prokofiev

7. Crabs in the Bucket - K-os

8. The Lake Isle - Ola Gjeilo

9. Kick Push - Lupe Fiasco

10. Canon in D - Johann Pachelbel

11. Stand By Me - Ben E. King

12. Mouse Mousie - Traditional

13. With a Little Help From My Friends - The Beatles

14. Hot Cross Buns - Traditional

15. Go Be Awesome - Theresa Jennings

16. Pizza Love - Theresa Jennings

17. Sakura - Japanese Traditional

18. The Virginia Reel - Traditional

19. Who Stole the Cookies - Traditional

20. One Note Samba - Ella Fitzgerald

21. You’ve Got to Run - Buffy St. Marie and Tanya Tagaq

22. Lukey's Boat - Shaneyganock

23. I'se The B'y - Great Big Sea

24. Carnival of the Animals - Camille Saint-Saens

25. Music and Friends - Bud Davidage

What is Happening in the Music Room?

• Ms. Paul's and Mr. Day's grade 6 classes are working on a STEAM and music collaboration with Ms. Roberts where students are creating and coding digital ugly sticks using Scratch and Makey Makey. Ms. Mercer also treated the classes to the story "Jack and the Magnificant Ugly Stick" by Joshua Goudie. To get started, students had to design an ugly stick using paper, pipe cleaner, and tin foil. Next, they will upload their creation in Scratch and write the code. The final step will be to attach the Makey Makey and their ugly stick will be ready to play.

• The Grade 5 and 5/6 Split classes have just finished a unit on Jazz and Blues. They loved trying to create scat sound to go along with a jazzy version of the children's classic "Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar." They have also worked together as a class to create their own blues song. Ms. Butts's Class wrote one called the "Homework Blues," and Ms. Buckle's class composed one called "The Pizza Blues." Ms. Collins class is in the middle of writing "The Snow Day Blues" but they keep getting interrupted by... you guessed it, snow days. Haha! Up next, they will be combining xylophones, recorder, and dance in a unit focusing on classic Newfoundland folksongs.

• Students in grade 4 are taking a break from recorder and are currently learning about folk dances from around the world. They really enjoyed dancing The Virginia Reel from the United States. Now, we are learning about different dance steps from Zimbabwe. The Kennedy Center for the Arts has some great videos that the kids love. Here is a link to one called "Dancing Around the Clock" www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewqq-3xJFdI

• The Grade 2 and 3 classes are learning about song writing. They are creating songs in 4/4 meter using pentatonic scales. First, we started created the rhythms using cut out hearts to represent the number of beats, and bean bags to represent the rhythms on each beat. Next we will decided on the melody using doh, mi, sol, and la in grade 2, and C pentatonic scales in grade grade 3. Students in both grades will soon getting ready to start practice for their Spring Concert. The theme is "Dinosaurs Rock!" They are so excited.

• "Go Be Awesome!" is a song that the grade 1 classes are singing in music class and all over the school. It has a great upbeat tempo and positive lyrics that just love! They have been busy practicing for their upcoming Friendship Assembly, and it is just one of a few songs that they are learning. They are also learning "Music and Friends" by Bud Davidage and will be accompanied by some fantastic grade 6 students on the ukulele and possibly guitar and piano. Stay tuned for more.

• The Kindergartens are very busy being musical explorers. So far this term, we have explored important musical concepts such as high/low, fast/slow, loud/soft, and have even learned a little Italian along the way. They have gone all over the music room investigating all the different ways to move your body to music, and have closely examined the sounds of the different instruments.

These are just some of the awesome things that are going in the music room at MQW. There is so much more happening every day. Keep checking back for updates as the school year continues.