Happy Halloween! The Delaney PTO Halloween bash last week was full of spooky
costumes, monster mini golf, ghost bowling, and great dancing. It has been rumored that the principal
remembered how to do the chicken dance!
This week was quite busy again with lots of learning, many scary
classroom activities, and the PTO book fair.
Here are some of the highlights:
Principal’s coffee Date correction: Friday November
14, 2014
Parent Teacher Conferences: Monday November 24th 12-3
Tuesday November 25th 5-8
Noon dismissal both days!
School Council Meeting Tuesday November 4th, 3:00,
Roderick Office
Delaney School would like to thank the Wrentham Lion's Club for their generous donation to the health office in support of all children and for purchasing a new table and chairs for the health office.
We are much appreciative.
School Spirit Day Friday November 7, 2014
Wrentham Food Pantry donations November 3rd-7th
“Express Yourself” by wearing
something that shows your favorite sport or hobby
Please send in box tops. They
translate into money that the PTO uses for events for the students and
teachers.
Please join director Joshua O. Wolloff and the
King Philip Marching Band for
a free performance of
“On The Town” and wish them
well on their trip to the
US Bands Nationals at Met Life
Stadium.
Admission is free and
refreshments will be provided by the
King Philip Music Association
Saturday, November 1, 2014 at
6pm
King Philip Regional High
School
201 Franklin Street,
Wrentham
Here is what we
learned during October…
Composer of the
Month is….Edvard Grieg
Kindergarten: This month we
explored with our voices. We learned how music has pitch and can be high (like
a witch) or low (like a ghost). We used pipe cleaners to make sound shapes.
Each student would match the pitch of their voice to the shape of their pipe
cleaner. We are learning that high and low pitches are different from volume.
This is tricky for kindergartners. Any sound can be loud or soft no matter its
pitch. We have played lots of high and low games where we have to match our
bodies with the pitch while Mrs. Mariotti plays different low and high sounds.
Sometimes the kindergarteners get to compose the music and chose which sounds
to make. It has been a lot of fun! We have sang lots of songs about the fall
such as; “Have you ever seen an apple?”, “What Falls in the Fall?” by Laurie
Berkner, and “Five little Pumpkins”. We listened to a song story called
“Wizard’s Brew”. As we added various ingredients into our “brew”, our voices
would change. The children really loved this song. One of our favorite games
have been “Pumpkin, Pumpkin”. We sing a little song and magically change our
bodies from pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. Finally, we watched a puppet show
called, “Peer Gynt” by the famous composer Edvard Grieg. It is based on a
Norwegian fairy tale. Edvard Grieg is our new composer for October.
Composer of the
Month is….Edvard Grieg
First
Grade:
October has been a busy month! We began by learning about long and short sounds
(rhythm). We got to make patterns of “Ta” and “ti-ti” rhythms while singing the
song “Cuckoo” and “October”. We also learned about melody. The melody is the
part we would hum or whistle. We learned that melody can move up, down or stay
the same. We pretended our voices were the wind and ghosts. We sang
expressively as we made a mini play to the song “Five Little Pumpkins”. We
added feeling with our facial expressions and our voice. Once we had the song
down, we could add a xylophone for the wind sound effect. It sounded pretty
good! We also loved playing the singing game, “Pumpkin, Pumpkin.” One person is
the wizard and will sing the song with a magic wand (a mallet) and turn the
class into jack-o-lanterns. We listened to a song story called “Wizard’s Brew”.
As we add various ingredients into our “brew”, our voices would change. Each
child made their own “Wizard’s Brew” by adding ingredients to change their
song. We explored with our voices again while playing the singing game, “Hey
Old Ghost”. We played lots of instruments this month such as; finger cymbals,
xylophone, guiros and shakers. We also listened to music by a Norwegian
composer named, Edvard Grieg. We found Norway on our map. Grieg was really
proud to be Norwegian. He loved to compose music about famous stories and
sights in Norway. We listened to “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and found long
and short sounds while tapping to a listening map. Wow! We really did a lot
this month!
Composer of the
Month is….Edvard Grieg
Second
Grade:
This month we focused on two musical concepts: duration in rhythm and pitch.
Second graders have mastered quarter and eighth note rhythms, so we added two
new ones this month: quarter rest and half note. We have discovered that rhythm
is a lot like fractions. A half note (ta-a) is held for two beats. It is twice
as long as a quarter note, which gets one beat. A quarter note (ta) is twice as
long as a single eighth note. Each eighth note (ti) gets a half of a beat. We
often say them in pairs (ti-ti). It sounds pretty confusing, but I am always
amazed how kids learn this so quickly! We played a rhythm game called, “Snakes
and Ladders”. It is like the game “Chutes and Ladders”. We roll a musical dice
and will move our game piece however many spots that note is held for. (Ex.
Roll a quarter note and you will move one place. Roll a half note and move two
places.) We also made rhythms while creating musical spider webs. Every web had
eight measures and each measure would add up to two beats. It was fun playing
these rhythms on the guiros. We also played a rhythmic game called “Riddle,
Riddle, Riddle, Ree” and made rhythms (sway, clap and tip-toe) using our
bodies. We also learned about pitch (the “highness” or “lowness” of a sound).
Each music class begins with a “Mystery Pitch”. I play a short melody on the
xylophone, and then the children need to guess what pitches I played. We then
pass around my “musical phone” (made out of pcv pipe) to better hear our
voices. We learned that a melody can move up, down or stay the same. We have
learned; “so”, “mi”, “la”, “fa” and “re”. We find these pitches in our songs,
“Sarasponda”, “Skin and Bones”, “Wind up the Apple Tree” and “In the Hall of
the Mountain King”. We reviewed the musical alphabet (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) while
exploring on xylophones. We made musical words such as “E,G,G” or “D,A,D” and
then played those words on the xylophones. We also learned about Edvard Grieg
(a composer from Norway) and followed a tapping listening guide to Grieg’s
famous song, “In the Hall of the Mountain King”.
Composer of the
Month is….Edvard Grieg
Third
Grade:
This month we focused on learning how to read music notes. We learned that
music is written on a staff. The staff has five lines and four spaces. Every
note is either a line note or a space note. To help us read music, there are
“sayings” to identify the different notes. We learned that the line note saying
is “Every, Good, Boy, Deserves, Fudge”. We learned that the space note sayings spell the word “F, A,
C, E”. We also discovered that the words “space” and “face” rhyme.
When we read the notes, we need to count up the lines or spaces to find the letter.
We practiced this in lots of ways. We laid a giant staff on the floor and took
turns hopping on the lines and spaces of the staff. We also put bean bags on
the various lines and spaces to identify the various notes. Students were given
a Pre-Test to assess their prior knowledge and will be assessed again in early
December to show student learning. I am confident that every student will
improve their understanding of reading music. Their brains just soak it all in!
It’s amazing to me! We also learned that music has an alphabet just like our
regular alphabet. We discovered that it starts off the same (A, B, C, D, E, F,
G), but learned that the musical alphabet only has seven letters. We were able
to explore with the musical alphabet using the xylophones and could even make
words with the musical alphabet (E,G,G or D,A,D). We
practiced reading notes while learning the song, “Skin and Bones”. First, we
labeled each note with its letter name. After all the notes were labeled
correctly, we were able to play the song on the xylophone. Learning how to read
music is a vital step in playing the recorder. As a reminder, all recorder
forms are due. The recorder unit will begin in December.
More Reading by Senator Ross last week!
Don’t forget to fall back and set your
clocks!
Colleen C. Wagstaff
Delaney Principal
