DelaneySchool: December Begins

Welcome to December! Delaney students are back to

challenging work and showing amazing effort after

spending the long Thanksgiving weekend with family

and friends.

The positive referral breakfast will be held on Friday

December 5th to recognize students who did something

above and beyond that demonstrated one of our core

values of: Respect, Responsibility, Communication,

Collaboration, and Continuous Growth and Learning.

Positive referrals last week included:

Being kind and including a new student

in the Delaney school.

Going above and beyond making positive new friendships.

Holding the door open for teachers to enter on a cold day.

Including a friend at recess, giving a compliment and words of encouragement during a game.

From Mrs. Mariotti...

Here is what we learned during November…

Kindergarten: This month we reviewed loud (forte) and soft (piano) sounds. We read a story called, “A Very Noisy Night” by Diana Hendry while identifying piano and forte sounds. We explored with our voices and instruments while using both forte and piano sounds. We learned many songs about turkeys; “Five Fat Turkeys”, “The Turkey Ran Away” and “Have you ever seen a Turkey”. We made a “Musical Turkey” picture to help us learn our colors and serve as a visual cue for learning the words to the song, “Have you ever seen a Turkey”. We made lots of patterns using long and short sounds. We played these patterns using guiros, triangle, and the cow bell. We also made patterns using colors (green for go; red for stop). Lastly, we had a lot of fun playing the tone blocks. We discovered that it sounded like a horse galloping. The children loved taking turns creating “horse sounds”.

First Grade: This month we focused on rhythm. Rhythm is the pattern of sounds and silences. Sounds can be long or short. We made many patterns and played them on several instruments such as the guiro, triangle, cow bell and bongos. We learned how to notate these long and short patterns using flash cards. We were able to read, play and write our own patterns as well. We also learned a new technique called improvising. Improvising is when we “make it up as we go along”. We declared a “National Turkey Run Away Day” where all the turkeys ran away. We learned the “Turkey Run Away Day” song and took turns improvising on the xylophones. It was a lot of fun playing the xylophone! We also learned a new game called, “Roll a Turkey”. We loved this game so much that many students wanted their own copy to play at home. I hope your child asks you to play with them! Finally, we sang several Thanksgiving songs and games such as, “Tommy Turkey”, “Five Fat Turkeys” and danced to “Turkey in the Straw”.

Second Grade: This month we reviewed the following rhythms; quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes and quarter rests. We also identified these rhythms while completing a worksheet called, “Rake the Leaves”. This really helped us discriminate the different rhythms and identify what they look like. We also learned a new game called, “Roll a Turkey”, which we used our knowledge of rhythms to complete a turkey puzzle. We also learned a new song called, “The Canoe Song”. It is a Native American folk song that tells a story about hunting a goose. We kept a steady beat while rowing to the song and also played the gathering drums in small groups. We also learned a new vocabulary word, ostinato. An ostinato is a pattern that repeats over and over. In Italian, it means “stubborn”. An ostinato can be a rhythmic pattern (long and short patterns) or a melodic pattern (something you would sing or chant). We learned a melodic pattern to chant while singing the song. It was pretty difficult maintaining a contrasting pattern against another part! We also learned a new song called, “Turkey Trot Blues”. We took turns playing various rhythmic ostinatos on the xylophones. I believe the highlight of music this month was learning the song, “Sarasponda”. It is a Dutch non-sense song. The song was tricky to learn, but we didn’t give up! There was a fun game using rhythm sticks with a partner. The children loved playing the game with their partner. We had a lot of laughs while doing it too! Ask them to sing it for you.

Third Grade: This month we continued to learn how to read music notes. We reviewed that music is written on a staff. The staff has five lines and four spaces. We reviewed the two sayings (“Every, Good, Boy, Deserves, Fudge” for the line notes and “F, A, C, E” for the spaces). We have been doing centers. We divide the class in half. One half plays a music game or completes a music reading activity. The other half of the class learns a new song to play on the xylophones. Halfway through the class we switch centers. This gives me ample time to check in with my students in a smaller group setting and really target their music reading abilities. I have been able to help each student and they have improved their music reading skills immensely!! Some songs we have learned are, “Over the River and Through the Woods”, “Turkey in the Straw” and “The Canoe Song”. We practiced reading notes by labeling each note on the song sheet, check in with Ms. Mariotti and then play the song on a xylophone. The children really loved playing the big wooden xylophones. Lastly, we learned a traditional folk dance called, “Turkey in the Straw”. It is a line dance. The children really enjoyed learning the many steps to this song and wanted to do it over and over again!! I think it was a favorite!