Hello Faith Elementary students and parents!
It is my pleasure to be teaching the children of Faith again this year. Beginning my ninth year at Faith, I am always looking for new things to share with the students.
In Kindergarten and First Grade, we have started the year with “Welcome” songs and “Hello” songs. In learning these songs, we have learned about steady beat, rhythm, and the echo technique to learn songs.
Currently, we are learning to read rhythms and steady beats with quarter notes and eighth notes, playing various song games and rhythm games to help the students learn to read these notes.
Second graders are being introduced to music books for the first time, so we have spent a lot of time learning to follow the music! It is very obvious which children are used to singing out of a hymnbook.
In addition, they are learning about the whole note, half note, quarter note, and eighth note, and walking and moving to these beats. This is building on the knowledge they already have about steady beat and rhythm from kindergarten and first grade.
Continuing the building, third through fifth graders are learning about the whole note, dotted half note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, and sixteenth note. We also discussed how a “dot” affects a note. These students will be tested individually on these notes, receiving a prize when they make a 100 on the test.
Also in third through fifth grade, I thought it would be fun to start the year with Jamaican music, because of the optimistic nature of the Jamaican people. We sang and danced to “I Can See Clearly Now,” and discussed musician Jimmy Cliff.
We also sang and discussed the history of the “Banana Boat Song” (and musician/actor Harry Belafonte). I have always enjoyed singing this song, and I’m sure you will find your children feel the same.
As we move into the year, I focus on four main areas--rhythm, pitch, dynamics (soft and loud), and tone. We cover all types of other units, but I try to integrate something into each lesson that helps the children learn to read music.
My goal is for them to be music makers, not just listeners, and they must learn the basics of music reading to do this.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to teach your children. They make coming to work a joy every day.
And thank you for supporting the music program at Faith Elementary!
Sincerely,
Lucy Shue
Music Teacher
