Kent Elementary School

Practice identifying notes on the staff here:

PRACTICE

 More Practice

2nd graders are learning to explore their voices as an instrument. They've learned to use their diaphragm to support a big healthy breath. They are also learning to identify musical patterns on the staff using Do Mi and Sol. Do is the home tone of a song. 2nd Graders have also started learning to identify lines and spaces on the staff. 

Last quarter second graders worked hard to identity the meter of a song, as well as its dynamics. Remember meter has to do with strong beats and weak beats. A measure always begins with a strong beat, but the number of weak beats can vary. The number of beats in a measure is the meter. There can be of 2, 3 or 4 beats in a measure. Dynamics are how loud or soft the music is. We describe dynamics using ITALIANO. Piano means soft, forte means loud and mezzo means medium, or middle.  So mezzo forte  means moderately loud and mezzo piano means moderately soft. Crescendo means the music gradually gets louder while a decrescendo means the music gradually gets softer. Can you listen to a song and identify its meter and dynamics?

First graders are learning to hear melodic patterns in music. We know several songs that have a "Sol Mi" pattern. They are also learning how to read rhythms. We can read and identify quarter notes eighth notes and quarter rests.

1st graders are exploring high and low in their voices and on instruments. They are learning the science in music. If an instrument is big, the pitch is low but if it is small the pitch is high. If we say the pitch is moving up, it is moving from low to high, but if the pitch is moving down, it is moving from high to low. 

1st Graders are also practicing responding to listening maps. This helps them get ready to read music next year in 2nd grade. 

Kindergarteners are having so much fun exploring their voices in music. We've learned that timbre is the special way your voice sounds and have lots of fun experimenting with changing the timbre of our voices. We've also discovered our whisper voice, our speaking voice and our singing voice. We've practiced so much singing that we already had our first performance of the year. It was a special opportunity to sing for the Senior Citizens who came to our Thanksgiving Luncheon on November 7.