In prepartion for our field trip to the Orchestra on Thursday October 9th, the Fourth Graders have been practicing thier listening skills and knowledge of composers. This week we focused on Beethoven and listening for music specific vocabulary. We watched the Beethoven's Sport Cast which is a recreation of one of Beethoven's most well known pieces,Symphony No. 5 Mov. 2. We had so much fun watching this hilarious variation of this amazing work by a deaf composer!
Watch below and see if you can hear and discuss the vocab with your families!
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Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 M. 1
• Beethoven – An Austrian composer from the
Romantic Time Period of Music (1770 – 1827). He began losing his hearing around
1800 and by 1817 was completely deaf.
• Brass – A family of instruments in the
orchestra containing the Trumpet, French horn, Trombone, and Tuba. All brass
instruments have coiled tubing and require the player to buzz their lips into a
mouth piece to produce sound.
• C-Major – A scale containing C, D, E, F, G, A,
B, and C1. The home tone is C. Music written in C-Major will have a “happy”
sound.
•C-Minor – A scale containing C, D, Eb, F, G,
Ab, Bb, and C1. The home tone is C. Music written in C-Minor will have a “sad”
sound.
•Cadenza – A passage for a solo instrument.
The conductor will not lead the solo and the performer may go as fast or slow
as he/she pleases.
•Composer – Someone who writes music.
•Conductor – The leader of a music ensemble.
•Double Bar – The symbol at the end of a musical
composition.
• Fugue – A melody is introduced by an
instrument and passed in whole, or parts, to other instruments.
•Horn – Short for “French” horns. This is
an instrument in the brass family.
•Motif – A brief melody that is repeated
multiple times throughout a composition.
•Oboe – An instrument belonging to the
woodwind family. It looks similar to a clarinet but plays with a double reed.
• Recap – Occurs near the ending of a
composition when the opening melody is heard again.
•Timpani – An instrument belonging to the
percussion family. A timpanist will usually play 4 kettle drums and adjust the
pitch of each drum by pressing and releasing a foot pedal.
• Tutti – All instruments play.
•Violin – An instrument belonging to the
string family. This instrument often plays the melody and is the highest
pitched string instrument. The player can make sound by plucking or bowing the
strings.
•Woodwinds – A family of instruments in the
orchestra containing the Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon. All woodwind
instruments contain multiple holes and keys to be pressed and covered by
fingers.
K and 1st had a great time using creative movement to depict the animals in this story. We added instruments to different animals and sang along with Mrs. Morgans song!
5th Graders enjoyed making connections between African traditions, instruments, and rhythms and this harrowing tale about escaping slavery. Students were very interested in the drinking gourds meaning and secret messages in the song the Drinking Gourd. We added three instrument parts in the story and worked on some hard rhythms, way to go fifth graders!
K students also explored a musical obstacle course this week, using our book Rosie's Walk. We all had to take turns being the hen and the fox. We had so much fun!
First graders have been exploring themes from the book Dear Children of the Earth. We read this book while listening to Canyone Chaconne by Paul Winter. The strong imagery and sounds lead us in to a great discussion of why we are doing a play about Earth Day. We have been practicing our songs for the play. Check out this link to practice songs for our April 8th performance.
Students in second grade had fun using pantomime and xylophones to recreate this story. Ask your students to sing the "Wise Mans song" and pat Ming Lo's running rhythm. 
Third graders had their final visit from the percussion section of the Venice Symphony this week. We read Orchestra Animals and made inferences about which animals would be paired with certain instruments. We discussed why certain animals were a good fit for the animals personalities. Can you tell your parents who CRASH was?
