What to expect in the month of February:

8th grade:
Students will finish up watching Amadeus and begin diving into Mozart's work, The Magic Flute. While reading the story students will be able to listen to and see select arias and recitatives found in this opera. The unit will wrap up with a test on voice parts, the basics of the opera, and the story of The Magic Flute.

7th grade:
Students will continue their survey of jazz. We have just finished up our first portion of this unit, the blues and the beginnings of jazz in Africa. We will continue our journey of jazz with a study of the major names in jazz history such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davies, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Billie Holiday. Students will discover these artists through their music.

6th grade:
Students are finishing up their unit on instruments of the orchestra and will shortly begin their unit on patriotic music.

5th grade:
Students will continue their mastery of recorder (pitches B A G). Through their performance on recorder students are learning to identify and label pitches and rhythms. Students will also learn new songs to sing as well as rhythmic poems.

4th grade:
Students will continue their mastery of recorder (pitches B A G). Through their performance on recorder students are learning to identify and label pitches and rhythms. Once students reach a level of comfort with the three major pitches we will begin splitting our class time between recorder and new vocal pieces.

3rd grade:
Students will continue their mastery of recorder (pitches B A G). Through their performance on recorder students are learning to identify and label pitches and rhythms. Once students reach a level of comfort with the three major pitches we will begin splitting our class time between recorder and new vocal pieces.

2nd grade:
Students have been performing various vocal pieces while performing an accompaniment on pitched percussion. Students are reinforcing steady beat through broken patterns on xylophone. Students are also continuing their study of solfege and Kurwen hand signs. Students will be working on rhythmic speech with body percussion accompaniment.

1st grade:
Students have been performing various vocal pieces while performing an accompaniment on pitched percussion. Students are continuing to reinforce a steady beat through rhythmic patterns in speech, body percussion, and on pitched percussion. Students are also using creative movement to increase their listening skills. Rhythm identification is also a constant in every class meeting.

Kindergarten:
Students have been performing various vocal pieces while performing an accompaniment on pitched percussion. Students are continuing to reinforce a steady beat through rhythmic patterns in speech, body percussion, and on pitched percussion. Students are also using creative movement to increase their listening skills and identification of music basics such as "high" and "low." Rhythmic identification is also a constant in every class meeting.