Music at home
From Mrs Burt!
It’s been wonderful to see so much excellent work coming in from the students who have been doing Music activities at home. Pictures and videos are making my day and putting a big smile on my face! Children in Years Foundation to Two have been learning about the instruments of the orchestra while reading and listening to “Tubby the Tuba”. It’s a good story that might also make you think about Compassion and Resilience. If you missed out and would like to see the story, try this link to Youtube: https://safeYouTube.net/w/HtjO
Right now the Specialist Team is working on a new afternoon Webex timetable for weeks three and four. It’s been interesting finding out what works well and what doesn’t! For the next two weeks (weeks 3 and 4) there will be a Music session on Friday for Foundation to Year Two children. We’ll do some moving, singing and have some stories. Hope to see you there!
So what about the amazing Year Three students? What great work they’re doing on recorder! Some children have attended all three Webex sessions so far and their progress is fantastic as they become familiar with their new recorders and begin to play. Apart from seriously missing seeing children face-to-face, learning recorder over Webex does have some advantages. I can see on one small screen what each child is doing, for instance whether the left hand is at the top, if the holes are completely covered, and whether they’ve developed “pimple finger”! If you don’t know what that means, ask someone!! It takes time with muting and unmuting, but it’s been lovely hearing children playing for the first time and getting so many things right!
If you haven’t started recorder yet and you’re in Year Three, do look at the videos for weeks one and two. They’ll get you going, and the best thing is that you can watch them as many times as you need to. The link is https://bit.ly/3fvDoTY Just remember to listen carefully when you begin to play and make sure the recorder is making the right sounds. If it’s not, fix it! Make sure all the holes are covered completely and that you’re breathing into the recorder gently.
Year Fours, I haven’t forgotten you also play recorder! Once the Year Threes have had a few weeks and are ready for you to join in, I’ll be finding your recorders and sending them home. In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying the work you’ve been set.
Years Four to Six have so far been exploring movement and sound gestures and using these to find ways to spell their names, street names, names of people in their families and so on. The task for Week Two, was to create their own movement and sound gestures for the numbers one to ten (although that should probably have been zero rather than ten!) and performing phone numbers, street numbers, postcodes and so on. The tricky part is to perform these fluently, moving seamlessly from one to the other.
For the next two weeks you’ll be looking at the work of Rudolf von Laban, an Austro-Hungarian who did some amazing work writing notation (ways to write down or take notes) for human movement. There were some people who were so skilled at writing down movement that they visited ballet schools and notated in great detail how the dancers were moving. Apparently you can even use Laban’s notation to write how the top of the femur (thigh bone) needs to move in its socket! This meant that others who knew how to read the notation could perform exactly the same dance. It’s a bit like being able to read music, because it means you can perform what someone else has played and written down. I’m really looking forward to seeing work from children in Years Four to Six.
Do keep sending me your work through Sentral! I’m loving it. Stay safe and well.
