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Students have been busy in the music room advancing their musical knowledge and skills by identifying the sources or various sounds, exploring how to respond to music through movement, and playing music as an ensemble—and upper grades are even learning how to play melodic instruments including the recorder and ukulele! In addition, all students have begun practicing writing their own music by composing a school song for the school!
Finally, students are also getting ready for their spring showcases next month! Here’s the lineup of performances and the pieces they will be performing: R.H. Conwell Elementary: June 5 @ 6:00pm
Chester Elementary: June 11 @ 2pm
New Hingham Elementary: June 12 @ 9:15pm
We hope to see you at the showcase!
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It’s been a busy start to spring in the music room!
To finish out the school year, students will spend the next several weeks preparing for the spring showcase. Each class will select a song and students will be responsible for learning, practicing, and honing their emerging music skills to present at the recital. The chase will be held on:
This month in the music room each class wrapped up their work on the songs they have been working on:
Most classes were ready to record their songs, and you can find their recordings using the links below: Most recently, preschool through 2nd grade began working on Bluebird Through My Window while practicing playing half notes and quarter notes on percussion and melodic instruments. Also, 3rd through 6th grade reviewed Sing Together, which will be featured as part of a whole-school singalong at the spring recital. In addition, they have begun the process of learning about songwriting which they will use to begin writing a school song! I am also excited to see so many students interested in borrowing instruments to practice and play at home! Learning to play an instrument can help students gain valuable skills that they can use in all aspects of life, including perseverance, responsibility, confidence, and much much more. I’ve noticed, however, that some instruments have taken a while to come back to the music room, which prevents students from using them in their music classes. To help students remember the expectations, I typed up a letter for each school that you can find here for New Hingham, here for RH Conwell, and here for Chester. This letter outlines the two key expectations:
Please review this letter with your student, and then sign and return a copy to school. Once a signed copy has been returned, your student will be free to borrow instruments again. Thank you for your help encouraging students in their passion for music! This month students have been practicing their ensemble skills, by working on their singing voices, listening to each other, starting and ending with silence, and following the conductor. It’s a work in progress, and many classes are making great progress!
Preschool is working on Sing Together, a simple round. Kindergarten is working on Two Merry Geese, a Russian Folk Song. 1st Grade is working on The Chickens Song, a Palestinian Folk Song. 2nd Grade is working on The Gray Cat, a Ukrainian Folk song. 3rd - 6th Grade is working on The Star Spangled Banner. Next month, all classes will be working on We Come to Greet You in Peace, a simple yet beautiful Hebrew Folk Song. Not all classes were ready to try a recording of their work yet, but for those that were ready, you can find their recordings in the links below: 3rd - 6th grade has also been working on their rhythm skills by practicing listening to and copying rhythms, as well as reading and writing rhythmic notation. Some students are progressing quickly in this competency, while for others this has been a challenge. I keep reminding students that what we are looking for is an honest effort and progress. Last month, students at New Hingham Elementary were treated to a guest presentation by James Kitchen and friends, including local resident Nan Clark (turing 95 this year!) who demonstrated the victrola; opera singer Claudia Waite from the Metropolitan Opera who shared stories from her career; Dave Abbott who played songs on the tuba; and Cynthia Jirak who accompanied everyone with various percussion instruments. I even made a special guest appearance by playing solos on the recorder and the saxophone! To cap everything off, students got to play many of the instruments and ask questions from our special guests. You can check out the article about the event from the Country Journal here. I’m hoping to bring this presentation to Chester Elementary and R.H. Conwell as well. Fingers crossed! We’ve certainly been busy in the music room, and the hard work is paying off. Many students have been asking to borrow musical instruments to bring home, and I have worked out a procedure to sign instruments out—with the understanding that students bring the instrument back to school the next day. If your child brings an instrument home, great! That means they are excited about music! Please ensure your child brings their instrument back to school the next day. If they forget, I’ll send a slip home as a gentle reminder. It’s my hope that this procedure will help reinforce their excitement for music, while also teaching them responsibility skills. This month in the music room, students worked on not just playing music, but also writing music, by learning the basics of music notation.
They have also worked on recognizing the differences between pitches and their relationship with each other in the context of a melody. We’ve played with this idea using Boomwhackers to play various songs, including Jingle Bells and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Listen to samples of their performances by clicking on your student’s school from the list below: Students have also been working on their listening skills by identifying various sounds. They have even had the opportunity to get creative by choosing various musical instruments and challenging their peers to identify what instrument makes those sounds. They’ve had a lot of fun with this game! Next week, students at New Hingham will have a special treat when local musician James Kitchen comes to the school to demonstrate various musical instruments! This is going to be a lot of fun! This month in the music room we’ve been learning how to express ourselves through music and movement.
Preschool through 2nd grade learned to sing “Old King Glory” along with a dance to accompany the music. Listen to a sample of students singing and playing this song here. In addition, we’ve been turning the songs we know into a medley, where we take two or more songs and mix them together. It’s made for a fun way to start music class while reinforcing their established skills. 3rd grade through 6th grade revisited the Boomwhacker Compositions they wrote in October and learned how to play them on keyboards, xylophones, and glockenspiels. In addition, they have also begun to learn how to sing “Happy Trails.” When we come back from break, we will continue to expand upon our growing musical knowledge and skills by learning about the history of musical instruments and how music is made. When we come back from break, we will continue to expand upon our growing musical knowledge and skills by learning about the history of musical instruments and how music is made. This will be explored in detail with an event by James Kitchen on January 24: James Kitchen will be at New Hingham Elementary School on Wednesday January 24, 2024 to present a brief history of musician instruments. Students will learn about simple drums and flutes, including a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal flute! Along the way, they will also discover instruments made by Native Americans, learn about Benjamin Franklin’s glass harmonica, and learn how African Americans introduced the banjo. James will have instruments on hand to demonstrate, including a cigar box banjo, a variety of percussion instruments, and even a Theremin! He will also demonstrate how students can make their own one-string tin can banjo! In the music room we’ve been practicing playing music as an ensemble. This includes singing with a mezzo forte dynamic (so we can clearly hear the vocal parts) as well as learning instrumental parts to accompany the songs. Listen to an audio sample of students singing and playing instruments to the song “Find Your Light” here.
Over the past couple of weeks, preschool through 2nd grade learned “Pass the Pumpkin All Around” and 3rd grade through 6th grade learned the song “Pass Around the Broomstick.” To accompany these songs, students practiced playing individual parts on the xylophone, egg shakers, tambourines, guiros, and a gong. Listen to an audio sample of Pass Around the Broomstick here. In addition, both of these songs are also games that help students practice keeping a steady beat while also working on their teamwork skills. A key competence many students are still working on is starting and ending a song with silence, which is the frame of music. Much like a work of art at a museum has a frame that sets it apart, so too does music have a frame that sets it apart from the noise of everyday life. Moving forward, we will continue working on this competence to help students become skilled musicians who can listen and respond effectively to the music they listen to and perform. This month in the music room we have been practicing our rhythm, singing, and creativity skills, while also working on listening and teamwork.
Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade have continued working on "Hello Everybody, How Do You Do?" while exploring tempo and dynamics. In addition, we learned new songs, including "Here Sits a Monkey" and "Hop Old Squirrel," which both help students to work on rhythm, singing, and movement. In 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, we have continued working on "Find Your Light." By now, most students have the song memorized by heart, and we've begun adding percussion instruments to complement the lyrics, with a focus on not overpowering the vocals. All grades have also continued playing "Doggy, Doggy, Where's Your Bone?" These past few weeks we've explored the song's melody on the xylophone and boomwhackers, which has helped students to start thinking musically about the relationship between pitches to create a melody. To help inspire their creativity, students wrote their own melody using the Boomwhacker Composition Worksheet, and everyone had an opportunity to practice performing their composition. Listen to a sample of one of the compositions here. Next month, we will extend this activity by having students practice writing their melodies on the music staff with proper music notation, and performing their compositions on other instruments. Welcome to the new school year in the music room!
These last few weeks we've been learning new songs and playing new games to work on our music skills. Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade learned a new welcome song called "Hello Everybody, How Do You Do?" While singing this song, we work on making eye contact with others and practice singing with different dynamics and tempos. In 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, we've been working on "Find Your Light," a written song by the filmmaker Greg Pritikin for his film The Last Laugh. In the movie, the song was sung by Richard Dreyfuss, but it seems the song was never released commercially, because I have yet to find it available anywhere other than in the movie. You can listen to my own rendition of the song here. This is a song about hope in the face of uncertainty, encouraging us to do our best and take courage by finding our inner light—a valuable lesson for students to take to heart. All grades have also been playing "Doggy, Doggy, Where's Your Bone?," a fun call-and-response song that we've been singing to practice our listening, rhythm, and improvisation skills. To play it, we form a circle and everyone gets a drum. As we sing, we play the rhythm on our drums—being sure to keep a steady beat with the song and listening to others so no one overpowers anyone else. Then, we take take turns playing solos, making up our own rhythms on the drum to complement the beat. This is a great way to practice building confidence with our performance skills. Next month, we'll working on using pitched instruments, including xylophone and keyboards! Kindergarten
During the 3rd Trimester, Kindergarten focused on preparing for the Spring Music Showcase. To prepare, they learned the song “My Little Rooster,” a song that helps them practice memorization skills while also working on copying sounds of animals. In this music classroom, there is a big emphasis on listening, for it is only by listening that we can create a genuine response to the world around us. Along the way, students experimented with various percussion instruments to accompany the rhythm of the song, however in the end, we decided to perform the song solely with our voices at the Music Showcase. 1st Grade During the 3rd Trimester, First Grade focused on preparing for the Spring Music Showcase. To prepare, they learned the song “El Coqui,” a song written in both Spanish and English. The coqui is a type of small tree frog found in Puerto Rico. Singing together can be enough of a challenge, and singing in another language added even greater difficulty, but they rose to the challenge with great enthusiasm. To get them excited for the song, students played frog-shaped guiros, a notched instrument that is played by rubbing a stick along the notches. These guiros are unique in that they sound like a croaking frog! We had a lot of fun playing the guiros and other percussion instruments while learning the song, but ultimately found these instruments to be too distracting, so when it came time for the showcase, we sang it without accompaniment. 2nd Grade During the 3rd Trimester, Second Grade focused on preparing for the Spring Music Showcase. To prepare, they practiced “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” a song they already knew, but they were challenged to learn the seldom-heard verses and also create instrument accompaniments to complement the song. These instruments included the triangle, the xylophone, and the flutophone. Learning these instruments was a meaningful challenge for students, and many commented that it was their favorite part of class. 3rd Grade During the 3rd Trimester, Third Grade focused on preparing for the Spring Music Showcase. To prepare, they learned the song “Funga Alafia,” a song written using words from three different West African languages:
The students learned the words of the song first, and then practiced playing the rhythm on various percussion instruments. For the showcase, students were given the opportunity to decide which percussion instrument they wanted to play, giving them both freedom of choice and an opportunity to practice sharing resources. 4th Grade During the 3rd Trimester, Fourth Grade focused on preparing for the Spring Music Showcase. To prepare, they learned the song “My Kinda People” by a young singer/songwriter named A.J. Raggs. This song was selected to help remind students about the importance of sharing kindness with others, while also practicing the skills of music memorization and singing together as an ensemble. We started by singing along to the music video, and then began adding our own percussion instruments to keep the beat and playing along to the chords on the ukulele. The students showed great enthusiasm for this song, with many students saying that they listened to and practiced singing the song at home. Their hard work paid off by giving an impressive performance at the showcase! 5th Grade During the 3rd Trimester, Fifth Grade focused on preparing for the Spring Music Showcase. To prepare, they learned the song “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie. Aside from learning how to sing the lyrics together and play them melody and rhythm on various instruments, students also learned about the history of the song and listened to various versions that have been made over the years. We spent a good amount of time practicing the song as a chorus accompanied by various instruments—working to play the instruments just loud enough to be heard, but not too loud as to overpower the lyrics. I was particularly impressed by how seriously students engaged in the process, while also embedding joy into their performance. 6th Grade During the 3rd Trimester, Sixth Grade focused on preparing for the Spring Music Showcase. To prepare, they learned the song “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King. This song was selected as a reminder of the importance and value of friendship, while also giving them an opportunity to explore their emerging musicality on various percussive and melodic instruments. While I made myself available as a guide with suggestions, I left the students plenty of room to choose for themselves what instruments they wanted to use or not use, giving them ownership and leadership in the experience. During the Music Showcase, I awarded deserving students with The Conductor’s Award, which recognizes students of exemplary conduct, outstanding character, and valued contribution to the music program. Recipients of this award demonstrate the values of teamwork, leadership, and excellence. The students who received this award are Holly Sampson and Addison Thomas from R.H. Conwell Elementary School, and Cailin Gougeon and Carson Bisbee from New Hingham Regional Elementary School. Final Note It has been a joy and an honor working with these students over the past year and I look forward with anticipation and excitement to working with them all again next year! |
Mr. Cain, M.Ed.
AuthorMr. Cain studied music education at UMASS Dartmouth and Westfield State College under the guidance of saxophonists Rick Britto and Ted Levine. Archives
May 2025
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