Student Welcome to Music

Tomorrow will be the first day I will get to meet students as a class. I've prepared this Prezi to guide us through the first day. I'm looking forward to a great year!

Mrs. Hanson's Music Classroom

Be on the lookout for information to come home soon! 5th grade will have info about beginning band and 3rd and 4th grade will have info on playing the recorder.

Welcome back!

2017-2018 is going to be a wonderful year at Carruthers! Please be sure to sign up for updates from this page, so you may know what is going on. Students have music every 3 days. Updates will be posted here every few weeks, showing what new activities students are doing in music. Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have questions about what we are learning, beginning band for 5th grade, recorder playing for 3rd and 4th grade, any of our school music performances, or anything else involving the music program. Thank you for supporting your child in all their educational endeavors, and let's have a great year!

What's Happening in Music?

3rd Grade

• Third grade students have been improving tremendously on their recorder. Many students have an extra recorder at home to practice with, and many other students have been very responsible, taking their recorder home to practice and bringing it back for music class. I can really tell the difference. Many students have earned the white, yellow, and orange belts. Those who haven't, will very soon. So far, we have learned the following songs:
• Walk Like a Mummy (white belt)
• AAA (yellow belt)
• The Glue Blues (orange belt)
• Baba Ooh Lala (green belt)
• Perry the Sheep
• Hot Cross Buns (purple belt)
• The Recorder Shuffle (blue belt)

4th Grade

• Students have learned most of the songs for the fourth grade musical, Let's Eat. This week we began to learn choreography. The students are having a great time learning the dance moves. Next week, all acting and singing special parts will be distributed. In the coming weeks, we will clean up our songs, add in the special parts, and then clean it all up with choreography. As a reminder, all students will participate in all of the learning activities, even if they will not be able to attend the final performance.

5th Grade

• Most groups have performed their commercial for the class. Once we have all finished, grades will be given based on the performance and the teamwork during preparation. 
• This week, we are beginning a unit on African-American Music History. This is a really fun unit for the students, as we explore spirituals, ragtime, blues, jazz, gospel, soul, Motown, rock n roll, rap, and hip hop music. We will spend about three weeks in this unit, finishing with a short exam.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to school! We have had a busy school year so far, and we still have lots of fun coming! Here is what we are doing in each grade level right now:

• 3rd Grade: We are going to really jump into learning our recorders. So far, we have learned 3 notes, B, A, and G. Now we are beginning to put these notes into more complex songs. Students haven't had a chance to play for me individually yet, which will earn karate belts on their recorder, but they will have a chance soon. At the end of every 3 lessons, students will have a playing test day. On these days, we will move around the room in centers, and one of the centers will be playing individually for me. At some point in the spring, 3rd grade students will have an in-class performance for parents, demonstrating the skills they have learned so far. 
• 4th Grade: We have been working hard on rounding out our recorder skills and getting everyone on the same page. The students are doing a great job, and we will begin working on some new songs soon, hopefully involving some other classroom instruments and singing. In addition, we will begin working on music for our upcoming spring productions. We will let you know as soon as we know dates and details.
• 5th Grade: 
• Students have been put into groups to work on a class project, the Commercial Project. Each group has come up with a fictional product they would like to market. Now, they are moving on to writing an ad for their commercial, drawing an ad for a magazine, writing background music for the ad with classroom instruments, writing jingle music and lyrics using Quaver music and chrome books, and then adding any final touches, such as props, costumes, etc. It really is a fun project! 
• In February, students will spend some time learning about African American music history. This unit will take students through many genres of music, including spirituals, ragtime, blues, jazz, soul, gospel, hip hop, rap.
• During late spring, classes will work on preparing some musical selections to possibly perform for parents in an in-class performance. 
• All classes: Students continue to do monthly listening examples. Also, students will have the opportunity to audition for the annual talent show this spring. 

Mrs. Hanson

Veterans Day Concert

The Veterans Day concert for 5th grade students is coming soon! The concert will be Monday, November 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the school gymnasium.

The concert will open with the singing of our national anthem, performed by one of our own. Mr. Brasel, Mrs. Collins, and Mrs. Lueckings' classes will be performing first, followed by Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Mahoney, and Mrs. Woodwards' classes. Then all 5th grade students will sing together. Towards the end of the concert, we will perform the Armed Forces Salute, of which we will be honoring veterans of the 5 branches of the USA military.

In addition, there will be a reading by the winner of the 5th grade essay contest.

While you are at the concert, check out the veteran's wall of honor, as well as the white table, in honor of our nation's POWs and MIAs.

We can't wait to see you there!

Recorder Karate for 3rd and 4th Grade

Information has been sent home about the Carruthers Recorder Karate program for 3rd and 4th grades. If you would like to retrieve this information online, look to the right side of the blog home screen. When you click on the link, it will take you to the documents on my google drive. Please send any comments or questions to me, which you can do directly through the blog in the contact section.

Free Quaver Bucks

My customer representative at Quaver has given me a code for all students to use for 100 FREE Quaver Bucks! When you are on the login screen, enter your username, password, and then click on "Have a special code?." When you are here, enter Back2School. Now you should have 100 more Quaver bucks. Enjoy!