Ms. Arwady's Classroom Page

Welcome to music at Kalamazoo Country Day School!

 

Our school year is off to a wonderful start! To go along with KCDS's 2011-2012 theme of "anchors," we have learned the following song:

 

          (tune of Anchors Aweigh)

          Anchors aweigh, my friends. Anchors aweigh.

          We have a brand new school year here at Country Day. And we say

          Anchors aweigh, my friends. Anchors aweigh.

          Time to get back to learning . . .

                      with our kindergarteners. Hurray!

                      with our first and second grades. Hurray!

                      with our third and fourth and fifth. Hurray!

                      with our awesome middle school. Hurray!

                      with the world's best faculty. Hurray!

                      with our whole school family. HURRAY!

 

Lower school students are learning music theory. The youngest students read rhythms and play them on mini-djembes.  Beginning with 2nd grade, students identify names of the treble clef notes. This leads to reading scores by 4th and 5th grade.

Pitch matching is developed through singing, sometimes while wearing "Hearfones." In addition, enunciation and diction are constantly stressed. Our students are doing very well in this area; it's continuation of a learned skill for returning students and our new students quickly pick up on the "enunciation expectation."

Playing hand chimes is popular, as always. This year the 4th and 5th graders accompanied the National Anthem for a Friday assembly.

 

Because we are a Kalazoo Symphony Orchestra partner school again this year, we look forward to meeting "our" musician for the school year. He will do a performance activity which involves each individual class, grades K through 5th. The classroom teachers, Mrs. Alexander (our art teacher) and I will prepare the children for these visits. Parents and others are invited to attend these special classes. Actually, ALL music classes are open! Feel free to drop in and join us as we sing, dance, play instruments, and enjoy the world of music.

 

 

                    

 

 

The third grade component of the partner school curriculum is a chance to experience the KSO Instrument Petting Zoo. Volunteers bring real instruments for the third graders to  play. The volunteers “sanitize” the mouthpieces after each use and the students enjoy the chance to play a variety of instruments from all four instrument families.