Music at Wendell Elementary

Listen to our soundscapes composed by 4th grade musicians!! A soundscape is an atmosphere or environment created by sound. Every 4th grade student composed their own soundscape to represent the character of their NC Long Ago Narratives. These soundscapes were edited and combined into a final class song with background music composed by Danny Elfman. When participating in this 6-week integrated unit, our musicians:

We have had an extremely busy 1st Quarter in our new magnet program exploring music and learning through all of the multiple intelligences. The 2nd Quarter brings some exciting new projects and opportunities for our talented musicians!!!

Kindergarten musicians have been practicing using our voices EXPRESSIVELY when we are speaking and singing. Ask your child to recite the Five Little Pumpkins poem and listen for how they change their voices to show you how each pumpkin feels. We will spend the next five weeks studying holiday traditions and customs all around the world and how music plays a very important role in all types of celebrations. Students will be learning and using healthy singing habits and will be preparing for a Holidays Around the World music and dance sharing in December. We'll have more information on a date and time for you soon.

First Grade musicians just finished a unit on spiders! We've been practicing keeping a steady beat while speaking and singing different rhythms. At the same time we have also been sharpening our reading and literacy skills. We read Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider and chanted "the spider kept on working until the job was done" while keeping a steady beat after every page. Ask your child to tell you about the story and to perform the chant for you. We also transferred our steady beats to xylophones and metallophones. First graders LOVE performing on instruments! Soon we will start our unit on Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker where we will learn about all the instruments of the orchestra and how composers use music to tell a story.

Second Grade musicians have just completed their Science of Sound unit and now we are very excited to start a project combining dance with Mrs. Atkins! Students will be studying Sergei Prokofiev's musical story of Peter and the Wolf. In music class we will study how composers can use timbre (the unique sound of a voice or instrument) to represent different characters. Then we will compose our own music for each character in the story. In dance, students will create movements to represent these characters. We'll combine all of our hard work into an informal sharing on Wednesday, December 2nd. Parents will receive an official invitation soon!

Third Grade musicians are combining their poetry, art, dance, and music skills into one exciting unit for 2nd quarter! Mrs. York, Mrs. Atkins, and Miss Wirth recently visited third grade classrooms to work with students on writing an "I am from" poem. In this poem students express all of the experiences and memories of their family and life to give us an understanding of who they are and where they are "from." The students did such an incredible job writing these poems and now they are using them in dance, art, and music class to further express their ideas and feelings. Students are creating self portraits in art and choreographing a collective "We are from" dance with Mrs. Atkins. In music, students are composing sound effects to accompany their poems. We will record their readings with sound effects and use them to create a class song. This class song is what students will perform their "We are from" dance to. We are so excited about working with third grade students and teachers in this very special project. Our informance (where we will share our poems, compositions, dance, and self portraits) will be on Wednesday, December 9th at 12pm. Look for your official invitation soon.

Fourth Grade musicians just completed their NC Long Ago informance! Hopefully you were able to come and listen to our NC Long Ago soundscapes, see their costumes, and hear their monologues. We are going on our NC Symphony field trip on Tuesday, November 3rd and we have been working so hard on listening and analyzing the music we will hear the Symphony perform. We studied texture in Beethoven's 6th Symphony (the "storm" movement), dynamics in Georges Bizet's Carillon from L'Arlesienne, and form in Tchaikovsky's Swan Theme from Swan Lake. The fourth grade classroom teachers even taught a lesson with Miss Wirth where students used Camille Saint-Saens' music from Samson and Delilah to write dramatic stories. We will post our soundscapes and some personal reflections from our symphony field trip soon.

Fifth Grade musicians have been exploring the world of rhythm. We have found and made connections to rhythm and math with conversions, place values, fractions, and even geometry! We have been composing music using patterns, symmetry, rotations, reflections, and translations. We are currently "constructing" musical machines that demonstrate force, friction, and inertia (key vocabulary concepts in science) as well as synchronization and interdependency (key concepts for musicians). In just a few weeks, we will also start composing music based on the rhythm and patterns of our optical art projects created with Mrs. York in art class.

Miss Wirth has recently set-up a project on DonorsChoose.org for our special needs learners at Wendell. This project will help us purchase boomwhackers and drum practice pads that will allow students the chance to experience music in an active and safe way. These materials will help students learn music, develop and build social skills, enhance learning in other content areas, and provide a bodily-kinesthetic outlet. And the best part is that ALL students at Wendell Elementary will benefit from this project. Please visit our project site, consider making a donation, and forward it to your friends and families who may also be able to help. We have 5 months to meet our financial goal. Thank you for all of your support!!
Peace, Love, Respect, for Everyone!

Welcome October and Welcome Fall! Don't forget to ask your music student to perform the October Poem of the Month for you. Check for understand with K-2 students by asking them what rhyming words they hear in the poem, and with 3-5 students ask which words have long sounds and which words have short sounds.

Here's a look at what's been going on in music...


Kindergarten students have been studying all of the music basics - steady beat, body percussion, high and low music sounds, loud and soft musical sounds - through an animal unit related to their work in science. We have created vocal animal sounds and charted these sounds together as high or low. We are singing songs and performing rhythms to animal songs about both the farm and the zoo. To end our unit we will be studying Camille Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals. This is a great way for us to review fast, slow, high, low, smooth, choppy, loud, and soft musical sounds. You can listen to Carnival of the Animals with your child online at Rhadsopy.com.
First Graders have just finished a unit on timbre (the unique or special sound of each voice or instrument). Students classified the instruments in our classroom into timbre groups - ringing, rattling, scraping, thumping, and clicking. Ask your student to tell you the name of their favorite instrument and what timbre is has.

Second Graders are wrapping up their science of sound and orchestra unit. We have listened to and even made some of our very own versions of each instrument family of the orchestra - strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion. We will test our knowledge in a study of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. This is a great way to review instrument sounds because each character in the story is represented by a different instrument throughout the whole piece. You can listen to each character's theme with your child on Phil Tuga's website.


Third Graders are enriching their math knowledge through our work with rhythms, canons, composing, and notation. We have been studying whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth note values and performing them in a canon. Students recently composed their own 4-beat rhythm pattern that we are using as a part of a song we chant and play instruments with. The students LOVE having their own music become a part of a real song!





Fourth Graders are getting reading to record the soundscapes we have been working so hard on since the beginning of the year. These students have been using the explorer, Native American, or Lost Colony character from their personal narrative in class to compose a soundscape that represents their ideas, challenges, attributes, and emotions. We have used alternative graphic notation to notate our scores and we will be recording these compositions to be performed at the 4th Grade Informance on October 29th.


Fifth Graders have finsihed up their Native American unit and have begun working with music and math. We are making connections between note values and place values, as well as the relationship between conversions in math and the conversion of note values (for example: whole note is to quarter note as gallon is to quart). We have been performing two, three and four part canons using half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth note patterns. Students have just started composing their own 16-beath rhythm patterns that are designed to be performed as a canon. In order to do this students have to understand the relationships between each line of the composition and use patterns to create rhythms that will "make sense" or "sound good" when performed at the same time.

Fifth Graders wrapped up their Native American Music Unit by listening to the Zuni Sunrise Call. The red line is a representation of the melody of the song as students heard it. They then had to turn the melody line into a sunrise landscape and identify at least 3 landforms.

Congratulations to Mrs. Ralph's Kindergarten Class for their wonderful performance at the Wendell Harvest Fest on Friday, October 2nd.

Don't forget to find ways to make music a part of your life! Listen to the Classical Station on the way to school (89.7) and have students guess what instruments they hear. Have your children listen to YOUR favorite song from when you were a kid and tell them why you liked it. Have a pajama dance party and jam out to your favorite tunes before bed time, or start a new tradition of playing lullaby music from around the world before you go to sleep. Thank you for all you do to support your child's journey in music. Peace, Love, Respect for Everyone!

We are so excited to be starting a new school year with our new Creative Arts & Science magnet program. Through this magnet program all students will visit music for 50 minutes every 6 days. Instruction in the music classroom and throughout the entire school will focus on learning through Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (MI). Listed below are the objectives each grade level is focusing on during our first 6-day rotation along with some MI-based home activities you can do with your student to further explore music together as a family.

FIRST GRADE
We are reinforcing our understanding of Steady Beat and Rhythm. Discuss with your child that music can have a steady beat and have them demonstrate a steady beat by patting their laps to the music on the radio as you drive in the car. Discuss how rhythm is a pattern of long and short sounds. Play a call-and-response game with your child where they clap a rhythm and you repeat it. Then clap a pattern and have your child perform it back to you.

SECOND GRADE
We are reviewing rhythmic notation. Students have been performing "ta" (♩) and "ti-ti" (♫) patterns. Ask your child to sing and perform our "Summer Vacation" song with the ♫♩pattern. The words are below.
Summer's almost over, the school year has begun ♫♩
Hope that your vacation was lots and lots of fun ♫♩

THIRD GRADE
We are working on developing independence between our singing and instrument playing skills by singing a syncopated rhythm (stressing the unstressed beat) while keeping a steady beat with body percussion and instrument playing. Have your child teach you the "Up the Ladder" song and partner clapping game. The words and movements are below.
Up the ladder (pat partner's hands above head twice)
Down the ladder (pat partner's hands infront of your chest twice)
One by One (pat R hands, pat L hands)

FOURTH & FIFTH GRADE
We are working on improvisation using body percussion and improving our focus and cooperation when performing as a musical group. Students improvised the rhythm of their name and the class had to repeat these rhythms together and in increasingly-long sequences. Ask your child why we have FORM in music, what Rondo form is (ABACADAE...), and what other areas in our life and school learning do we have patterns and form to help us organize information?

MI-BASED ACTIVITIES TO DO AT HOME WITH MUSIC

• Art-Smart: Play a piece of music for your child and have them finger paint the shape or line of the melody. Try FM 89.7 The Classical Station as a great way to find classical music to use for this activity.
• Body-Smart: Play a control game with your child. Play a piece of music and have your child keep a steady beat as they move around the space. When the music stops your child must freeze in an interesting shape until the music starts again.
• Word-Smart: Listen to a piece of music with your child and have them write a story to describe what they think is happening. Be sure to use music without words so that their stories can be truly creative. Try finding some Miles Davis or other jazz tunes for really exciting story starters.
• Math-Smart: Graph the dynamics (loud/soft) of a piece of music on a line graph. Play a piece of music and stop at 30-second intervals and plot where the dynamic level (volume) is. Then connect all the dots and look at the line graph to see how the dynamics change throughout the piece.
• People-Smart: Find instruments in the kitchen (pots, pans, spoons, oatmeal containers, etc) and create a rhythm parade. Jam together in a parade around your yard or have your child(ren) plan a special concert just for you!
• Self-Smart: Create a music journal and have your child draw, write, make a collage, etc on their personal reflections and reactions to a piece of music.
  
• Nature-Smart: Go on a "listening walk," and listen for all the sounds they hear in nature. After your nature walk you can discuss what you heard or have your child cut out pictures from magazines to show you the different things they heard.
• Music-Smart: Any of these above activities would be GREAT for music learners, but if you have a serious music lover in your house you may want to consider signing them up for private or group music lessons so they can continue to study music outside of school.

Welcome back to school and as always, please feel free to contact me at any time for questions, concerns, or ideas at mwirth@wcpss.net. I am so excited about working with your children in exploring music this year.

We've had a wonderful year together learning, exploring, and making music! I hope you all have a wonderful summer and to our talented 5th Graders, I hope you choose to keep music in your life in some way. Don't forget that you don't have to PERFORM music to have it in your life. Listening to music, discovering new artists, discussing music with your friends and families, going to live concerts and shows - these are all ways to explore music and allow it to become a part of what makes and keeps you happy in life. I wish you every happiness as you continue your journey into Middle School - work hard and have FUN!!! And as for the rest of you... I'll see you in the fall! ♪


Check out some LIVE MUSIC this summer

• Toubab Krewe
  Saturday, June 20th 8pm at the NC Museum of Art
  $15 General Admission, $7.50 Children 7-12, Children 6 and under are free
  Toubab Krewe hails from Asheville, NC and presents a great show of rock and roll music fused with West African music.
• Dan Zanes & Friends
  Saturday, July 18th 7pm at the NC Museum of Art
  $18 General Admission, $9 Children 3-12, Children 2 and under are free
  Famous for his House Party videos on Playhouse Disney, Dan Zanes has been performing first-class children's music of many years. This is a wonderful family-friendly show!\
• The Grass Cats
  Saturday, July 18 6pm at Lake Benson Park in Garner
  Don't miss this five piece bluegrass band from NC perform outside at beautiful Lake Benson Park!

Summer Travels can be fun with Music, too!
Visit these websites to learn more about road trips, day trips, and long trips you can make with your family this summer to find great live music (and do other fun things too!)

• Asheville, North Carolina
  Just four hours from Raleigh is one of the most thriving music scenes in the Southeast! Nestled in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains and Pisgah National Forest, Asheville offers so many natural wonders and adventures to share with your family. Click here to see a list of their many live music concerts and festivals happening all summer (and year) long!
• Outer Banks, North Carolina
  If you're headed to the Outer Banks this summer, Manteo offers many concerts and cultural events throughout the summer. Check out the Roanoke Island Festival Park's website for a complete list of music festivals, children's events, and other performing arts happenings.
• Floyd, Virginia
  If you still haven't made your summer vacation plans and are looking for something new, exciting, fun, and musical to do, check out Floyd Fest this year with your family in Floyd, Virginia. The 4-day festival (you can camp or stay in a hotel near the festival site) features musical acts all day long as well as an entire "children's camp" where kids can play games, make art projects, and perform some music of their own. Artists performing this year include Blues Traveler, Donna the Buffalo, The Old Ceremony, and The Duhks (Miss Wirth's favorite!). Check out their website for more information.