On Wednesday, 4th grade continued to practice and work to improve individual singing. This improvisation exercise involved each student singing to us a favorite food repeated by the class in echo form. While last week students were asked to make up their own melody, this day three 5 note melodies from a familiar song were given as prompts and each student given coaching where needed to succeed in the activity. Many 4th graders sang independently without coaching and those who were coached also provided independent singing to the class "menu" of food items.
On Thursday, 1st graders worked to put locomotor movements to the steady beat. This transferred to three different rhythm patterns - 4 Quarter Notes, 2 Half Notes and 8 Eighth Notes in pairs - and movement occurred while singing three different descending scales E< D< C< then G< F< E< D< C< and finally C<B<A<G<F<E<D<C. 1st grade classes were given opportunity to try independent singing as each of the classes chose a favorite topic to sing about - DESSERT, musical INSTRUMENT and FALL TIME FOOD.
On Friday, 6th graders completed the writing process of this year's musical "THE O(z)DYSSEY". A comic retelling of the finishing chapters of Odysseus travels back to his home Kingdom of Ithaca, the mixture of themes and ideas from many different versions of the "OZ" classic find their way into the telling of this years show including rewritten lyrics to songs from "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Wiz" and "Wicked" help to tell the story of Odysseus travels back to his home. We now start the process of "workshopping" our writing in class practicing vocal use, solo work, and comic/dramatic acting to eventually choose our cast. We then rehearse in class and chorus towards performance on Jan 22 at 7 pm for families and Jan 23 during All School Meeting for the Merriam School community.
On Thursday, 1st graders worked to put locomotor movements to the steady beat. This transferred to three different rhythm patterns - 4 Quarter Notes, 2 Half Notes and 8 Eighth Notes in pairs - and movement occurred while singing three different descending scales E< D< C< then G< F< E< D< C< and finally C<B<A<G<F<E<D<C. 1st grade classes were given opportunity to try independent singing as each of the classes chose a favorite topic to sing about - DESSERT, musical INSTRUMENT and FALL TIME FOOD.
On Friday, 6th graders completed the writing process of this year's musical "THE O(z)DYSSEY". A comic retelling of the finishing chapters of Odysseus travels back to his home Kingdom of Ithaca, the mixture of themes and ideas from many different versions of the "OZ" classic find their way into the telling of this years show including rewritten lyrics to songs from "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Wiz" and "Wicked" help to tell the story of Odysseus travels back to his home. We now start the process of "workshopping" our writing in class practicing vocal use, solo work, and comic/dramatic acting to eventually choose our cast. We then rehearse in class and chorus towards performance on Jan 22 at 7 pm for families and Jan 23 during All School Meeting for the Merriam School community.