Welcome back to the 2014-15 school year!

     Welcome back parents, students, and friends to the 2014-2015 school year! At the bottom of this post is the general music/ 5th grade chorus handbook for the school year. In this handbook you will find information on how class is graded, discipline procedures, concert attire, and various other things happening in the music classroom this year. I hope you will all take the time to look over it, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. My contact information is included in the hand book!

I hope everybody has a great school year!

Best,
Mrs. G

Snyder Elementary

General Music/ 5^th Grade Chorus Handbook

2014-2015

Music Teacher

Amanda L. Gillette

130 Warren Street Sayre, PA 18840
(570) 888-7742

Ext. 3909

agillette@sayresd.org

http://mrsgmusicalmachine.blogspot.com/

Welcome Back!

Dear Students and Parents,

Welcome to an exciting year of music at Snyder Elementary! We at Snyder Elementary have many traditions including concerts, talent shows, general performances, and in class general music that will continue to flourish this year.

Making this happen is an easy thing to do; making it happen well will take teamwork and

responsibility on the part of the teacher, the parents of our students, and the student

themselves!

The purpose of this handbook is to become familiarized with the procedures,

and calendar of the Snyder music program.

It is my belief that music is truly one of the greatest of the arts, to make music

together is a unique and thrilling part of being a human.

I am looking forward to working with all of you, students and parents alike, this

upcoming school year. If you have any questions feel free to call or email me at the

number enclosed on the cover sheet.

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream..”

-Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

Sincerely,

Amanda L. Gillette

National Standards for Music Education

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

5. Reading and notating music.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

7. Evaluating music and music performances.

8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Ensembles with Mrs. G at Snyder Elementary

5^th Grade Chorus

This ensemble is required for all 5^th graders. The chorus will perform a variety of

vocal literature appropriate to their grade level. A spring concert will be performed (dates TBD) at the Sayre Area High School in the auditorium. This ensemble rehearses once a week on days 2 and 5. Miss Webster and Mrs. White’s 5^th grades students are on Day 2 from 1:10-1:55pm. Mrs. Lyons and Miss Swingle  5^th grade students are on Day 5 from 2:00-2:45pm.

1^st and 3^rd grade singers

Each year all 1^st and 3^rd graders at Snyder Elementary will put on a concert (December 8^th at 6:30pm in High School Auditorium, with a snow date of December 18^th. ) both grades will perform a variety of music appropriate to their grade level.  Each class rehearses once a week, every week, leading up to their performance.

Concert Attire

Concert attire for 5^th Grade Chorus 1^st/3^rd grade concerts will be as follows:

All school policies on attire are in affect for concerts.

Grading Procedure

General Music:

All students start with an “E”

Grades are based on 3 factors:

1.)    Behavior

2.)    Participation

3.)    Class Assignments

Points may be deducted for:

Inappropriate classroom behavior (Consequence 2 or above)

Unwillingness to participate in the class work lesson of the day

Not completing class assignments as directed

5^th Grade Chorus

All Students start with an “E”

Grades are based on 3 factors:

1.)    Behavior

2.)    Participation

3.)    Preparation

Points may be deducted for:

Inappropriate classroom behavior (Consequence 2 or above)

Unwillingness to participate in rehearsal

Not bringing required materials to class

Discipline Procedure

Discipline is essential in creating a safe learning environment in our schools. As such,

the following classroom procedure will be implemented during all classes, performances, rehearsals, and extra

activities.

Rules

1. Listen! Listen! Listen!

2. Raise your hand and wait to be called on when you have a question.

3. Be kind to EVERYBODY!

4. Ask permission to touch instruments.

5. Keep your hands and feet to yourself.

6. Keep classroom volume appropriate for activities being performed.

7. Enter the room and line up quietly. 

Consequences

1. Verbal warning

2. Movement of student in classroom closer in proximity to the teacher.

3. Sent to “Time to Pause” table where students will reflect on what rules was broken and what choices they can do to improve their remaining time in music class.

4. Recess time inside, and note sent home to parent(s)

5. Dismissal from classroom and sent to principal

6. Request meeting with Parents

Positive Consequences

1. Freeze Dance

2. Opportunity to gain a music moolah

3. Opportunity to gain a prize from the music treasure chest

4. More positive consequences will be available depending on the term and

opportunities available at that time.

*SEVERE DISCIPLINE CLAUSE*

If a student chooses to blatantly and/or maliciously cause a serious classroom disruption,

the severe discipline clause may be used and the student may immediately be sent to the

principal’s office and advanced to the fifth consequence.

Music Olympics

During the month of February the 3rd-6th grade students participated in a series of "Olympic" games in music class.  These games were designed to be a "mid-year assessment" for me to evaluate where the students are in class, and see what areas we needed to work on in the future.  

The games ranged from singing, to notation, musical terms, to breath control. I kept a medal tracker on one of my bulletin boards that allowed the students to see what gold/silver/and bronze medals they won, and the students had a blast, and I had fun with assessment!!!!!

The Events:

Boomwhacker relay-

In this event the students had to read rhythms on flash cards count them out loud, and then play them on the boomwhackers.  They had a choice of playing and counting Kodaly symbols, or actual notes.  If they chose the Kodaly symbols and got it correct they received 1 point, for every note they got correct they received 3 points.  I set a timer for 10 minutes and however many points they had by the end of the game is what their class points were.  

assessement: By doing this I was able to see which of the students were able to read, and play rhythms. I was also able to evaluate which students needed more help with counting real notes, as opposed to Kodaly symbols. 

Music Racer-

In this game the students had 5 chances to work as a group to see how quickly they could identify the notes on the staff. By using the website www.musicracer.com I was able to have random notes come up on the projector screen, as the students called the notes out I clicked on them allowing the next note to come up. They were identifying 8 notes as quickly as possible, the quickest ties my kids got to was 11 seconds! Not too shabby!!!

assessment: This event was to evaluate the students on how well they know the note names of the notes on a treble clef staff.  This information will be important to know in order to get the kids into composing their own music on a staff (our next project!).

Long Note-

What kid doesn't love to just hold out a note as long as they possibly can??? As a parent, I know my oldest will do this just to hear her own voice! But! In Mrs. G's music Olympics it's not only something the CAN do, but it's something they GET to do! Each student was timed with a stop watch to see how long they could hold out a note.  I took the student with the longest time, and that became their class time that I used to figure out medals.  

assessment: There is a method to the madness that is the long note competition! All of these students have to sing in music class, or in chorus, and as such, we have been working on the proper breath control for singing. Breathing from the diaphragm versus breathing from your chest (or shoulders as the kids say, because they can see their shoulders go up with they breath in). Some students I was pleasantly surprised when I saw they were able to hold a note for 33 seconds! Others only made it 2 seconds. This lets me know which classes need more help on breath control so that they can have a better sound when singing!

Egg Note Relay-

In this event there was a giant bucket of Easter eggs. On each egg I drew with a sharpie marker a different musical term, such solfege, dynamics, tempo's, etc.  The students would have to listen to the clue I gave (such as: find the egg that means to play soft), run to the bucket, find the egg with the corresponding symbol on it, and then put the egg on a spoon. After the egg was on the spoon they had 3 tries to walk the egg down to the other end of the room where a bongo drum sat. They would have to hit the bongo 3 times, walk around and bring the egg back to me, dropping the egg into an Easter basket. There was a timer set for 10 minutes, at the end of the time however many eggs were in the basket is what their score was. 

assessment: In this event I wanted to check the students on their musical vocabulary. What did they know, what don't they know so that I can work on that later.  For instance they were all very good at solfege, but had a hard time with tempos i.e. allegro, largo and so on.  I now know that we will need to spend more time going over those things with them.

Name That Tune-

In this event there was 30 song titles and their composers on a deck of cards. One at a time, the students would come up and sing the song on the card, trying to get the rest of the class to guess the song. The difficult part, however, was that they were not allowed to use any real words. The students had to use doo's or la's or something other than the words to get the rest of the class to guess. When the song was guessed correctly then the the person who got it correct was the next one to sing, and the other person took their spot.  

assessment: There was a lot of great things to assess here. One of the national standards for music education is to sing alone, and with others. This got the students singing all by themselves. This is HUGE, a lot of times students will not sing alone, especially if they don't think they sound like Bruno Mars, or Demi Levato, but because it's in a game setting, and they're not using "real words" they will sing! Also, the rest of the class is actively listening to what the person is singing, this gets their ears in gear! They are analyzing what they are hearing, and are able to train their ears to figure out what it is they're listening to. 

All together, I feel as if this was a GREAT form of assessment for me. It gave me some very invaluable information on the students, where they are, and what areas we need to improve upon. It was done in a way that allowed the students to have fun, and allowed me to administer assessments without them having to be the same old, same old. 

Musically yours,

Mrs. G

MIOSM-Music in our Schools Month!

March is MIOSM, otherwise known as Music in our Schools Month! As an advocacy exercise the school district's band director and myself have been having the students fill in the blank to the statement "Music makes me **_______**!" Some of the students have put a lot of thought and attention into this statement! My personal favorite is a student that said Music makes them a better student!

Together the band director and myself have had the kids create cards with their fill in the blank items and created a bulletin board that is at the center of our school so every day the whole school passes by and can think to themselves, "Music makes me **_______**!"

Our goal is to have the entire board filled with different student's ideas by the end of March!

It's been awhile!

Good Morning Mrs. G's musical machine followers! It has been quite a long time since I've posted about the wonderful happenings here at Snyder Elementary.  However, I have good reason for it! I just recently returned from my maternity leave.  On November 7, 2013 I had a beautiful little boy, 7 lbs 10 ounces, blue eyes, all ten fingers and all ten toes! :-)

I am extremely happy to be back at school with my other "kids", all 600 of them! I hope to have some new fun things updated on here soon. Please check back soon to see how my kids take on the "2014 music Olympics!"