Performer of the Month- Drake

By request, our performer of the month this month is Drake.

Drake is a rapper from Canada. He started his career as an actor, and is one of the few artists that rap and sing.

His dad and two of his uncles are musicians. His mom is a teacher.

He played hockey as a kid.

The biggest recorder

Several of you have asked about the largest recorder. Since I did not know off hand last week, I thought I would look it up and share my findings.

The largest recorder is the sub-contrabass recorder. It has a very low range. It is the one on the far right.

The soprano recorder that everyone plays is on the far left. The next recorder over is the alto recorder that a couple of students have graduated to.

Perfomer of the Month- Pete Seeger

You may have heard the other day that a man named Pete Seeger died on January 27. You probably never heard about him before that, but a lot of the music you have learned in my class, and a lot of the music you listen to on the radio was influenced by him.

Seeger was a folk singer. He liked to learn music of other cultures, as well as the folk songs of our country. He performed a lot of folk music that many people had never heard before, such as "Kumbaya," "We Shall Overcome," and "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," and people started singing those songs, too.

Pete Seeger was very active in the music of the 1950s and 60s. Fifth graders will learn more about that in Social Studies, and we will talk about how the music reflected what was happening in the world at that time.  He wrote a lot of songs about peace and getting along. Fifth grade will hear "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "If I had a Hammer."

Another thing Seeger would do is record people singing music that their parents had sung to them. This allowed more people to hear music that maybe only a few people knew. He recorded prisoners singing in work camps as well. There are no longer work camps today like there were 50 years ago, so without those recordings, no one today would know those songs. 

Another reason I like Pete Seeger is this quote, which I completely agree with:
"Singing with children in the schools has been the most rewarding experience of my life." – Seeger, October 17, 2009, at community concert in Beacon, New York

Down the Halls of Ol' Mimosa

Fourth and Fifth graders are all learning the school's Alma Mater. Here is some history on it:

About three years ago, maybe four, Mrs. Johnson asked me to write a school song. Can you believe that in all this time, there was never a school song? One of the things I have fun doing is taking a familiar tune and coming up with new words. I thought that we really needed a fun school song and a serious school song. The Alma Mater is our serious song. It is meant to be sung at things like the 5th grade celebration and the last walk through the school.

So, where did it come from?
Roswell High School's Alma Mater has the same melody as Cornell University. Mr. Spraggins and I thought that it would be good to use that melody since you'll hear it in high school. The melody is called "Far Above Cayuga's Waters."

How did you come up with the words?
I got a history of the school and started writing. I wrote the spirit song by myself, but Mr. S. helped with the Alma Mater. It took us about two weeks, but the song we came up with represents the learning, diversity, and community that we have at our school. Our school motto, "Where learning unites us," is in there as well.

The parts "we are learning, we are growing" are significant as well. We could have used the past tense in that line, but chose to use words to show that learning and growing will still happen in the years to come. "Growing" does not mean how tall you are going to get- it means how much your are going to learn.



I have heard some of you come up with new words to songs. If you are willing to share with me (not in front of your class), I will give you house points! 

Writing Fair!

The teachers in charge of the writing fair have offered a challenge:

Write about what you love most about music, art, or PE. Be creative.

If you show me your paper before turning it in, I will give you house points.

Performer of the Month: Will Smith

It's January, and that means a new performer of the month! This month's performer is Will Smith. You may only know that he's an actor, but when he first started out, he was a successful rapper.

-Will Smith was known as The Fresh Prince in the 1980's while he was rapping. He got the nickname "prince" because he was known for using his charm to get out of trouble. He also performed frequently with his friend, DJ Jazzy Jeff.

-Will Smith had a hit song called "Parents Just Don't Understand." It was a hit with teenagers at the time.

-One of his hobbies is playing chess.

-He speaks Spanish fluently.

Things to do

I know you're going to miss me over winter break. If you want some fun music activities to explore, here are my suggestions:

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Listening Adventures

New York Philharmonic Kids

And don't forget that there is a bunch of free stuff on the Quaver website.

If you do one or more of these activities, let me know and I will give you house points.

Have a fabulous winter break! I will see you all in January.