2024-2025
Empower Hour: Spring Mills Voices - Hats! the Musical
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Calling all 3rd-5th graders who love to sing, dance, and act! Enjoy singing together with your friends, develop your singing voice with warm-ups, have fun learning some songs with 2-part harmonies, get up and move with some choreography, learn your speaking parts - all while preparing the musical: Hats! Discover that it's not the hat that makes a person special, but what's underneath! Performance will be on May 15th.
Rehearsals are on Thursday mornings from 8am-9am and start on April 3rd. There will be one additional Tuesday morning rehearsal (May 13). Click here to sign up! |
February in Music!
We had two big themes in February: snow and xylophones! For such a short month, we packed a lot into it!
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We took playing with snow to a whole new level! Students pretended to ice skate on paper plates to the songs about skating and they couldn't get enough of our soft snow balls! It's too funny how 5th graders turn into little kids when you give them a snowball! And the squeals from the combination of snowballs and the parachute - priceless!
Of course we combined the fun with learning about musical form! 5th graders also used our light-up drum sticks to drum along to the "Sleigh Ride". So much fun in February! |
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Our second focus were the xylophones. In Kindergarten and 1st grade, we started with just a few xylophones. We learned how and where to tap the bars gently and worked on taking turns. We eventually added more xylophones until everybody could play together. All grades started working on our accompaniments to the books for our "Books and Music" event!
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January in Music!
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Students in upper el greeted the new year with lots of movement! We did some Fortnite dances, scarf dancing, and four corners. It was so much fun to watch them get into it!
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2nd graders finished up our introduction to solfège by playing along with rainbow glockenspiels and desk bells. They also watched three famous songs from "The Sound of Music" to see where their song came from.
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Kindergarten and 1st grade students explored the tambourine this month and played along to many songs. We learned many songs about snow and playing in the snow, and focused on hearing the difference between long and short sounds.
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Upper elementary continued with a "Music Games Week". Students worked on note values with "Music Note Value War" and "Chutes and Ladders" for the 3rd graders, and on note names with "Go Fish Note Names".
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We finished off the month of January with two weeks (plus snow day interruptions) of Drum Circle Time! All grades got to play on tubanos, congas, bongos, tomtoms, djembes, the log drum, the darbouka, and the doumbek. We had some free group drumming time, played some echo exercises, and follow the body conductor fun. Younger students focused on playing a steady beat to songs, while older students worked on hand independence in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 meters. They also layered three different rhythms on top of each other and passed several rhythms at the same time around the circle. Each grade level builds on what we have learned in the grade level before.
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Best wishes for a happy 2025! May it bring you good health, joy in the little things, time with family and friends, and opportunities to experience music!
I love it when my students come up to me and share about a concert they went to, a show they saw, their favorite song on the radio, or an instrument they received. Thank you for supporting their love for music! |
December in Music!
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Our Empower Hour group Spring Mills Voices was very busy in December! This group of 46 3rd-5th grade students learned eight songs in eight Mondays! Pretty amazing! They performed a beautiful concert in front of a full house at Spring Mills for their families. Everybody did an amazing job and brought a lot of joy to everyone who attended! Thank you so much for the donation of $109.45, which goes towards purchasing music for this after-school program.
Spring Mills Voices also was invited to perform at Milford High School during the Holiday Concert of the high school choirs. Our choir stole the show with their beautiful voices, their amazing soloists, their poise and great behavior. It was a wonderful evening that I'll remember for a long time. |
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Spring Mills Voices also performed a few songs from their concert for the 2nd-5th graders at school. We picked their favorites and had a lot of fun with it. Then, we rang in the holidays with a sing-along of various holiday songs!
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We keep chugging along filling up our mosaic! I love hearing the guesses on what the picture could be. I've heard everything from a heart, to a fox, to a shark, to Mr. Brazier!
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Students in Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten focused on jingle bells this month! We played jingle bells in lots of different songs. Their favorite song this month was a song where we pretended to be inside a snow globe!
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1st graders enjoyed singing a variety of holiday songs, but also explored some of the songs of the famous Nutcracker ballet with different movement tools like ribbon scrunchies and horses!
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2nd graders played along to their Do Re Mi songs with boomwhackers this month and had to work as a class to put themselves in the correct order. We also continued to explore songs from the Nutcracker. 2nd graders also got to use the horses, but their task was a little bit more difficult. The red horses only were allowed to trot to a specific part in the music, the brown horses galloped to a different part in the music. And then there was a third groups of students, who played maracas and rhythm sticks to another part in the music. This was already in preparation for 3rd grade, when we discuss the rondo form. Lots of learning while having fun!
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3rd graders do an intensive study of different songs of the Nutcracker ballet. We analyze the form and use various tools to make the form visible. One of the forms we focus on in 3rd grade is the Rondo form, where one part in the music repeats with different parts sprinkled in between. We worked on that with the super stretchy and plastic plates in three different colors. We also learned a ribbon streamer choreography to the Russian dance (Trepak) and did a mirror movement activity to the Arabian dance. I love teaching this unit in 3rd grade!
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4th graders continued to work on the recorder and many students passed the white belt. We test for the white belt and bead row by row in class, but after that, recorder karate testing will be much more individualized. Students will work at their own pace. If they practice often at home, they will of course get further and will be able to test for more songs in the next months. We also played boomwhackers and some other instruments in December.
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5th graders participated in the Highland Tree Lighting in the beginning of December! They sang one song by themselves (Christmas tree, what will you be?) and one song together with the 5th grade students from Highland Elementary (Nice, nice Christmas). Then they lead everybody in a sing-along. It was a very well attended event and it was fun to sing together.
In December, they also played some boomwhackers and learned to play along to Trepak with different instrument groups. |
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November in Music!
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Students in Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten explored the drums this month! We used the big gathering drums, hand drums of all sizes, tomtoms, bongos and small djembes. We also sang lots of different turkey songs!
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In 1st grade, students started working on recognizing the difference between a steady beat and a rhythm. We also started reading rhythms with "iconic" notation, meaning rhythms with pictures instead of notes. And of course, we sang a lot of turkey songs!
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2nd graders worked hard on perfecting their solfège skills in November. We sang two songs that focused on Do re mi fa sol la ti do and did card games to memorize the order of the notes.
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In 3rd grade, many of our monthly songs have something to do with Hip Hop. In November, we sang Hip Hop Turkey. We also did some play alongs with desk bells, and students kept working on reading and playing rhythm patterns (for example with a rhythm bingo).
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The month of November was all about the recorders for our 4th graders! We finally got started! Students were so excited to finally get to play. They quickly realized that it does take patience and practice to get better at playing an instrument. It is really fun to watch them grow and to see light bulbs going off - connecting note names to fingers.
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5th graders worked very hard on preparing their songs for the Tree Lighting. Even though it is only November, December will be here fast! We also focused on learning how to play the song "DJ Bobo" on the recorder, a song that many students enjoyed playing.
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October in Music!
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Halloween Week was so much fun! I brought out the black lights and all the classes got to do some glow-in-the-dark activities! From glow-in-the-dark rhythm sticks and light up sticks, to glow-in-the-dark cups, following a glow-in-the-dark spider string, singing spider songs with spiders, passing the witch's broomstick - everyone had a lot of fun!
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In Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and 1st grade, we focused on playing with rhythm sticks in October. We sang lots pumpkin, fall, and Halloween songs. Our scarves were often used as leaves blowing in the wind.
In 1st grade, we also added some other rhythm instruments to a few of the songs. |
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2nd graders worked on drawing notes and learning their names. They also enjoyed singing “Pumpkin, pumpkin” and do a circle game with it. We also added an accompaniment with instruments to “Pass the pumpkin round” song. Their favorite song was probably “Whacky Halloween”. We continue to work with Mr. Red and Mr. Blue to learn “Are You Sleeping” in English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, and Chinese.
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Music Game Week: 3rd graders focused on reviewing solfege games from last year. 4th and 5th graders worked on note name games, to practice their note names on the staff.
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Instrument Week: Boomwhackers! 5th graders worked on the song "Ghost of John", accompanying the song with three different parts. 4th graders played their boomwhackers to songs like "The Monster Mash" and "Little Monsters". 3rd graders played rhythm sticks and boomwhackers to "Dem Bones"
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Stations Week: We used our black lights from last year for a glow-in-the-dark rhythm activity! So much fun! Other stations focused on some candy rhythms, playing songs on the rainbow glockenspiel, practicing how to draw a treble clef (3rd), playing Hot Cross Buns on xylophones (4th), and accompanying "The Ghost of John" in small groups (5th).
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September in Music!
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In Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten, we used September to explore different kinds of shakers. We played egg shakers, maracas, and fruit and veggie shakers. We learned to remember our spots that we sit on, how to get into a circle, how to line up, and how to stop playing when my hand goes up. We sang songs and are working on recognizing if we're using a singing voice or a speaking voice (or a whisper or a shouting voice). I won't be able to share many pictures of Kindergarten this year, because all classes have about half of the students that cannot be pictured online. I will sometimes share more pictures on Seesaw or ClassDojo.
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1st graders reviewed some songs from last year, and already moved through shakers, rhythms sticks, and boomwhackers. We started discussing "Big Beat" with our new friend BEET, and "Little Beat" with our new friend BETSY.
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2nd graders really enjoyed starting off the year with the song "Up the ladder". They also spent some time on the song "BINGO", adding cards with letters, to eventually switching to various instruments. I also introduced the first solfege syllables and we started working on "Are you sleeping" in different languages.
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3rd through 5th graders will work with a weekly "theme" this year. We will rotate through "Music Games", "Instruments", "Music Stations", "Movement", and "?" - a catch-all for random activities. Students see posted outside of the room, what we're working on. It doesn't mean that we only do musical games or only instruments and no singing, but our focus of that lesson will be the "theme".
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Week 1 was an introductory week. Week 2 was "Music Games". This week focused on games that had students practice note values.
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The next music time was "Instrument" Week. Grades 4 and 5 worked on a drum piece called "Quadraboom", while 3rd graders worked on "A Sailor went to Sea" with four different instrument groups: woods, metals, shakers, and skins.
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During "Station Week", students rotated through stations that focused on note values and rhythms. I thought the station with play food was very interesting!
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The next time in music, we focused on movements. We learned the Russian folk dance "Sasha". The students had a blast and begged for a repeat!
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Welcome to Music Class!
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The room is ready for the new school year, and I am excited to start! I am even more excited that I will only be at Spring Mills this year! In all these years of teaching, I have always traveled between buildings, and this is the first time that I get to be at only one building!
We have a new friend, Sharkbait, who will be helping with making sure our students stay focused. |
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3rd-5th graders will walk into the music room to the sound of a different instrument each time they come to music. This will expose them to lots of instruments, their sound, and what they look like.
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All grades will work together to create a mosaic masterpiece! Whenever I catch somebody being on task, giving a great answer (right or wrong!), being helpful and kind, being a leader, I may put a little sticker on their shoulder. At the end of class, everybody with a sticker gets to put a mosaic sticker on our picture outside the music room. Let's see how long it will take us to figure out what it is!
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Empower Hours in 2024-2025:
Winter: Spring Mills Orff Sharks! A new ensemble focusing on instruments like xylophones and drums Thursdays 4:15pm-5:15pm January and February 2025 4th and 5th grade only! Spring: Spring Mills Voices: Hats! The Musical Thursdays 8am-9am April 3rd - May 15th 2025 3rd-5th graders |
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2023-2024
Enjoy your summer!
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Congratulations to our winning class: Mrs. Sheldon's 4th grade!
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Mrs. Sheldon's class was the winning class of our year-round competition between the classes. They got the most stickers, closely followed by Mrs. Popadince's 2nd graders and Mrs. McGraw's 1st graders. Mrs. Sheldon's class got cookies and cupcakes and celebrated on the last day of school. Great job everyone!
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Recorder Karate Stars
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Congratulations to our Recorder Black Belts:
Maddy King Addie Webster Freya Oltesvig Teya LaPratt Xavier Olszewski What an amazing achievement!! Bravo! And Freya Oltesvig even passed the Silver and Gold Belts! She worked very hard for these belts and sent in lots of videos this year. I'm very proud of you! |
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June in the Music Room!
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We finished the school year with lots of Orff instruments! We also added our new Joia Tubes into the rotation!
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For the last week of school, I pulled out the big parachute, all our puppets, and in 4th and 5th grade our playground balls. What a great week to finish off a wonderful year together in the music room!
Spring Mills Voices present: Pirates! The Musical
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This was an exceptional group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders! They learned a whole musical in just eight weeks! They were such a fun group to work with - focused, talented, engaged, and kind to each other. Arrrrrrrgh!! Congratulations on two fantastic performances!
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May in the Music Room!
In May, all grades worked for two weeks with the KidStix program! I love working with this program, because it engages students at every age. We focus on different skills in different grade levels, The older grades especially enjoy the play-alongs.
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4th and 5th graders also played ukuleles in May! In 4th grade, we reviewed what we learned last year. We also practiced playing some of our recorder songs on the ukulele. In 5th grade, we worked on adding different chords, so that we could play along to some popular songs. There was quite a bit of jamming going on!
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5th graders explored some music apps on the chrome books. We had some creative musical compositions!
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2nd graders had a lot of fun working on different stations!
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All grades enjoyed doing some play-alongs with boomwhackers!
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April in the Music Room!
5th graders started April by finishing up their Theme and Variation Unit. Their task was to choose a theme, come up with two variations on the theme, and perform it on instruments together. I watched some great group work and heard some fantastic variations!
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All grades had a big focus on rhythms in April and May. In JK, K, and 1st grade, we still focus heavily on practicing to keep a steady beat. That could be with our hands, beanie babies, any kind of rhythm instruments, or drums. We also echo rhythms with the help of our puppet friends. In 1st grade, we also start reading simplified rhythm notation. In second grade, we have moved from the simplified rhythm notation to regular rhythm notation. Students are working on reading, but also notating rhythms. In 3rd through 5th grade, the rhythms get more and more complex. Students also do rhythm dictations, where they hear a rhythm and have to write it down. We practice this in lots of different ways, with popsicle sticks, cards, and white boards.
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2nd graders have been getting to know the solfège syllables all year. Now, we have moved on to discover where they are positioned on two lines. It’s great to watch when things “click” into place and students suddenly have a lightbulb moment.
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In April, our brand new desk bells arrived!! We were so excited to put them to the test right away! All grades thoroughly enjoyed the play-along videos and there was a high concentration in the room. It was so fun to watch when the students recognized a tune or started singing along. We sometimes even added some boomwhackers too!
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Band and Choir come to visit Spring Mills!
Students from Oak Valley Middle School came to visit Spring Mills to show our 5th graders what they get to look forward to in 6th grade. Our 5th graders got an introduction to all the instruments and got to ask questions about middle school. They were a great attentive audience!
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We also had choir students from all Huron Valley middle and high schools come visit as part of Bass Voice Day! It was so much fun to see former students and watch them perform!
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At the end of April, students got to try out some instruments and see what they might like to play in band next year. I can't wait to hear what they choose to do in middle school!
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DonorsChoose Project - Color Our World With Music And Joy - or Joia?!
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I wasn't planning on having a DonorsChoose project this year, but when they announced in March that there was going to be a match coming up, I decided to jump in. :-) Right now, our classroom has one set of those desk bells (which can also be played on the floor) and we have only used them during "stations" time. But they are much more useful than for simple exploration. They help with solmization and playing tunes. Even my youngest students will be able to play melodies by following the colors and by pushing the button on top of the bell (instead of shaking them). Thanks to all our donors, we now have 6 sets and each student in the class can have a bell. I'm looking forward to using the bells as soon as they get here!
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Glow Night!
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What a night! So much fun! It was amazing to see my vision come together!
A huge Thank You to our HVEF Foundation for the grant that made this evening possible! Thank You to Ms. Erica Robinson, who came on this crazy journey with me and made amazing glowing art pieces with the students. Thank You so much to our PTA and the volunteers! We couldn’t have done it without you! Here are some pictures from the week of the glow night and from the Glow Night itself (plus a few short video snippets). Leading up to the glow night, each class got to try their routine with the black lights in the music room. I loved watching it all come to life! |
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March in Music
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Students in Junior Kindergarten through 2nd grade sang various rainbow songs and used scarves, ribbon scrunchies, ribbon streamers, and rainbow hoops to show the different colors of the rainbow.
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Kindergarten and 1st grade students also used "Toobaloos" to check how their voice matched the singing pitch. It was very fun to watch students' reactions when they heard their voice so close to their ear!
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1st graders worked hard at accompanying the song “I’ve got a dog” with a bordun on boomwhackers and xylophones.
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Congratulations to Mrs. McGraw's class and Mrs. Popadince's class to be the next two classes to get their 10th sticker. Both classes chose a Game Day!
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2nd graders worked with instruments this month. They used hoop stations to practice audiating with instruments. At the end of the month, they also played “yackerheads” and xylophones to accompany the book “Mortimer”.
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3rd graders learned a lot about the different instrument families in March. We listened to Maestro Carl, played an instrument guessing game, and played the card game “Fiddlesticks” to practice recognizing instruments and their families. They also started working on rounds and duple/triple meters.
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4th graders are hard at work practicing their recorders and testing for belts and beads. I opened up "D" Days for testing during their recess time and often have around 15 students in my room. Way to go and keep up the great work!
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5th graders have explored their new form “Theme and Variations” for the last few weeks. We listened and analyzed quite a few examples and even added parachute movements to one of the pieces. Their final task is to work together in groups to create their own theme and variation. I can’t wait to hear their final product in April!
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February in Music
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February flew by! Every grade started practicing for their glow night routine using different props:
Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten: snowballs and painted fish 1st grade: LED foam sticks 2nd grade: painted finger gloves 3rd grade: tennis balls 4th grade: finger lights and hula hoops 5th grade: light-up drum sticks |
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With all the snow days, we of course had to add some snowball fights and ice skating to our lessons! There are so many funny pictures! Their faces - priceless!
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Kindergarten students continued to work on using their singing voice, by following shapes and drawings. We even used puppets to help us with singing. They also got to know all the songs from the Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. We added a lot of movements and explored how Saint-Saëns used different instruments for different animals.
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1st grade students continue to focus on perfecting their steady beat. We practiced in lots of different ways – with body percussion, rhythm sticks alone, rhythm sticks in groups of 2, and even a big long train.
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2nd grade students explored the story “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. We listened to the story and to the music. We learned where the composer Edward Grieg was from. We analyzed the rhythms of the song and spoke along with ta’s and titi’s. We added movements to the song and practiced keeping the beat by throwing penalty flags to each other. The culmination was two groups performing the song at the same time, one on guiros, the other one with playground balls.
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3rd graders kept working on understanding the Rondo form. We analyzed various songs, added scarves, the big parachute, cups, and tennis balls as tools to recognize this form.
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4th and 5th graders continue to work on their recorders. We practice songs in class, but it is important that students also practice their songs at home. In order to make progress, students need to practice their recorder often, but not necessarily for long. They also started working on their choreographies for the Glow Night, which are a little more tricky than the other grades...
January in Music
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We started the new year 2024 with a BANG – at least, until the snow came and stopped our classes… All classes in all grades participated in two weeks of drum circle time! Students learned the names of the different kinds of drums and how to play them. They learned what it means to listen to each other and to react to each other. Some of the other activities that we did were: the rumble, rhythm echo, rhythm pass, call and response, signals, meters, sevens, orbit, and body conductor. Many students enjoy drum circles and I always discover some hidden drummer talents!
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Students in 2nd and 3rd grade also worked on exploring note values with pop tubes and rhythms with rhythm rockets. 4th and 5th graders also kept working on rhythms, not just reading them, but also playing them on the recorder or playing a rhythm bingo.
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Wishing you all a
wonderful start into a
fabulous year!
Let's go, 2024!
December in Music
I love to work with songs from the Nutcracker! They lend themselves to so many movement possibilities! We get to use streamers, parachutes, candy cane horses, and even instruments to interpret the music that we’re hearing. All grades experienced at least one song this December, but 3rd grade did a very thorough study of the Nutcracker. I tried something new with 5th grade. We compared Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker with Tchaikovsky’s version. We had some interesting conversations! Great job 5th graders!
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In Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and 1st grade, we also sang a lot of Santa and holiday songs, played along with instruments, and got to have singing conversations with puppets.
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In addition to the Nutcracker songs, 2nd graders also took a look at the book “The First Notes – the Story of Do, Re, Mi”, written by Julie Andrews.
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4th graders are deep in recorder study! Since the recorder is still pretty new, practice and practice is the way to go!
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Congratulations to Mrs. Sheldon’s class for being the first class to reach 10 stickers! They chose an Instrument Day as a reward!
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5th graders had a tricky task in December. In addition to finishing preparing their songs for the Highland Tree Lighting, they also learned a three part accompaniment for “We wish you a merry Christmas”. The students seemed to really enjoy working with the boomwhackers and rainbow bells.
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Highland Tree Lighting
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Our 5th graders did a great job representing Spring Mills at the Highland Tree Lighting! They sang two songs by themselves and led the community sing-along. Thank you for coming out, 5th graders!
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HVEF Grants for Spring Mills and Kurtz
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Thank you very much to the Huron Valley Education Foundation for the two grants I received! Without the HVEF many of my projects would not be possible. I'm extremely excited to start planning a Glow Night together with Ms. Robinson for Spring Mills! And I'm just as excited to add some instruments that are color coded for my categorical students at Kurtz. Thank you.
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Missoula Children's Theater Visits Huron Valley Schools!
What an amazing week we had in Huron Valley! Brianna and Lindsay from Missoula Children’s Theater spent the week in Huron Valley and visited Spring Mills, Country Oaks, Kurtz, and Oxbow Elementaries. Our students in JK through 3rd grade enjoyed an assembly that explored how to write and perform a story. Students in 4th and 5th grade had workshops in the music classroom that had to do with improvisation and acting. We sure learned a lot this week!
21 of our Spring Mills students worked super hard all week after school rehearsing the musical “The Princess and the Pea” together with students from all the other elementary schools. They learned the songs, memorized their lines, practiced choreographies, and learned a lot about being on stage. It was very impressive to see the changes from day 1 to day 5! And it was incredible to watch a show come to life in just one short week. Congratulations to all our students on a fantastic job performing two shows on Saturday for family, friends, and the community! Here are some pictures from rehearsals and the dress rehearsal.
November in Music
In November, all grades used boomwhackers at some point during the month. Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten students did a first introduction to boomwhackers with the song "Downtown", 1st grade worked on steady beat, 2nd grade played along with their solfège song, and 3rd through 5th grades played along to the song "It's Corn!".
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Junior Kindergarten students got a little help from some 5th graders to echo sing some easy reader books. They used toobaloos to check their singing voice. It was super cute to watch!
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Students in Kindergarten and 1st grade loved pretending to have a kite fly with them using scarves and ribbon scrunchies! Kindergarten students got introduced to opposites like high and low, fast and slow, loud and quiet. We got to experience those opposites in lots of different ways - with our bodies and singing voice, with the super stretchy, with the small parachutes, and on the smart board with a game. 1st graders reviewed those concepts, but also focused on steady beat vs. rhythm, and they loved singing and playing along to "The Earth is our Mother".
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2nd graders focused heavily on solfège and reading rhythms in November. They learned all the solfège syllables, learned to sing the songs "Whacky Do Re Mi" and "Do Re Mi" from the Sound of Music, and practiced the order of the syllables with some card games. They also played along with boomwhackers and hand bells. It all culminated in them watching three scenes from "The Sound of Music". 3rd grade reviewed the solfège syllables, songs, and games, and did some mystery solfège song guessing games. They also learned about steps and skips and started their unit on Rondos.
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4th graders received their recorders at the end of October and November was spent playing lots of recorder! In the beginning, it can be tricky to find out, how much (or better how little!) can you blow before it squeaks! This is why it is important to practice at home! In class it can sometimes be tricky to hear yourself. At home, it is much easier to hear your recorder and hear your squeaks. I'm not asking you to play 30 minutes each day, but 5 minutes each day will go a long way! Your fingers will get used to the recorder, you will realize how little air you need, and your tongue knows what to do. So far, we have learned the notes B, A, and G. Play around with them, have fun, improvise!
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5th graders focused on learning their songs for the Highland Tree Lighting, learning how to play DJ Bobo on the recorder, and we built with Legos. Students had to build rhythms using Legos. They first had to build rhythms that I wrote down, then rhythms I spoke, and then rhythms I played. Afterwards, they had to come up with as many rhythms as possible using the Legos.
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Veterans Day Celebration at Spring Mills
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The Empower Hour "Spring Mills Voices" prepared for a concert for our Veterans during the past eight weeks. They sang a beautiful concert with patriotic songs, songs to honor our Veterans, fabulous solos, and even a flag routine! In the morning, they performed for Veterans and 3rd through 5th graders, in the evening for Veterans, families, and friends. A huge Thank You to Biggby Coffee in White Lake and in Hartland, Tim Hortons in Hartland, The Looney Baker, and Meijer for their generous donations for our small reception for our Veterans after the morning concert!
October in Music
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Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st grade: After singing "5 little speckled frogs" in lots of different ways (a crowd favorite was of course the jumping frogs!), we switched to fall songs and Halloween songs. A big hit this year was "Blowing in the Wind". We also played drums and xylophones.
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Students in Kindergarten all the way through 2nd grade still love the spider song! Nothing for the faint-hearted! :-)
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2nd grade: Students got to know the names and note values of the whole note, half note, quarter note, quarter rest, and the barred eighth notes. We explored them in various ways – singing a song, drawing them on paper, drawing them outside with chalk, and even forming them with pipe cleaners! We also sang some Halloween songs (big hit: Whacky Halloween) and sang the book “13 Nights of Halloween”.
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3rd grade: We finished some cup routines, sang apple and other fall songs, and accompanied the “Shake them Bones” book with instruments.
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4th grade: Our big focus in October was to learn how to read the notes on the staff in order to get ready for the recorder. We did this lots of different ways: with a song, with bingo chips, alone, in groups, as a class, on the smart board, with a game,... We also got our recorders in the last week of October!! That is always exciting - and scary for parents! :-) We also looked at the book "Skelly the Skeleton Girl". Everybody loved the zombie walk on Halloween!
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5th grade: We continued to review the note names on the staff, kept working on our recorders, and worked on a two-part accompaniment to the song "The Ghost of John".
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September in Music
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In Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten, we started the year off with lots of songs - some familiar ones and some new ones. We also started playing instruments using different kinds of shakers - egg shakers, maracas, and fruit and veggie shakers. We learned to stop moving at a specific moment and how to move safely around the music room.
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In 1st grade, we reviewed some songs from last year and started working on some new songs. We jumped right back in solidifying our steady beat. We added a song and a xylophone accompaniment to the book "All are Welcome Here" and sang a welcome song in Spanish.
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2nd graders already played a variety of rhythm instruments as well as xylophones, right in the first month back! They also started singing "Are you sleeping" in different languages and learned about the different note names and values.
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3rd through 5th graders did a lot of reviewing of concepts. Note values were practiced by playing various music games. All classes were very strong in reading rhythms. 5th graders reviewed the note names for the recorder and 4th grade got their introduction into note name reading for the recorder. Students in upper el also worked on cup passing routines in rows and circles.
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Ready for the new school year?
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The room is ready! I'm ready and excited to start the new school year! I can't wait to explore our theme for the year: Music Genres! My beat buddies, ribbon scrunchies, and scarves are washed, instruments are clean, and Mr. Red got a new buddy this summer: Mr. Blue! I'm looking forward to another fabulous year of learning and fun activities. I'm also excited to welcome Missoula Children's Theater to our community in the week of November 13th. More infos to come in a few weeks...
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If you're looking for ways to donate to our music classroom, we have a DonorsChoose page and an Amazon wishlist. If you're doing some end-of-summer or fall cleaning and have any stick horses laying around that your children are no longer using, I'd love to give them a new home. I sometimes do horse riding activities with my lower el classes and it would be more fun to do them with actual stick horses than with candy canes... Thank you!
2022-2023
Summer!
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I was fortunate to take some post-graduate classes this summer. I took two classes that focused on teaching music to students with special needs, one class about equity in the music classroom, one about positive behavior in the classroom, and one ukulele class. It was a lot of reading and writing, a lot of ukulele practicing, but I definitely got some great ideas in all the classes. For my ukulele class, I had to record a lot of songs during the 8 weeks of the course. I had to record two videos for a "final virtual concert". I had two of my daughters help me with the vocals on "Hallelujah" - this was a first for us and it ended up being a wonderful experience. I thought I'd share our performance with you as well...
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Recorder Stars
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Congratulations to our 5th graders Kennedy, Naomi, and Kenny, who all got the black belt in Recorder Karate! Kennedy achieved even more! She was the only student this year to receive the silver and gold medal for her recorder playing. Pretty amazing!
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June - here comes the end :-)
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June stood under the influence of boomwhackers, ukuleles, tubanos, puppets, and big and small parachutes. It was clear to see that you’re never too old for puppets! I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the little skits and songs that came out their group work. And of course the “Peaches” song was everywhere… Sorry for the overload on pictures, but it was such a fun couple of weeks!
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Moosical Animals - Concert by Spring Mills Voices
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The Empower Hour Spring Mills Voices prepared a concert all about animals. 35 students had been diligently working before school on preparing these songs. They also auditioned for solos and practiced singing in two parts. It was an amazing group to work with and they did a phenomenal job! I'm so glad that Mrs. Bentley came to aid as our chicken in the chicken rap! The kids had a blast watching her! The choir also got to premier a song by a Swiss children's choir. They sang beautifully and touched a lot of people's hearts.
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May in Music
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3rd through 5th grade started into May with a stations week. They practiced playing "Twinkle" and/or "Mary had a little lamb" on 4 different instruments! They also visited Brazil and Russia to learn about their instruments and music. They continued to work on recognizing instruments and instrument families. They also worked on rhythms and 4th/5th graders on recorders.
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4th and 5th graders reviewed their note reading skills in preparation for the final Music Minute Madness. 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders also continued to work on rhythm reading, creating 4-beat rhythm patterns, and writing rhythms down just from hearing them. It takes a lot of skill and practice to be able to do that.
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Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten students worked on some solo singing with puppets and did some fun summer routines with ribbon scrunchies and ribbon streamers. 1st graders all got a turn on the smart board in the last couple months to come up with rhythms using stick notation. Later we practiced writing rhythms using popsicle sticks. 2nd graders got to use the blue beat strips and beat squares to create their rhythms and start with easy rhythm dictation. They also continued to work on hearing songs in major and minor tonalities.
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DonorsChoose project funded!
What an amazing Teacher Appreciation Week this has been!!! My project was fully funded in four days - all thanks to friends and family, my amazing school community and parents of current and former students, people from all over the United States who support the Organization MMOSS (MusicMakesOurStudentsSmarter), and SONIC! I am very grateful and can't wait for my students to be able to use all those fun things! Thank you very much for your support and help in getting this project funded! We will enjoy those beautiful books and amazing puppets and can't wait to color with new colored pencils!
It's Band Time for our 5th graders!
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Our 5th grade students got a visit from part of the Oak Valley band. Mr. Hogaboom and Mrs. Fitzpatrick introduced their band program and students got to ask questions. On a separate day, they also got to try to play their favorite instruments. How fun to watch them take the next step into the world of music!
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Recorder Karate News
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A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Kennedy who is our first 5th grader this year to reach the black belt! Way to go!
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And look at this group of 4th graders, who are spending their recess in music to practice and pass belts and beads! Pretty amazing!
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4th Graders go to a concert in Ann Arbor!
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On April 11th, our 4th graders headed to The Ark in Ann Arbor. The students were able to enjoy a concert by the group called "Common Chords" - a group focusing on telling America's story through music and cultural expression. Thank you to The Henry Ford Company for funding the concert tickets, and thank you to The Ark for giving us a bus grant! Also a huge Thank You to Mrs. Sheldon, Mr. Stern, and Mr. Cichowicz for taking the classes while I was out.
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April in Music
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Equipped with a knee scooter, I was excited to be back and jump right in! I love the program KidStix, because it teaches so many things: keeping a steady beat, echoing and reading rhythms, and playing along to folk songs as well as popular songs. Everyone is engaged and there is so much learning happening!
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The younger classes also enjoyed singing the song "Rainbows Rock" and adding scarves, ribbon scrunchies, and rainbow hoops to it!
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Well, life sometimes has different plans... A surgery to repair a shredded tendon and a tear in the ligament meant a little time out to rest my foot up high. I'm grateful to Mrs. Boatright for keeping my lessons going and for being excited to teach some music classes for a couple of weeks.
My upper elementary classes continued our travels and visited Australia and Kenya. My second graders got to know the story and music of Peer Gynt and "In the Hall of the Mountain King". My first graders kept singing a lot of songs thanks to our MusicPlayOnline subscription and also learned about Jazz thanks to the books of "Jazz Fly". My JK and Kindergarten students used egg shakers, rhythm sticks, and scarves and kept the music going with songs on MusicPlayOnline and they listened to the book "Grumpy Monkey". |
March is also Reading Month in Music Class
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We celebrated March is Reading Month also with books in the music classroom! Each grade level used a different book.
JK and K added instruments every time the book read "Jump, Frog, Jump"!
1st graders added some rhythms and page turn music to "Rap a Tap Tap".
2nd graders sang a song with the book "Old Black Fly" and accompanied themselves on xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels.
3rd graders had two books! They echo sang and played with solfège to the book "Beetle Bop" and the added more rhythm instruments to "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Day".
4th graders learned to play a song and an accompaniment to "Dinotrain".
5th graders played a song, accompaniment, and various rhythms to "Caps for Sale".
JK, K, and 1st grade students also sang the stories in short little books to each other.
JK and K added instruments every time the book read "Jump, Frog, Jump"!
1st graders added some rhythms and page turn music to "Rap a Tap Tap".
2nd graders sang a song with the book "Old Black Fly" and accompanied themselves on xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels.
3rd graders had two books! They echo sang and played with solfège to the book "Beetle Bop" and the added more rhythm instruments to "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Day".
4th graders learned to play a song and an accompaniment to "Dinotrain".
5th graders played a song, accompaniment, and various rhythms to "Caps for Sale".
JK, K, and 1st grade students also sang the stories in short little books to each other.
March in Music
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JK and K students practiced singing lots of songs this month. See if your student can sing for you a few verses of "Mary had a little lamb" or "Baa, baa, black sheep". They tremendously enjoyed the activity "Giants and Fairies", where they had to react to cues in the music.
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1st graders are working hard to learn how to read rhythms using stick notation. We're using the smart board and every student will get a turn over the next few weeks.
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Both 1st and 2nd graders enjoyed the song "Follow the Rainbow" very much. We used the new rainbow hoops (bought with the HVEF grant) and ribbon streamers to show the contour of the melody and the steady beat.
2nd graders also practiced playing instruments to the song "Tony Chestnut". |
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3rd through 5th graders traveled some more with their music passport! During the week of March 8th, we traveled to India, because it happened to be the week of the Holi Festival - the Festival of Colors. We learned about instruments and music in India and even danced to a Holi song. We used scarves to pretend to throw colored powder at each other. It was lots of fun!
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During St. Patrick's Day week, we traveled to Ireland. We learned about their special instruments like the penny whistle, the bones, or the bodhran. I also brought in my Celtic harp and played an Irish tune for them. Students really enjoyed singing the song "Hi, ho, the rattlin' bog".
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What does your music teacher do on a Saturday?
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Go to an Orff Workshop in Detroit! It's always great to learn some new things and get new ideas. This was a workshop filled with ideas for the recorder, tubano drums, songs, and folk dancing. I will definitely use some of the ideas with my classes!
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Recorder belts and beads...
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Have you asked your child recently how their recorder playing is going? Our Recorder Wall of Fame is slowly filling up. 4th graders just started testing recently and I'm expecting them to reach a green or purple belt by the end of the school year. 5th graders got a little bit of a head start and I can see that some kids definitely want to get to that black belt this year!
Students in 4th grade are welcome to come on B Days during recess to test for recorder songs, if they are ready and would like to. Students in 5th grade can come on D Days during recess. I have seen a steady influx on my D days and sometimes I have 20 kids practicing in my room during their recess. That is amazing!! I'm very excited to see that kind of motivation! |
More classes to earn their reward choice days!
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We had three more classes reach 10 stickers recently! Mr. Power's and Mrs. Dart's class both chose playing instruments as their choice day and got to play on some unusual instruments like the washboard, the gong, the temple blocks, the thunder tube, the ocean drum - just to mention a few. Mrs. Gerken's class chose games and had fun playing Musical Spots and other games.
We have a tight race at the top between Mr. Izzo's, Ms. Day's, and Mr. Stern's classes. Keep up the fabulous work! |
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February in music just flew by...
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3rd, 4th, and 5th graders started their ukulele unit! 5th graders are perfecting their chord playing skills and switching between C, a, F, and new also the G7 chords. 4th graders are practicing some finger plucking and an intro to chords. And 3rd graders are doing a great job with their first time on ukuleles. We have been finger plucking the open strings and introduced the C7 and C chords.
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3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students also learned all about the different orchestral instrument families. Over the past four weeks, they watched short episodes by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra explaining and showing the woodwind, brass, string, and percussion families. The students enjoyed Mr. Karl's humorous way of introducing the instruments. If your child missed one of the episodes or would like to watch them again, here are the links to the YouTube videos: Woodwind, Brass, Strings, Percussion.
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Around Valentine's Day, we had Music Stations Week - this time for everybody! In lower elementary, students got to use the rainbow pianos for the first time, watched some musicians perform different instruments on the iPads, played an instrument memory game, used finger puppets for voice exploration, and had to use just their ears for a matching game. In upper elementary, stations also included the rainbow pianos (challenging students to play their recorder songs on the pianos), a recorder testing station, a rhythm Jenga station, an exploration of instruments around the world on the iPad, and a ukulele station. Students were super engaged and the time in the music room just raced by! I was able to take lots of pictures though, enjoy!
2nd graders have been learning about a few instruments of the orchestra with the story "Peter and the Wolf". They learned how each character was represented by an instrument or instrument group. They also keep working on their form Verse and Refrain with the song "Penguin Polka". We added movements and even snowballs to this song!
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1st graders kept exploring steady beat in various ways - with body percussion, rhythm sticks, drums, alone, in groups of two, in groups of four, and even as a seated train with the whole class!
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Kindergarten students keep working on recognizing the differences between high and low, slow and fast, and loud and quiet.
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Kindergarten and 1st grade students enjoyed ice skating on paper plates and throwing snowballs during their winter song. 2nd grade also had fun with snowballs, showing their verse and refrain form (they were only allowed to throw snowballs during the refrain...)
Spring Mills Voices Empower Hour
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Spring Mills Voices is back with a concert all about animals! If you're in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade and like to sing, join us for our Spring season starting in March. We will learn songs about animals, add some two-part harmonies in some of the songs, add some movement choreography, and even have some spoken and sung solo opportunities. I love working with this group and we usually have a lot of fun.
To sign up, please go the Huron Valley Recreation website. |
Grades in Music...
With the end of the semester comes the first report card. I would like to take a moment to explain the grades in music. Often times parents are surprised to see a "2" in the melody or rhythm rubric. I would like to stress that it does NOT mean that your child cannot sing or doesn't have rhythm. The first report card happens quite early in the year. Many new concepts have just been introduced. You can see in my previous posts how many things your child has learned already this year. You cannot expect them to be already proficient in all areas. Often, I can't even introduce everything until later in the year. That is why you will rarely see a "4" in the first report card, simply because there is still so much to learn during the rest of the year. Students are often just beginning to grasp the new concepts. So, don't be alarmed about a "2". It will most likely turn into a "4" by the end of the year...
January in music class
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Students in Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten had a lot of fun using beanie babies to help them find a steady beat, on their bodies, but also on the big gathering drums! We had a contest, whose animal could stay on the drum the longest!
Kindergarten students have been working on following the direction of pictures with their voices. They even drew their own ones and had friends sing them. They also had a lot of fun with the song "Allison's Camel", especially when we acted out the whole song and we had "injured humps" all around the room. JK and K students keep exploring short and long sounds, fast and slow songs with scarves and ribbons. JK students loved the game song "The old grey cat" and kept begging to do it every week! |
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1st graders sang lots of snow songs in January like: Winter Wiggles, In the snow, Snowman jump! They learned about a form called "ABA"-form (or we sometimes like to call it the Oreo-cookie form) and used movements to show the different parts.
We have also been focusing on the chant "Engine, engine" and have discovered the difference between a steady beat and a rhythm. We even divided the class in half and had one half play a steady beat on tubanos and the other half played the rhythm on rhythm sticks! That was challenging music stuff! |
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2nd graders have learned a new song for their solfège, which is an old favorite: Do, a deer from "Sound of Music". They enjoy singing it and we'll soon watch just that scene in the movie. They have also been experiencing different ways to play the scale, for example with handbells.
2nd graders also have been working on making the transition from stick notation to regular rhythm notation. They have been reading rhythms with half notes, quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes on rhythm rockets. And we just started learning about Verse and Refrain songs! Lots of great learning happening in 2nd grade! |
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3rd through 5th graders have embarked on a musical travel journey! In the beginning of the school year, they voted on what countries they were interested in visiting. We will be visiting lots of different countries until summer, learning about their instruments, their music, and music related culture. Students get their passport stamped when we're finished with a country. Our first trip went to China around Lunar New Year! We got to hear a Chinese instrument, learned to sing a song, played xylophones with their typical pentatonic notes, and played along with handbells to the Jasmine Flower song.
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Our new Rock'n'Roll pianos from the HVEF grant have arrived and we tested them as part of stations week! 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders worked on playing some songs on the pianos with the help of some color coded sheet music, practiced reading their note names with two iPad games and also on a big staff with bingo chips, they worked on coloring their music passport cover, practiced note values with a note dice game, practiced their recorders, and worked on reading and hearing rhythms. Lessons with stations just fly by and the students learn so much.
I can't wait for the lower elementary classes to explore the Rock'n'Roll pianos in February! |
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Is your 4th or 5th grader practicing their recorder at home? We have started testing for our Recorder Karate belts! Our empty Recorder Wall of Fame will soon be filling up! We practice in class, in small groups and alone. We test during class time and I offer certain recess periods for voluntary testing as well.
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Right after break, we started the new year with pop tubes in music! 2nd through 5th graders used the pop tubes to practice note values and rhythms. They sure make a fun sound!
Music/Sound House in Switzerland
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I was lucky to go home to Switzerland for a quick visit with my oldest daughter. We were able to go skiing for a day, but also found a really cool house/museum dedicated to the creation of various sounds and traditional Swiss (and other) instruments. It even had an Escape Room dedicated to sound and music puzzles! We got out just in time... :-)
Check out the pictures and short videos! |
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First two classes to reach 10 stickers!
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Congratulations to Mr. Izzo's 5th graders and Mr. Stern's 4th graders - they are the first two classes to reach 10 stickers in our year-long challenge! 10 stickers gives them a choice day. They can choose to play instruments, play musical games, or watch a music related movie. Both classes chose to watch a movie and watched Tom and Jerry - The Nutcracker Tale.
Check out how the other classes are doing! |
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Holiday Sing-Along with a Special Guest!
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On Tuesday before Winter break, we were able to do a school-wide sing-along. In the morning, students in grades JK-2nd got together in the cafeteria to sing some holiday songs. It was so wonderful to watch them sing and dance together. They sounded so good! I was very proud.
In the afternoon, it was the 3rd-5th graders' turn. They sang different songs from the little kids and seemed to enjoy it as well. They also were treated to a couple of songs by our special guest Vivian Lakin, a former Spring Mills student, now High School senior. It was my privilege and joy to perform together with Vivian. |
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The Incredible Reindeer! - Empower Hour Performance
I had 28 students in our Spring Mills Music Empower Hour this fall. They prepared a musical called "The Incredible Reindeer", where four reindeer had to save Christmas. I'm sure you can judge from the pictures how amazing it was. The 4th and 5th graders did a fabulous job singing and acting, the solos sounded great, and it was a lot of fun to watch them. I'm glad we were able to do an afternoon performance for the school, so that everyone got to enjoy their hard work! Thank you to Mrs. Aman and Mrs. Sheldon for taking pictures!
December was Nutcracker Month!
I love Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker"! And I love teaching various skills with different pieces from the Nutcracker. In December, all grades experienced some parts of the Nutcracker music. We worked with the following songs (I stress to them that each song has its own name, not everything equals something called "the Nutcracker"): the March, the Russian Dance, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Arabian Dance, the Chinese Dance, the Waltz of the Flowers. We used lots of different tools to show form or rhythms or beat, like the super stretchy band, ribbon streamers on scrunchies and on wands, plastic plates, the big parachute, big candy canes, KidStix, and rhythm instruments. Everybody was engaged and we shared lots of laughs.
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We also did some other things in December. 2nd grade continued working on their solfège skills and discovering the scale on different instruments. Students in lower elementary classes used lots of rhythm instruments for winter and holiday themed songs. All grades also practiced the songs for our holiday sing-along.
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4th graders and 5th graders continue to work on their recorders. 5th graders have started testing for their Recorder Karate Belts, 4th graders will start in the new year. I expect students to practice 5 minutes per day at home. If they get in the habit of practicing regularly, they will make great progress this year!
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HVEF grant!
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I am very excited and grateful that the Huron Valley Education Foundation decided to award me another grant this year! It is called "Rock the Rainbow Piano!". I'm buying 6 roll-up rainbow pianos to use in stations and also a set of hoop chenille streamers for movement activities. Keep a look out for pictures in the new year!
Thank You, HVEF, for all you do for our students! |
November - we love our new space!
Now that we have our new space, we take full advantage of it! Mallet Madness with students in all grades, from JK to 5th grade is always a big hit!
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The 5th graders even put xylophones, metallophones, and glockspiels together with recorders!
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2nd grade is working very hard on remembering the solfège order. They used card games to help them memorize...
In November, all classes got to use the boomwhackers! JK, K, and 1st grade explored them with the song "Downtown". 2nd grade played along with their song "Whacky Do Re Mi", and 3rd through 5th grade had fun playing along to "It's corn!"
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In the week just before Thanksgiving break, the upper elementary students did a fun boomwhacker play along to the song "Corn". They were so excited and were super concentrated! Watch a tiny snippet from Mrs. Aman's class!
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My students love the amount of space we have! We have used the big super stretchy, the small parachutes, scarves, ribbon scrunchies, and bean bags. It has been a lot of fun!
One of the first things I did in the new music room with my upper elementary students, was stations. We had a note name reading station on the smart board, dice note value games, note name card matches, instrument matching game, a recorder station, and a station where students learned how to draw a treble clef. I enjoyed watching the students being engaged and working hard!
Thank you, Spring Mills PTA!
A huge Thank You to the Spring Mills PTA for approving my request to pay the annual fee for a music website. I got to know the website "MusicPlayOnline" last year through my work at Kurtz Elementary and also through some workshops with the creators of the website. I'm looking forward to exploring the site more this year. We have already used it for songs with my JK, K, and 1st grade students, we have played recorder songs with my 4th graders, played a note naming game with my 4th and 5th graders, and even guest teachers are able to access plans that I leave them on there! Thank you for supporting this project!
Empower Hour - The Incredible Reindeer!
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28 students from 4th and 5th grade have been spending their Tuesday afternoons after school in the music room. The have been practicing songs, rehearsing lines, and learning small choreography movements for the musical "The Incredible Reindeer", where four reindeer set out to save Christmas.
Come and support them on Tuesday, December 13th at 6pm at Spring Mills! |
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The new music room is ready!
After many days and late evenings of cleaning the new room and all the cupboards from the construction debris and dust, I was finally ready to move into our beautiful new music room. And it truly is amazing! I love the amount of space I have, so that the students can move around the room. I love the amount of storage space we have! I have enough space for all my instruments and movement props! Thank you to Don Hogaboom from Oak Valley Middle School for helping getting the instruments from and to Spring Mills with the band trailer! Thank you to Kristin Blanchard for safely housing the instruments at Muir Middle School over the summer! Thank you to our custodian Mr. Gentry for drilling all the holes in the wall for our ukuleles and gathering drums!
I love coming to work in my new music room every day!
I love coming to work in my new music room every day!
Orff Workshops - music teachers learn new things too!
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The music teacher from Lakewood and I decided this year to participate in a series of workshops held on some Saturdays by the Detroit Orff Society. The first one was with my favorite clinician and it was fabulous! Can't wait to try out some of the things I learned!
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October, half in the old, half in the new music room :-)
October was filled with Halloween songs of all sorts - pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons. All grades had their favorites!
All grades also had some pre-assessments done in rhythm and melody, so we were very busy!
Scarves lend themselves beautifully to exploring the falling leaves!
All grades also had some pre-assessments done in rhythm and melody, so we were very busy!
Scarves lend themselves beautifully to exploring the falling leaves!
We switched to our new music room towards the end of October and we were so glad to finally have our instruments back! We used the big bass xylophones to accompany the song "5 little pumpkins"! And some classes were brave enough to have some spiders on their bodies during our spider song. Too funny!
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Whacky Halloween was definitely a favorite of the 2nd and 3rd graders! 2nd graders also learned to sing "Are you sleeping" in six different languages! Ask your child what languages we learned to sing in!
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4th graders could hardly wait to start playing their recorders! (I'm sure for you parents it was way too soon... :-))
5th graders have continued to play their recorders, working towards starting our Recorder Karate Curriculum. 4th and 5th graders LOVED the song "October Rocktober" (although many got a little too excited and got carried away in this song...) |
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September, still in the old music room
We started the year in JK, K, and 1st grade with voice exploration, finding our singing voice, counting songs, small rhythm instruments, and lots of movement songs. A big hit was our "5 little speckled frogs" song with actual jumping frogs!
2nd and 3rd graders started working on or reviewing the names of the notes and how many beats each one of them had. We drew our note man outside with chalk in 2nd grade, and the 3rd graders used pipe cleaners to create their notes. 2nd graders started learning solfege syllables, whereas 3rd graders are perfecting singing with them. We also learned a new word: Audiation (and "audiate") - where we continue to sing a song in our head, without making a sound. The classes loved the challenge of singing "Under the spreading chestnut tree"!
4th and 5th graders worked very hard in September on practicing their note names. For the 4th graders, this was new, and they need to know those note names for the recorders. For the 5th graders, it was an important review from what they learned at the end of last year. We also reviewed rhythm reading and they all are very good rhythm readers! Looking forward to a strong year! Our new song was "My Bonnie lies over the ocean", with standing up and sitting down (and lots of laughter!).
Welcome back!
The construction on the brand new music room isn't completed yet. We're waiting on windows and a few other things to be finished. But I can tell you that it will be a beautiful new music room and I am very excited to hopefully be able to move into it soon. It will be a privilege to teach in that new space and I am very grateful to have a lot of storage for all of our fabulous instruments. Until then, we are using the "old" music room :-)
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In the lower elementary classrooms, we usually start with a "Hello" song, where we sing hello to each child. It helps us remembering each others names, gets our voices warmed up, and we practice keeping a steady beat.
In the upper elementary classrooms, we are starting music class this year with this chant (see video). It gets us focused, keeps us practicing our steady beat while speaking words, and we're all on the same page. |
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Since my father retired this summer, he went through his instrument collection and donated some to our classroom. I was able to bring the instruments with me in my suitcase and I'm very excited about the mallets (mallets are very expensive and we rarely have classroom money left over to replace them...)
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2021-2022
Happy Summer!
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I hope that everybody gets to take some time to relax this summer, enjoy the outdoors, spend time with loved ones, and recharge.
I was able to surprise my father in Switzerland at his retirement concert on Sunday, right after school got out. He is retiring after 44 years of teaching music! It was wonderful to be there, be part of the concert, and honor his legacy. |
It's a Wrap!
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The music room is packed up, all instruments stored away! Very excited to start the new school year in a NEW music room!!
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Spring Mills Voices perform concert about food!
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On June 1st, Spring Mills Voices performed their concert with songs all about food. They had so much fun singing songs about everything from tacos over pasta to jelly beans and chocolate. We had a lot of students who had spoken solos and sung solos. We even had some acting action in our cranberry song. Our choir performed in front of a full house and did a fabulous job!
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The Little Mermaid was at Lakeland High School!
After some intense months of rehearsing, it was finally time to show off what they had learned! On April 22nd through the 24th, the Lakeland High School Theater Department put on "The Little Mermaid". I'm very proud of my "Squid Squad" group (5th-8th graders) and my "Guppy Group" (Pre-School-2nd grade) and the great job they did performing on stage! What a fun show it was! Colorful, great music, lots of dancing, costumes, funny characters, and a live band! I'm so glad that seven of our Spring Mills 5th graders (Grace, Paisley, Aleena, Autumn, Jenelle, Adalyn, and Savanna) took this opportunity and decided to participate. I have a feeling their love for musical theater and the stage might just have been ignited... I'm grateful to Becky Hogaboom for the opportunity to bring the younger cast into this High School Show. They loved the interactions with the High School students and made new friends.
KidStix at Spring Mills thanks to the Huron Valley Education Foundation!
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What do you get when you take some cans, duck tape, cutting boards, tambourines, and drum sticks? KidStix! It's a program by Artie Almeida that uses individualized percussion stations to practice beat awareness and rhythm reading and so many more things in a fun, engaging way. THANK YOU to the Huron Valley Education Foundation for the grant that allowed me to purchase all the material for this fun project. And THANK YOU to the Huron Valley Food Service Department for collecting those beautiful cans for me! My 5th graders enjoyed leaving their legacy behind by decorating the cans with duck tape.
I'm excited to start this program in all grades after Spring break! |
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A Huge Thank You to the Kurtz PTA!
I'm very thankful to the Kurtz PTA for approving my request to buy some movement tools for the CATS kids in music. I already ordered all the things and received them, and we have been using quite a few of them already! We are having so much fun with colorful ribbon scrunchies and ribbon streamers, rainbow streamers attached to easily handled plastic rings, a small parachute, a fun balloon ball, and the big scrunchie! Thank you very much for your support!
Plick, Pluck, Strum was funded!
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83 was the magical number! 83 caring individuals and families who were so kind to support our project! 83 - some were families from our school community, some were people from all around the USA! How amazing is that!
A huge, heartfelt Thank You to my families who supported this project. And a huge, humbled Thank You to all the supporters of the group Music Makes Our Students Smarter - we couldn't have done it without you! The new ukuleles arrived after Christmas break and after a couple of weeks of daily tuning, they were ready to being used. And it is wonderful to watch, how excited students get to try them out. Some students try them and discover that they are a bit too big, and other students try them and are so happy to have an instrument that fits better into their hands! |
2019-2020
Enjoy your summer!
Dear Students and Parents,
Congratulations! You have done it! You have made it to summer break!
Thank you so much for working so hard on keeping music alive at home in the last few weeks! We had some classes, where we had 100% participation!! That's amazing!! Thank you so much for your support, your kind messages, and all the fun submitted pictures and videos. They made my day and made me feel connected to you!
If you'd like to stay musically engaged over the summer, my website has a lot of resources. The Online Learning Lesson Plans will stay up and active through the summer, so if you missed a week, or if you didn't have time to do all of the activities, feel free to go back to them. Under the "Resources" tab, you will find links to online learning games. I divided them up into: Instrument Games, Music Theory Games, Composer Games, Just for Fun, and iPad games. I added a new tab called "Campfire Songs" with some fun songs to sing along to. There are also book readings of music books under Resources “Music Stories”.
Be creative, sing, make music with things you can find at home, and have a fabulous summer! I can't wait to see you in the fall!
Congratulations! You have done it! You have made it to summer break!
Thank you so much for working so hard on keeping music alive at home in the last few weeks! We had some classes, where we had 100% participation!! That's amazing!! Thank you so much for your support, your kind messages, and all the fun submitted pictures and videos. They made my day and made me feel connected to you!
If you'd like to stay musically engaged over the summer, my website has a lot of resources. The Online Learning Lesson Plans will stay up and active through the summer, so if you missed a week, or if you didn't have time to do all of the activities, feel free to go back to them. Under the "Resources" tab, you will find links to online learning games. I divided them up into: Instrument Games, Music Theory Games, Composer Games, Just for Fun, and iPad games. I added a new tab called "Campfire Songs" with some fun songs to sing along to. There are also book readings of music books under Resources “Music Stories”.
Be creative, sing, make music with things you can find at home, and have a fabulous summer! I can't wait to see you in the fall!
DonorsChoose project: We Love Music Stories!
March is Reading Month, but it is also Music In Our Schools Month! Thank you so much to everyone who donated to this project! Families from Spring Mills, friends, family, my MMOSS family (MusicMakesOurStudentsSmarter), and the anonymous donors that secured the match - you all came together and got this project funded by Friday March 6th. Amazing! I can't wait for all the books to show up... Some are for my lower elementary students (picture books, books with sound examples, the next books in our Freddie the Frog and Jazz Fly series), some are for my upper elementary students (a great series of small books about composers, books for Black History Month, a book about the orchestra made out of recycled materials).
Oxbow Music Room wins a grant from the Michigan Credit Union!
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Thank you to everyone who supported the Oxbow Music Room with votes in the fall! We made it under the top 50 entries and won $700 for movement tools for the music room. They finally arrived! Those on the picture are just a few of the amazing things we were able to get. I have started to use some of them in my classes (rectangle scarves and ribbon scrunchies with my K students, ribbon wands with my 3rd graders) and can't wait to use all of them in the coming weeks with all of my students. Let's move!
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Holiday Sing-Along for students at both Oxbow and Spring Mills
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Both my schools did a Holiday Sing-Along for all the students in the last week of school before break. It was wonderful. I loved to hear so many children sing together. Thank you for making this such a special experience.
5th graders at Spring Mills shared one song with everybody and the Recorder Heroes played their two songs. And principal Bryce did a fabulous job announcing our songs. What a nice way to end 2019! |
Elementary State Honors Choir
Congratulations to the my students for passing the audition into the Elementary State Honors Choir: 3rd graders: Adalyn Kidd, Grace Anderson, Josie Hudgins; 4th graders: Gabby Hugelier, Lucas Charlick, Mady Wilcox, Izzy Popadince, Sylvia Brooke; 5th grade: Maddy Donaghue, Allie Hugelier, Gavin Bassin, Addy Ireland, Bella Philipp, Tia Beckman (Highland), Lina LaPratt (Lakewood); 6th graders: Abby Melkonian, Maddy Gurke
They will rehearse and perform with the choir in March 2020! We're very excited for them!
If you tried out this year and didn't pass the audition, don't be discouraged! You're a wonderful singer. This year, they received over 350 audition tapes and had to narrow it down to 200. Thank you for trying so hard and keep singing!
They will rehearse and perform with the choir in March 2020! We're very excited for them!
If you tried out this year and didn't pass the audition, don't be discouraged! You're a wonderful singer. This year, they received over 350 audition tapes and had to narrow it down to 200. Thank you for trying so hard and keep singing!
Spring Mills 5th graders at Holiday with the Arts
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On December 12th, the annual Holiday with the Arts Festival took place at Lakeland High School. We had about 33 students who were able to make it that night and they performed in front of a packed house. It takes a lot of nerves to sing in front of that many people, but the 5th graders did great! A small group of 6 kids who had been giving up some recess time, played two songs on the recorder. It was amazing! Thank you so much for your support for the arts and for giving your children a chance to stand on the big stage and make performing memories.
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Spring Mills 5th graders at Highland Tree Lighting
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We had about 35 5th graders who braved the cold temperatures and the few flurries and came out to light up the Holiday Season with two songs. They had a lot of fun and also led the community sing-along before Santa arrived. What a nice tradition we have at the Highland Tree Lighting!
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Welcome to the New School Year!
I'm using an emoji system to keep track of class behavior. To earn stickers, classes have to stay on the happy smiley faces. By collecting stickers, classes earn rewards like free seating days (they can sit next to their friends) or music choice days (where they get a choice between playing instruments, playing games, or watching a little movie). We will find out who will be the overall winner in each school in June! I also will choose a Music Student of the Day, which is a student who follows directions, is kind, participates - does a great job in music.
Students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade at Spring Mills will take part in the Music Olympics this year! I'm very excited to be able to tie in the Summer Olympics 2020 into our music room. Students will be part of a group and represent the same country for the whole year. They will compete against each other in various musical games all year long. We will have an awards ceremony in June, where the top three groups in each grade level will receive a medal. Get ready for a competitive, fun filled year!
2018-2019
Greetings from Switzerland!
I am currently visiting my family in Switzerland with my daughters. My oldest daughter Lina, who is ten, got accepted into a Swiss children’s choir named “Schwiizergoofe”. She spent one week in a camp in the mountains singing all day, learning choreographies, and having lots of fun with new friends. They recorded a CD during this week and prepared for a short concert at the end of the week. Here is a snippet from that concert:
Highland's 5th graders visit the Ann Arbor Symphony
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The Highland 5th graders went on a fabulous adventure to the Ann Arbor Symphony in March. They got to sing along with the orchestra, sang even in Portuguese, played along with their recorders to Mendelssohn's Nocturne, watched dancers dance the Can-Can, listened to an opera singer, and of course watched and listened to all the instruments of the orchestra play their songs. I was very proud of how our 5th graders behaved and what a great audience they were. It was a very enjoyable field trip. And I loved all the beautiful Thank You notes!
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Elementary State Honors Choir Concert
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On March 16, 19 4th and 5th grade students from Highland and Spring Mills gathered in DeWitt together with about 200 other elementary students from around the State. This was their second rehearsal day and also the day of their concert. Under the direction of Norma Freeman and Carolyn Gross, the students gave a fantastic concert in front of a packed house. What a great experience to sing songs in 2- and 3-part harmonies!
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Elementary State Honors Choir
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Congratulations to all my students in 4th and 5th grade who auditioned for the Elementary State Honor Choir! I'm very proud that all who auditioned were accepted. They will participate in two rehearsals and a big final concert in DeWitt on March 16. From Spring Mills: Madison Gurke, Isabelle Meredith, Annabell Moening, Dina Witt, Cadence Husted, Madelyn Turner, Theo Kress, McKinley Pietila, Jacob Beck, Kaitlyn Reed, Gavin Bassin, Abigail Melkonian, and Leah Voss. From Highland: Hazel Syke, Ella Todd, Tia Beckman, and Keira Sauger. And from Lakewood: Lina LaPratt.
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Highland Elementary receives HVEF Grant for new drums!
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A huge Thank You to the Huron Valley Education Foundation for granting my request for money for seven new drums! We got a tubano, three djembes, a doumbek, a darbuka, and a cajon! We celebrated by having a drum circle week:
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LaFontaine honors Teachers of the Year!
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For the fourth consecutive year, the LaFontaine Family of Companies was on hand to honor the HVS Teachers of the Year in a special way. During a random drawing, Lakeland High School science teacher Amanda Beckett was awarded a check for $1,000 and Spring Mills music teacher Sylvia LaPratt – who will also teach part time at Highland Elementary this year – was awarded a check for $2,000 (for classroom supplies...😊)
Shelley Gustafson, a Muir Middle School Science teacher, won the grand prize: a free two-year lease on a 2018 Buick Encore. Congratulations to all! |
2017-2018
Huron Valley Elementary Teacher of the Year
Surprised, amazed, humbled, overjoyed - those are just a few words to describe my feelings when Dr. Coratti announced that I had been selected as Huron Valley's Elementary Teacher of the Year. I feel blessed to work in a school where everybody is so supportive and encouraging. I love coming to work every day and enjoy coming up with new ideas to teach music in meaningful ways. I am very grateful to Mr. Muffley and Mrs. Weiss for taking the time to nominate me. I will keep striving to be the best music teacher I can be.
MMEA Elementary State Honors Choir
On March 17th, ten students from Spring Mills made their way to Grand Ledge High School for a memorable performance of the Elementary State Honors Choir, sponsored by the Michigan Music Education Association. They had only two Saturday rehearsals to prepare for the concert, plus time during the week with me and time at home studying the music. The line of people who wanted to hear this special concert was very long and the students were rewarded with a performance in front of a packed auditorium.
Abby, Maddie, Morgan, and Stevie performed with the 3rd/4th grade choir. It was amazing to see what you can do with a group of over 100 singers who love to be there and who give it their all. They sang in English, Latin, and Spanish - everything by heart. Very impressive!
Mackenzie, Chloe, Ava, Ella, Grant, and Joey sang with the 5th/6th grade choir. You could see the smiles on their faces and hear the joy in their voices when they performed their songs, with lots of charm, cute choreography, and nice harmony. The fabulous conductor Norma Freeman had created a special bond between her and her singers, and the singers wanted to do anything they could to please her.
The combined song at the end was simply fantastic and left the audience humming and singing the song on their way out. What a beautiful tribute to choral music!
Abby, Maddie, Morgan, and Stevie performed with the 3rd/4th grade choir. It was amazing to see what you can do with a group of over 100 singers who love to be there and who give it their all. They sang in English, Latin, and Spanish - everything by heart. Very impressive!
Mackenzie, Chloe, Ava, Ella, Grant, and Joey sang with the 5th/6th grade choir. You could see the smiles on their faces and hear the joy in their voices when they performed their songs, with lots of charm, cute choreography, and nice harmony. The fabulous conductor Norma Freeman had created a special bond between her and her singers, and the singers wanted to do anything they could to please her.
The combined song at the end was simply fantastic and left the audience humming and singing the song on their way out. What a beautiful tribute to choral music!
5th Graders went to the Ann Arbor Symphony!
On March 14th, our 5th graders went to the Ann Arbor Symphony! I was very excited to be able to offer this opportunity to my students. The Ann Arbor Symphony offers a program called Link Up: The Orchestra Rocks! where the students got to play along on their recorder with the orchestra, sing along with them, and of course experience this professional orchestra as an audience. Each student had received a booklet with the music, and we had been preparing some of the songs in class. Ask your child about the song we sang in Latin! It was a fantastic concert. I think the students were very impressed by the violin soloist and just by seeing and hearing all these instruments in action. They did a great job playing their recorders and being an attentive audience. I hope that they enjoyed this special concert and that it will be a long lasting memory. A big Thank You to the Ann Arbor Symphony for granting us a bus subsidy, the 5th grade teachers who diverted their bus funds from the PTA to the music program, and to Sparkies (as part of the Huron Valley Development Fund) for supporting our students and making this a free trip! Also thank you very much to all the parents who volunteered their time to accompany this field trip.
Mr. Jim Lancioni, principal timpani player of the Ann Arbor Orchestra, came once in January and once in February to work with our students. The students enjoyed him very much and impressed him with their recorder skills.
State Honors Choir
Congratulations to Morgan, Abigail, Madison, Stevie, Grant, Ava, Joey, Ella, Chloe, and Mackenzie for passing the audition for Elementary State Honors Choir!! I'm very proud of them!
HVEF Grant
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Thank you to HVEF for funding my grant proposal "Go Fish for Music!" Last year, I realized that many students are not familiar with basic games like Go Fish, Old Maid, or Crazy Eights anymore. I found games that were modified to work with musical themes. My grant will allow me to buy class sets of those game, so that I can teach a game, and we can all focus on learning it at the same time. Later, we will be able to do stations with different games played at the same time. I'm looking forward to lots of fun learning time playing games!
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Spring Mills Voices
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We have a new choir for 4th and 5th graders at Spring Mills! In the past years, I was able to offer an Honors Choir during school. Unfortunately, because of being at two schools and the busy schedule, I will not be able to do that. Last year, students were very disappointed when choir didn't happen. I decided to offer a project-based after-school choir through the Huron Valley Rec department. It will take place on Mondays after school starting on October 16, for 8 weeks with two performances in December. I'm looking forward to working with a group of excited singers!! You can find more information here and go to page 23.
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2016-2017
Music Olympic Games Winners
After twelve competitive events, the Music Olympic Games have come to an end. It has been a fun year, filled with laughter and tears, joy and disappointment. I believe that all students have grown in musical ability and working together as a team. Here are the top three teams from each grade level. Congratulations!
3rd grade:
1. place (top row): Hong Kong: Eric, Braelee, Jake, Ava, Olivia
2. place (middle row): Kenya: Zackary, Abby, Layton, Blake, Stevie (absent)
3. place (sitting): Cordelia, Bella, Dylan, Caleb, Phoebe (absent)
1. place (top row): Hong Kong: Eric, Braelee, Jake, Ava, Olivia
2. place (middle row): Kenya: Zackary, Abby, Layton, Blake, Stevie (absent)
3. place (sitting): Cordelia, Bella, Dylan, Caleb, Phoebe (absent)
4th grade:
1. place (top row): Jamaica: Griffin, Grant, Joclyn, Amelia, Jackson
2. place (middle row): Puerto Rico: Sawyer, Duane, Jaydon, Grant, Elias
3. place (sitting): Bahamas: Natalie, Mya, Anastacia, Niko, Austin (absent)
1. place (top row): Jamaica: Griffin, Grant, Joclyn, Amelia, Jackson
2. place (middle row): Puerto Rico: Sawyer, Duane, Jaydon, Grant, Elias
3. place (sitting): Bahamas: Natalie, Mya, Anastacia, Niko, Austin (absent)
5th grade:
1. place (top row): China: Avery, Hannah W., Grace, Katie, Hannah D.
2. place (middle): Macedonia: Juliette, Gabi, Morgan, Kendal, Eva, Cameron
3. place (sitting): Malaysia: Alexiss, Dakota, Alexis, Kira, Emily, Molly
1. place (top row): China: Avery, Hannah W., Grace, Katie, Hannah D.
2. place (middle): Macedonia: Juliette, Gabi, Morgan, Kendal, Eva, Cameron
3. place (sitting): Malaysia: Alexiss, Dakota, Alexis, Kira, Emily, Molly
New Hallway Look!
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Check out our beautiful new decoration in the hallway to our music classroom! It was donated by an incoming Kindergarten parent. We love it!!
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#BestSchoolDay
#BestSchoolDay—a nationwide celebration of public school teachers and students was in March! This year, DonorsChoose wanted to rally as many people as possible in one day to support classrooms across the country. Donations made today were matched!! So exciting!!
My project to get a mobile storage cart for our ukuleles was fully funded!!! Part of it came from our successful Frog Prince performance. A big part was funded by people from all over the United States, from Ohio to California! They are all part of the DonorsChoose community Music Makes Our Students Smarter - an amazing, inspiring, generous group of people. A big Thank You!
Mr. Ken was so kind to help with putting the cart together and we have been enjoying this beautiful piece of furniture ever since. It has made a huge difference in the accessability of our ukuleles. Students in 3rd through 5th grade have enjoyed playing them over the last couple months a lot more often.
My project to get a mobile storage cart for our ukuleles was fully funded!!! Part of it came from our successful Frog Prince performance. A big part was funded by people from all over the United States, from Ohio to California! They are all part of the DonorsChoose community Music Makes Our Students Smarter - an amazing, inspiring, generous group of people. A big Thank You!
Mr. Ken was so kind to help with putting the cart together and we have been enjoying this beautiful piece of furniture ever since. It has made a huge difference in the accessability of our ukuleles. Students in 3rd through 5th grade have enjoyed playing them over the last couple months a lot more often.
What a week with "The Frog Prince"!
Our week with Missoula Children's Theater has been amazing! It has been a week filled with long, intense rehearsals until 8:30pm, memorizing lines, learning songs, going through choreography, following the directions of our two fantastic directors Kayleigh and Shelby,... I am very proud of my students! They have been working hard and are doing an amazing job in this musical. It has been wonderful to see the cast come together and supporting each other. I have seen students come out of their shell and find their courage to act. I believe everybody has learned a lot.
We had a school assembly about "Tall Tales from Humble Heroes" both at Spring Mills and Brooks Elementary. The 4th and 5th graders have had the chance to learn something about stage make-up or building a character.
Here are some impressions of the week:
We had a school assembly about "Tall Tales from Humble Heroes" both at Spring Mills and Brooks Elementary. The 4th and 5th graders have had the chance to learn something about stage make-up or building a character.
Here are some impressions of the week:
The two shows on Saturday were fantastic! Congratulations to everybody in the cast and to my Assistant Directors! Enjoy this slide show with pictures from behind the scenes and on the scene :-)
The Young Americans Were Here!
How much fun it was to watch our students perform along side of the Young Americans!
2015-2016
A World Full Of Instruments - Donors Choose
THANK YOU!!! Thank you so much to all the individuals, families, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for making a dream come true!! Thank you for your generosity and the gift you are giving to my current students and so many more future students. I can't wait to explore instruments from around the world together with my students! Just wait until you hear our doumbek, African talking drum, djembe, cajon, caxixi rattles, singing bowl, washboard, and so many more instruments!!
Grant from the Huron Valley Education Foundation!
I am very excited that I have received a grant from the fantastic Huron Valley Education Foundation and I'm even more excited that I will be able to introduce "Music Mind Games" to my students. Music Mind Games are games that were designed to help with learning music theory. We will be playing games that help us remember the note names, practice our note values, hear rhythms and melodies, and get to know music theory terms - all while having fun. Look for pictures and updates in the new year!
Music in Middle school
Our 5th graders had a visit from Oak Valley Middle School Band students before spring break. They came to introduce the band instruments to our students and talk about music in Middle School. On Friday, April 24, our 5th graders get to try some instruments. Our Middle School Band teachers will be at Spring Mills helping our students discover, what instrument might be the right one for them. It's an exciting opportunity! Mr. Hogaboom's band program is on youtube: ovmsband.
Mrs. Baert, choir teacher from Oak Valley Middle School, also came before spring break and talked to students who were interested in taking choir in Middle School. Her program also has a youtube channel: ovmschoir. Check it out if you're interested in singing!
Mrs. Baert, choir teacher from Oak Valley Middle School, also came before spring break and talked to students who were interested in taking choir in Middle School. Her program also has a youtube channel: ovmschoir. Check it out if you're interested in singing!
A gigantic Thank you!
I am amazed, humbled, and very grateful! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to my Donors Choose project! It was fully funded today!!
Our music room is getting four more mini iPads! They are ordered and on their way. I can't wait for them to arrive and for me to be able to share this exciting piece of technology with my students. So many fun apps are just waiting to be explored!
Music Meets Technology!
Our music room is getting four more mini iPads! They are ordered and on their way. I can't wait for them to arrive and for me to be able to share this exciting piece of technology with my students. So many fun apps are just waiting to be explored!
Music Meets Technology!
Grant from the Huron Valley education foundation
Very exciting news!!! Our music classroom received a grant from the Huron Valley Education Foundation!! Thank you so much!!
With this grant, I will be able to purchase three mini iPads for our music classroom. There are an incredible amount of great music apps available. The mini iPads will allow students in K-2nd grade to explore the instruments of the orchestra in small groups, start their composition journey with apps that allow them to move notes around on the staff and listen to what they composed, and work on their rhythms and steady beats. The mini iPads will be especially beneficial to the students in 3rd-5th grade. There are many apps that are focusing on note name recognition in a fun, motivational way. Students will practice their note reading taking turns on the mini iPads. The various looper apps are great compositional tools, teaching students how to layer various sounds or accompaniment tracks. The mini iPads could even be used to record students’ mini performances, their recorder karate tests, or the result of a month long music project. I am very excited about the possibilities for our music classes with the mini iPads!
Again, THANK YOU Huron Valley Education Foundation!
You can read an article about the grant in the Milford Times here.
With this grant, I will be able to purchase three mini iPads for our music classroom. There are an incredible amount of great music apps available. The mini iPads will allow students in K-2nd grade to explore the instruments of the orchestra in small groups, start their composition journey with apps that allow them to move notes around on the staff and listen to what they composed, and work on their rhythms and steady beats. The mini iPads will be especially beneficial to the students in 3rd-5th grade. There are many apps that are focusing on note name recognition in a fun, motivational way. Students will practice their note reading taking turns on the mini iPads. The various looper apps are great compositional tools, teaching students how to layer various sounds or accompaniment tracks. The mini iPads could even be used to record students’ mini performances, their recorder karate tests, or the result of a month long music project. I am very excited about the possibilities for our music classes with the mini iPads!
Again, THANK YOU Huron Valley Education Foundation!
You can read an article about the grant in the Milford Times here.
2014-2015
The young americans visit the huron valley district!
Soooo much fun watching my students at the concert with the Young Americans!!
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The Motor City Lyric Opera comes to Spring Mills!
On Monday, May 12th 2014, "Opera on Wheels" came to Spring Mills. One of the main goals of this educational outreach program is to bring an "opera with a message" to children. They performed two assemblies of "The Billy Goat's Gruff". Check out their site The Motor City Lyric Opera with a vocabulary list of opera terms for beginners!
Students and staff enjoyed the assembly very much. The opera singers were very talented and did a great job making opera accessible to young students. Lots of students left the assembly telling me that they loved it!