Meet Ms. Archiblad Music and Mrs. Nemergut
Music Art
We have had a great start to the school year in our music classes. Given the short time frame in September, the students did an awesome job preparing for Celebrate Immanuel. In October, we began working on patriotic music to present at our Veterans Celebration on Nov. 10th. The students learned a bit about the history of the songs they are singing for this event and the impor-tance of thanking our veterans. We have also begun rehearsing music to be used for our Advent Program in December.
Middle School students have been working on note reading, rhythm, sight singing, ear training and dic- tation (transcribing rhythms and notes as they are played on the piano). ILS Choir (5th-8th grade) has been learning about proper breathing, breath control, vowel production (using our fun “candy” vowels) and singing in two parts. The Choir has been divided into two groups this year, but they are learning the same concepts. Pre-School through 2nd graders have been singing, dancing, learning about rhythms and basic staff notation. They have also been working on mastering the Kodaly hand signs for solfege and learning to sing a major scale. The use of Boomwhackers (tuned plastic tubes) has been very popular with this group. ILS 3rd and 4th graders have music at the same time and have been practicing recorders as well as singing. Note recognition and proper rhythm is being emphasized through the use of repeti- tion and an accompaniment CD. Fourth graders have been assigned more advanced music since most of them played recorders for a few months last year. REMINDER: Third and Fourth Graders should be practicing their recorders for at least 10 minutes every day!
This week, some of the classes will be starting units on The Nutcracker, a ballet with music by Tchaikovsky. This is a classical piece that is often presented at Christmas time. I would like to encour- age parents to take their children (all ages) to see the Danbury Music Centre’s production of The Nut- cracker which will be held at Danbury High School on Dec. 10-12, 2010. Check out this link for further information. http://www.danbury.org/musicctr/calendar.htm#sep or call the Music Centre at 203-748- 1716.
Looking forward to more musical moments! Joanne F. Archibald
We have settled into our new room and now the work begins.♥ Our new Pre-K class will be starting off with scissor skills. Those of us who have been using scissors forever have forgotten how difficult they were to use when we first started. They will be working their way through different weights of paper and learning little tricks like turning the paper instead of the scissors when they need to go around a curve. All the bits and pieces of paper they create will be saved to use in another piece of art where gluing skills will be learned.
♥ Kindergarten will be reviewing their tracing, cutting and gluing skills as they create a floral collage. ♥ First graders spent time brainstorming different types of lines and are using several of them in their art
piece combined with watercolor.
♥ Second graders reviewed lines and shapes and are using them to create patterns on rainforest trees! They will also use watercolor washes and markers to color them – expecting some exciting work!
♥ Third and Fourth grade have been combined creating a bit of a challenge for lessons. Third grade doesn’t want to miss any of the fun things the Fourth graders did last year while the fourth graders don’t want to repeat things! What’s a teacher to do? Why, come up with completely new and exciting projects, of course! So we are starting off with a line and shape drawing, partially colored with markers to create an abstract image – looking good so far!
♥ Fifth graders are also trying their hand at an abstract image, using their name in block letters repeated four times around a square. The letters form interesting patterns which they will color with markers.
♥ Sixth grade is also using the letters of their name in a completely different way to develop an abstract image in the style of Paul Klee. It’s very exciting to see them work out the spacing, shapes and colors.
♥ Seventh and Eighth grade are together again this year. By now you may have noticed an abstract theme running through most of the first projects of the year and this group’s initial project follows that idea. They are using a pattern of curved lines to create an abstract, optical illusion. This illusion will be enhanced when they practice their toning skills to shade the individual curves from light to dark. It’s a challenging piece but I am expecting some great work!
As we finish these projects and all the ones to come you can expect to see work displayed in the front stairway and in the hall leading to the cafeteria – I know you will enjoy seeing it as much as my artist/students have enjoyed creating it!
Submitted by Mrs. Nemergut
The PTL M