Our awesome kindergarten friends singing at kindergarten registration!
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0GsKUo0W2oc"
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Chorus rehearsal
Our chorus program is quickly approaching! Our two after school rehearsals will be held on Monday, April 23rd and Monday, April 30th. Please make sure to be at Point O'View by 4:30 to pick up your child.
The program will be held on Tuesday, May 8th at 7PM.
The program will be held on Tuesday, May 8th at 7PM.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
POV Talent Show
Last Friday we had our talent show at Point O'View. I am so proud of all the kids who performed. Here are a few shots of the show. Please excuse the bad picture quality- my phone battery was dying and the flash wouldn't go off:) If you happen to have a picture of your child or children that you would like on the blog, send it to ergriffi@vbschools.com and I will make it happen!
Friday, March 23, 2012
All City Chorus
I am so proud of our 6 fifth graders who represented POV in the All-City Chorus event tonight! They did such an amazing job!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Progress Report/Report Card Grades
I have received several parent phone calls concerning progress report and report card grades, so I would like to address my grading system.
Content grades are averaged automatically by my electronic gradebook, and the only options are Outstanding, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, and Unsatisfactory. As long as your child has an O or an S, they are doing great! Ns are given only for students who refuse to participate or for those 4th and 5th graders who do not purchase a recorder and therefore cannot participate.
Behavior grades are not averaged in the gradebook. I give each child a behavior grade weekly of an O, S, or N. When progress reports are received, I give only an S if a child is behaving well or an N if they are having difficulties. If a child has an N on their progress report, it is just a warning to the child and their parents that he or she needs to improve their behavior before report cards come around a few weeks later. For report cards I will give each child an O, S, or N based on the weekly grades they have been given.
My content and behavior grading scales are listed on the righthand side of the blog as separate pages. Please feel free to look at them. I am always available to talk about your child's grades and discuss how we can improve them. Please contact me at ergriffi@vbschools.com if you are concerned about what is happening in the music classroom.
Thank you! Have a great weekend!
Content grades are averaged automatically by my electronic gradebook, and the only options are Outstanding, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, and Unsatisfactory. As long as your child has an O or an S, they are doing great! Ns are given only for students who refuse to participate or for those 4th and 5th graders who do not purchase a recorder and therefore cannot participate.
Behavior grades are not averaged in the gradebook. I give each child a behavior grade weekly of an O, S, or N. When progress reports are received, I give only an S if a child is behaving well or an N if they are having difficulties. If a child has an N on their progress report, it is just a warning to the child and their parents that he or she needs to improve their behavior before report cards come around a few weeks later. For report cards I will give each child an O, S, or N based on the weekly grades they have been given.
My content and behavior grading scales are listed on the righthand side of the blog as separate pages. Please feel free to look at them. I am always available to talk about your child's grades and discuss how we can improve them. Please contact me at ergriffi@vbschools.com if you are concerned about what is happening in the music classroom.
Thank you! Have a great weekend!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Valentine's Day
The week of Valentine's Day is one of my favorite weeks to be a music teacher! We do so many fun activities about love, hearts, and friendship.
Kindergarten learned two very important words this week: beat and rhythm. We learned that a steady beat stays the same while rhythm changes constantly and corresponds to the number of syllables in a word. We used big and little hearts to show the difference between beats and rhythms on the board. Here we are doing a dance where we clap the rhythm of numbers and then spin around with our partners.
First graders had an exciting time learning where to place so and mi on their very own staff. Each student was given a staff and dots and had to "write" the melody I sang. They did a really great job! We then learned a cute, simple Valentine's Day song and a silly poem.
The second graders had a real treat this week. We pulled out the Active Expression devices to take a quiz. These are little remote controls that allow students to answer questions on their own by choosing a multiple choice answer on their device. We also learned a very fun Valentine dance where we focused on being partners with everyone in our classroom, not just those people we consider our best friends. This is such a valuable lesson for all students- we must be able to work with everyone!
Fourth graders had a quick discussion about our field trip last week. We went to the symphony and talked about the different songs we heard and instruments we saw. The children really enjoyed themselves and I am so glad this is an opportunity we can offer to the students each year. Many of them may not see a live symphony orchestra again, so I am glad to give them this experience. After our discussion, we danced to "Love Will Keep us Together." The first part of each section is a following game. Each group must follow their leader until the refrain begins. We also created a song about exercising in rondo form. Ask your student what that means- hopefully they can explain it quite well!
Fifth graders were challenged greatly this week! We have been talking about mixed and unusual meters, where we take music that has groups of 2 beats and 3 beats and combine them. This week our song was "All You Need is Love" by The Beatles. We played a lummi stick game with the song. This class is in the midst of learning the moves, so the performance has not been perfected yet! It is really difficult to move to a song that has groupings of 7 beats, and they are doing a great job. I am also posting a video of an activity we did last week with drums and barred instruments.
Kindergarten learned two very important words this week: beat and rhythm. We learned that a steady beat stays the same while rhythm changes constantly and corresponds to the number of syllables in a word. We used big and little hearts to show the difference between beats and rhythms on the board. Here we are doing a dance where we clap the rhythm of numbers and then spin around with our partners.
First graders had an exciting time learning where to place so and mi on their very own staff. Each student was given a staff and dots and had to "write" the melody I sang. They did a really great job! We then learned a cute, simple Valentine's Day song and a silly poem.
In third grade this week, the students learned a new note: low la. We learned that this is the pitch that is the resting tone for songs in a minor key. The students will practice singing, reading, and notating this pitch over the next few weeks. We also sang a Valentine song using our new rhythm, ti-ka-ti-ka. Third graders are also working on movement improvisation, so we took a few moments to practice making our bodies into the shapes of letters and random shapes. We will continue to work on this for several weeks as well. Here is one of the third grade classes dancing to "Love Will Keep us Together."
Fourth graders had a quick discussion about our field trip last week. We went to the symphony and talked about the different songs we heard and instruments we saw. The children really enjoyed themselves and I am so glad this is an opportunity we can offer to the students each year. Many of them may not see a live symphony orchestra again, so I am glad to give them this experience. After our discussion, we danced to "Love Will Keep us Together." The first part of each section is a following game. Each group must follow their leader until the refrain begins. We also created a song about exercising in rondo form. Ask your student what that means- hopefully they can explain it quite well!
Fifth graders were challenged greatly this week! We have been talking about mixed and unusual meters, where we take music that has groups of 2 beats and 3 beats and combine them. This week our song was "All You Need is Love" by The Beatles. We played a lummi stick game with the song. This class is in the midst of learning the moves, so the performance has not been perfected yet! It is really difficult to move to a song that has groupings of 7 beats, and they are doing a great job. I am also posting a video of an activity we did last week with drums and barred instruments.
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