Merry Christmas from DES!!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!  This morning we had a Christmas Sing-a-long!  It was so much fun.  Here are the videos that the teachers made (sorry they kept freezing up!).  Hopefully they will work better here!

 

Jingle Bells

 

 

Deck the Halls

 

 

 

 

Trepak Parachute

This week (Wed. - Frid) classes did a parachute activity to Trepak from The Nutcracker Ballet. 

Here is a video we made of this activity.

 

 

Also, while searching online, I found a couple of fun Nutcracker games!  Here are the links:

 

The Nutcracker vs. the Sugar Plum Fairies from Nick.com

 Use the nutcracker to kick, hit or even eat the fairies!!

 

The Nutcracker Game (like hangman)

 Guess letters to create a word.

 

 

 

 

Peter Tchaikovsky

The Musician of the Month for December is Peter Tchaikovsky.  He was born and lived in Russia from 1840 to 1893.  He had a very sad life.  But, he wrote some amazing music! 

 

 

 

 Some of his best loved music is The Nutcracker Ballet!  Last week we listened to and did a Candy Cane dance to song March.  This week we are exploring the form of the Russian dance Trepak from the Nutcracker and doing an awesome parachute activity!! 

 

Next week we will watch the ballet!  Here is a preview of the one that we will be watching:

 

Happy December!

The past 3 weeks have been busy, busy, busy!  I hope you had a great Thanksgiving break.  It's December and we are in full swing here at Dover Elementary.

Monday night, Dec. 3 was the 2nd Grade performance of How the Penguins Saved Christmas.  They did an awesome job!!

Louis Armstrong

The Musician of the Month for November is
 

Louis Armstrong
 

 

Louis Armstrong is a Jazz singer and Trumpet player from New Orleans, Louisiana.  He was born in 1900 and died in 1971. 

 

He is said to have invented "Scat Singing" while recording a song and his music fell off his music stand.  He didn't know the words, so he just made some up!

Here is the video we watched in class of Louis and his band playing and singing Dinah!

 

 

Mwa Ha Ha

This week we are using BOOMWHACKERS for the first time!  They are loads of fun!!!

Here is a video of Mrs. V's 4th graders playing Mwa Ha Ha!  Mwa Ha Ha is an awesome song by Plank Road Publishing.  You can hear it and lots of other songs here!

Pipe Organ

I made this video several years ago because MANY of my students had never seen an organ!  This is my friend Julia Frost playing Little Prelude in C by Johann Sebastian Bach.  She also talks about how the organ works!

Johann Sebastian Bach

The Musician of the Month for October is

Johann Sebastian Bach!

 

 

 

Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer over 350 years ago!  He lived in Germany and had 20 children!  He is most known for his organ music and his choral music.  Here are a couple of examples of his work!

 

 

 

Patriotic Song of the Month

Every month we learn a Patriotic song.  In September we learned You're A Grand Old Flag.

This month our Patriotic song is America, The Beautiful.  Listen to it below:

 

And, you know Mrs. Stahl loves ELVIS!  So, here is his version!!

 

John Philip Sousa

The Musician of the Month for September has been:

 

John Philip Sousa was a composer who loved writing marching music. His nickname is the "March King". One of his most famous marches is The Stars and Stripes Forever. 

 

Listen as John Philip Sousa introduces the song!

 

 

Here are a few other videos that we have watched in class this month!!

 

First, the super awesome listening map for

The Stars and Stripes Forever!!

 

 

 

 

 

Next, the Marine Corps Band playing John Philip Sousa's favorite song Semper Fidelis.

 

 

 

 

And, finally, the super fun Muppets video that we watched just for fun!!  Its the muppets singing

The Stars and Stripes Forever.

 

 

 

You can learn more about John Philip Sousa by clicking here!