Townline Elementary School

November Music News

November has been an exciting month for all the grade levels as we’ve been learning advanced musical skills and concepts in all grade levels! The students are singing many Thanksgiving songs that they will be able to share with their families in the upcoming weeks.

Kindergarten students are having fun singing counting songs about turkeys. Ask them what happens in the turkey song! They are reinforcing their understanding of a steady beat and practicing speaking their favorite foods in rhythm.

First Grade has learned a fun partner dance to another turkey song, which was a good opportunity for them to practice patterened movement. They had a lot of fun switching partners each time the song started over again!

Second Grade is using a Thanksgiving chant to practice their body percussion and to internalize rhythms. They worked in groups to create word chains of Thanksgiving foods, which became another section of the Thanksgiving chant. The students enjoyed performing their word chains for their classmates.

Third, Fourth, Fifth Grades have been listening hard this month to Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland. They are learning about theme and variations by listening to Copland’s theme and variations on Simple Gifts. Students are discovering how to identify a variation and what they can change about a melody to create a variation. They are playing an arrangement of Simple Gifts on classroom instruments.

Coming Up: All grades will learn winter songs from around the world in preparation for the school’s winter sing-a-along.

There are many ways families can learn about and enjoy music at home:
• Gather together in the evening and share favorite songs and recordings with other family members
• Explore music websites:
o www.dsokids.com has music trivia games, interviews with members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and a photo tour of the DSO’s concert hall.
o www.classicsforkids.com has short radio broadcasts designed for kids. Each month features a different composer and a fun activity sheet that the entire family can complete together.
• Check out music books and literature with a musical theme from the library. Some titles include:
o Diez Deditos by Jose Luis Orozco (a bilingual songbook for young children)
o What Makes Music?: A Magic Ribbon Book by Betty Ann Schwartz (an introduction to the muscial scale for young children)
o I’m a Manatee by John Lithgow and Ard Hoyt (a humorous story and song with funny pictures and ambitious vocabulary)
o We All Sing with the Same Voice by John Philip Miller (a story song about caring for our neighbors around the world)
o A Murder for her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner (an historical mystery about choir students for fourth and fifth graders)