This week in Exploring Music we have been busy learning how to play as part of a percussion ensemble. We worked with a song from the country of Liberia called "Take Time in Life". This song combined singing, movement, and a variety of percussion instruments. We learned about lyrics and how they are used to communicate a clear message through the medium of music. Ask your musician if they remember what the message of this song is! The students had a lot of fun learning to perform this piece! Check out the video below of the 3rd period class performance of "Take Time in Life" During the second half of the week we focused on learning our final percussion ensemble called the "High Life Ensemble". (I can't believe we are on our final few days of our first unit already)! Students had to work very hard at the musical concepts of balance, blend, and counting to be successful during the ensemble. We will be wrapping up our world percussion unit next Wednesday. Be sure to keep an eye out for study materials to come home Monday for the test on Wednesday. Check back next week for a video of our final percussion performance and to take a peek at the beginning of our guitar unit, too. :)
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Welcome to Exploring Music As A Language 6!
My name is Ms. Barkin and I teach the Exploring Music As A Language 6 class here at O'Donnell Middle School! I am so excited to have the opportunity to work with each and every student this term! Welcome to our weekly blog! Here you will be able to take a peek at what goes on inside our classroom. Check here each Friday for a new posting with a blog about what we learned that week and to see pictures and maybe even some videos of us in action! We started off our time together on Thursday. We reviewed my course expectations and talked a bit about what we would be learning about this term. Students were given a hard copy of these course expectations and are expected to return a signed copy by the Friday after vacation (May1st)! This will count as the first quiz grade of the term. If you need another copy please click HERE or see me. Be sure to check back with us next Friday to see some pictures of our first unit: World Percussion! I can't believe that our time together has already come to an end! I am very proud of the musical achievements of the 3rd term Exploring Music students!
We had our last three days of class together Monday-Wednesday. Our goal this week was to finish up our Ode to Joy accompinament track project and then play the melody of Ode to Joy in the background with our Ipad composition! This project was a lot of a fun and was a great way to wrap up and showcase everything we have learned this term. Thank you for sharing your musician with me! I wish each student the best in the journey to explore the next language!
Happy (early) Thursday! We are posting early this week due to no school tomorrow (Good Friday!) This week was a short week for us in Exploring Music 6, but we still were hard at work on our Ipads composing our very own music! Monday brought us our first project assignment. Students participated in an activity about musical form. We learned that form in music is like a road map telling us where our song begins, what comes next in order, and how the song ends. We talked about the fact that form can be thought of as a musical pattern. Students identified patterns on the SmartBoard and then were asked to create their very own patterns on the board using a variety of shapes and colors. We talked about ABA form, which means that the song has the same beginning and ending with something completely different in the middle. Students learned that they were going to be required to compose their very own song in ABA form.
Happy Friday! This week in Exploring Music 6, we wrapped up our guitar unit and began our final unit on music technology. Students took a written and performance guitar test on Monday. I want to congratulate everyone on a job well done! I was so impressed that this group of students was able to pick up a new instrument and learn it so quickly and so well! Be sure to check out ParentPortal for your student's final results. Be on the look out for all of the papers acquired in this unit to come home later next week, too!
Tuesday we began our final unit on music technology. During this unit, students will have the oppertunity to work with the Garageband App for the Ipad to compose their very own music! We learned about the care and keeping of the Ipads and began to work with Garageband on Friday. Students were introduced to the many different aspects of the program! Students will be assigned the first official project on Monday which will deal with musical form. Be sure to ask your child what musical form is and what form the first Ipad project is in! :) Have a great weekend, Ms. Barkin Happy Friday :) This week in Exploring Music we mastered the song "Ode to Joy" by the famous composer Beethoven! We spent the beginning of the week getting to know Beethoven by watching a short Brainpop video and completing a written classwork activity. This was a fun way to get to know a little bit more about the composer whose music we would be spending the week learning.
"Ode to Joy" is a tricky melody! It incorporates all 6 notes that we learned on the guitar as well as string crossing. Ask your student what string crossing means! The 6th graders have done an outstanding job of pointing out patterns in the melody that helped us learn the music very quickly! I am so proud of all of the hard work they have put in this week! Monday will be our final day exploring beginning guitar. Students will take a two part assessment to show all they have learned about the guitar on Monday. The written part of the test will contain fill in the blank, matching, true and false, and a diagram of a blank guitar, which students will be asked to label. The second half of the assessment will consist of a performance part. Students will be asked to play "Ode to Joy" individually on the guitar. Be on the lookout for your musician's results from the guitar test to be on ParentPortal Monday night! This week was full of guitar playing in Exploring Music 6! We started off our week with our very first guitar performance quiz. The song students were required to perform in small groups was called "Spanish Theme Song". This song incorperated the notes E, F and G that we have been working so hard on. I was very impressed with each and every performance! After given a few days worth of class time, students performed the quiz on Wednesday in class and did a fabulous job! Be sure to check out ParentPortal to see how your student did! On Thursday we began to add more notes to our musical toolbox. Students learned about the notes B, C, and D, where they are located on the musical staff, and how to play these notes on the guitar. We used an application on the Ipads called "Flashnote Derby" to practice our notation reading skills. Each student was given an Ipad to work with. Check out some pictures of us working with these app below! Today (Friday) we worked on reading notation to play examples using the notes B, C, and D. We even got as far as learning about string crossing, which means to play notes on both strings! I am so impressed with how quickly the students are picking up the guitar! To see a copy of the worksheet we will be working with for the next few days click HERE.
We will wrap up our guitar unit by the end of next week. Our time will be focused on learning one final song "Ode to Joy" by Beethoven. The final guitar test will take place one week from Monday (3/23). Be on the lookout for study materials to come home next Thursday!
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3rd Period Performance | 4th Period Performance |
The rest of the week brought excitement for us as we started work on our final percussion ensemble titled "High Life". This ensemble included three drum parts, a syncopated acousti-block part, and a shekere part, too! This will be the ensemble students will be tested on. Students will have the final world percussion test on Monday! We have been keeping a "word of the day" list throughout this unit. This list went home with students on Thursday. If you would like a copy of this list please click HERE. Students played a review game in class on Friday working with these words and will be tested on them Monday. The students will also be tested on the parts of the "High Life" ensemble, too! Be sure to check ParentPortal early next week for your child's test grades!
Have a great weekend! Check back next Friday to see us begin our guitar unit! :)
Have a great weekend! Check back next Friday to see us begin our guitar unit! :)
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6th Grade Exploring Music Class of OMS!
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