Hello folks. We are wrapping up the week on a high note. Friday has been a really fun day! This week was another week of patriotic music, as the kindergartners prepare for their show at the end of May. We also added a new song, "This Little Light of Mine." Kindergartners learned the song, helped to create motions to go with it, and then played along with themselves singing it on ukulele. It's been so fun to sing along with the patriotic music. The songs we're working on are great, with lots of motions to go with them, and the kids love it. The other valuable and important aspect of these songs is that they help kids forge an identity as a citizen of their community. One of our favorites is "We Are All Americans," whose chorus reminds them that everyone in the room, no matter how different they are, no matter their age, no matter what their ethnic heritage, we are all part of the same community. The song encourages them to look to what unites us, rather than fixate on what divides—and learning these messages in a song helps to imprint the important message of unity not just in their heads, but also in their hearts. Here are some of the lyrics: Listen up, We are American And we have our American dreams Listen up, We are American And you can bet that we know what it means We have our freedom, We have our choices We have the right to raise our all-American voices Me and you and you and you and you and you and Me and you and you and you and you We are all American, All American, All American Me and You
0 Comments
Happy Cinco De Mayo! I wish I could say we sang the folks songs of Mexico this week to help celebrate this important Mexican holiday, but instead, the kindergarten remained focused on the patriotic songs for the upcoming Patriotic Show, at the end of March. This week in music class, we reviewed the songs from last week, and added three more: In first grade, we also sang these songs because most of the kids know and love them from last year. Faces lit up when they heard the first notes of those songs! First graders also worked on some simple ukulele skills, including plucking the C and G strings in time to the music. We also started playing the C chord, and will continue to work on that next week. Below are two documents we created this week. One is the notice that went home about upcoming music and arts events, and the other is a handout for students and their grownups about how to practice, so that they can learn better and more efficiently. Have a great weekend! |
Hi!Mrs. Lindsay teaches music to all of the kindergarten and 4 out of 5 first grade classes at NMES. Archives |