Grades 3-4 – November/December News
Let the holidays begin! Thanksgiving in November is a great opportunity to sing the Native American songs Land of the Silver Birch,
Canoe Song and My Paddle’s Keen and Bright. With these songs students have begun working on the skill of independent part-singing. This is a difficult skill (learning to sing something while the person next to you is singing something totally different) to learn but dividing the class into two groups allows one group to sing one song while the second group sings another. I am pleased to report that these students were very successful in this endeavor.
Over the River and Through the Woods is another traditional song sung around Thanksgiving. This song of four chords (C, F, G, D) brought students the experience of playing half notes with bells, learning to work together as a team (interpersonal skills) to play the bells on the right chord, and doing mini performances for their teachers.
The forth graders had the experience of applying these chords to the
Ukulele. Three guests visited the forth grade music classes with enough ukuleles for every student! Students were divided into four groups with each group learning one of the four chords. They were able to play the entire song with ukuleles!
The month of December brings the winter holidays. We have learned the song Hanukkah Fun, have watched a short video on Hanukkah traditions, and will learn the dance that goes along with this song before moving on to the song Jolly Jolly Santa – complete with solo options.
These music class activities fulfill the Maine Learning Results (MLR) for
Disciplinary Literacy which states “Students show literacy in the discipline by understanding and demonstrating concepts, skills, terminology, and processes. Students accurately perform music in easy rhythms, keys, meters, in limited ranges, modeling proper posture and technique, alone or with others. Students read whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth and dotted half notes and rests in 2/3, ¾, and 4/4 meter signatures.” The above songs have allowed these students to work on 4/4,6/8, and 2/4 meters, four keys, and all but sixteenth and dotted half notes of this learning result.

These music class activities also fulfill the MLR for Creation,
Performance, and Expression which states “Students create or perform music of various styles and genres in easy keys, meters, and rhythms with limited ranges accurately applying the knowledge and skills of: proper posture and technique; notation; symbols; and terminology of dynamics.”
And finally, these music class activities fulfill the MLR for Visual and
Performing Arts Connections which states Students understand the relationship among music, history and world culture; and they make connections among the music and to other disciplines, to goal-setting, and to interpersonal interaction. These interpersonal skills include the following: getting along with others, respecting differences, working as a team/ensemble, managing conflict, accepting/giving/using constructive feedback, accepting responsibility for personal behavior, demonstrating ethical behavior, following established rules/etiquette for observing/listening to art and demonstrating safe behavior.”
We have had great fun working on these songs and learning results and look forward to sharing our work with you in the spring.