January and February are music literacy months at Risen Christ!

Hello families and friends:

Welcome to the mid-winter blog update for music class at Risen Christ School.  First of all I want to thank all our wonderful families for the gift of your talented children.  They were magnificent at The Christmas Program and I was one proud teacher!  Over the course of these two months following  Christmas break the students, at various levels are focusing on music literacy, arranging and composing.
    For our kindergarten through second grade students, this means reading rhythms on flash cards, and creating musical phrases with notation manipulatives.  They are also singing, dancing using instruments with simple songs that they are able to read and decipher notation.
   Our 3rd graders are working on musical arrangements of more complicated songs, adding instrumental accompaniments that they must read and play as a class.  4th and 5th grade students are working hard at the recorder and reading notes on the treble clef.  They can play and read from middle C (the lowest note on the recorder) to D an octave and a note above middle C.
   Our 6th graders are reading rhythm pieces in 3 parts and playing them as a class, while our 7th and 8th graders are creating individual 2-part compositions for instruments of their choice.  These compositions will be performed for the class at the completion the of the unit.

Please take a look at some of the posted pictures of our students working hard in music.  Thanks again for checking in, and blessings to all our families and friends.

Tara Finne (Music Educator: Risen Christ School)