Welcome to the St. Christina Music Class Webpage!
For the 2017-2018 school year, each grade level (PreK-5th grade) will cover a wide variety of fun and educational music-related lessons. We will certainly focus on understanding melody and how to properly use our singing voices (Christmas show, Church songs); however, we will also take a more analytical approach to understanding music and its purpose.
Preschool: For our PreK classes, we are focused on understanding timing in music. To achieve this goal, we have been singing songs that pertain to each holiday and have implemented clapping exercises and activities with practicing percussion instruments. In addition to these lessons, our PreK students are also working on identifying happy/exciting musical sounds and sad/angry musical sounds. To help advance their understanding of this, we are also listening to instrumental music and having them create an image to match the sounds that they hear.
Kindergarten: Our Kindergarten classes have been working on understanding some basic music terms (genre, mood, lyrics) and how to identify them in modern music. In addition to rehearsing songs for Mass, they have also been actively participating in listening exercises (some are in groups, some are individually) in which they listen for particular instruments and the message of the lyrics.
1st Grade: First Grade has focused on similar content to Kindergarten; however, it is at a slightly more advanced level. They are learning music terms, including ones that are more complex to understand and differentiate from one another (tempo vs. rhythm, dynamics). In addition to this, first grade is also mastering the understanding of pitch and the importance of listening to changes in music through different educational music games.
2nd & 3rd Grades: Our 2nd and 3rd Grade students have mastered the basic fundamental music terms - and they will continue to expand on their vocabulary. In order to assess their knowledge of different musical concepts, we have consistently completed listening activities and a group project. For the listening activities, I will play a piece of music from any genre/artist - it may be a song that the children recognize, it may be a song that is unfamiliar to them. The students are then asked to describe the genre, instrumentation, and mood for each song while also reflecting on their perception of the lyrical subject/content. I am striving to encourage creative thinking when listening to music; and so far, the kids are doing a fantastic job.
4th & 5th Grades: Furthering the importance of creative thinking with music and art, my oldest students have completed an advanced group project in which they were to work as a "band" and create their own album cover. In addition the record sleeve, each band was required to write a paper that correctly identified the music terms covered in class and creatively applied those terms to their repertoire to demonstrate their understanding of the class content. Preparation for this project (and for consistently-building their music vocabulary) was conducted with several listening exercises, lecture-style lessons, and open group discussions reflecting on different pieces of recorded music.
For the 2017-2018 school year, each grade level (PreK-5th grade) will cover a wide variety of fun and educational music-related lessons. We will certainly focus on understanding melody and how to properly use our singing voices (Christmas show, Church songs); however, we will also take a more analytical approach to understanding music and its purpose.
Preschool: For our PreK classes, we are focused on understanding timing in music. To achieve this goal, we have been singing songs that pertain to each holiday and have implemented clapping exercises and activities with practicing percussion instruments. In addition to these lessons, our PreK students are also working on identifying happy/exciting musical sounds and sad/angry musical sounds. To help advance their understanding of this, we are also listening to instrumental music and having them create an image to match the sounds that they hear.
Kindergarten: Our Kindergarten classes have been working on understanding some basic music terms (genre, mood, lyrics) and how to identify them in modern music. In addition to rehearsing songs for Mass, they have also been actively participating in listening exercises (some are in groups, some are individually) in which they listen for particular instruments and the message of the lyrics.
1st Grade: First Grade has focused on similar content to Kindergarten; however, it is at a slightly more advanced level. They are learning music terms, including ones that are more complex to understand and differentiate from one another (tempo vs. rhythm, dynamics). In addition to this, first grade is also mastering the understanding of pitch and the importance of listening to changes in music through different educational music games.
2nd & 3rd Grades: Our 2nd and 3rd Grade students have mastered the basic fundamental music terms - and they will continue to expand on their vocabulary. In order to assess their knowledge of different musical concepts, we have consistently completed listening activities and a group project. For the listening activities, I will play a piece of music from any genre/artist - it may be a song that the children recognize, it may be a song that is unfamiliar to them. The students are then asked to describe the genre, instrumentation, and mood for each song while also reflecting on their perception of the lyrical subject/content. I am striving to encourage creative thinking when listening to music; and so far, the kids are doing a fantastic job.
4th & 5th Grades: Furthering the importance of creative thinking with music and art, my oldest students have completed an advanced group project in which they were to work as a "band" and create their own album cover. In addition the record sleeve, each band was required to write a paper that correctly identified the music terms covered in class and creatively applied those terms to their repertoire to demonstrate their understanding of the class content. Preparation for this project (and for consistently-building their music vocabulary) was conducted with several listening exercises, lecture-style lessons, and open group discussions reflecting on different pieces of recorded music.