October Message

Remembrance Day

Families are welcome to attend our Remembrance Day ceremony at Citadel Park School at 11:00am on November 10, 2022. In planning for the ceremony, we are inviting families to send in photos of relatives who are either veterans or currently serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. Photos in uniform will be appreciated. Please send the photo to our Music teacher Jillian Towill at jiMTowill@cbe.ab.ca. A brief explanation of the relative and their relation to your child will be appreciated. Even if you sent a photo last year, please re-send the photo to Ms. Towill so that our assembly committee can create a new photo collection for 2022. Students who are members of Girl Guides or Boy Scouts are invited to wear their uniforms to school on November 10th.

Choir

Choir has started and many grade 3 and 4 students are proud members of our club! Students in choir club are making a commitment to spend two lunch recesses per week in the music room practicing. They have been working hard on their first performance, which will be our Remembrance Day assembly.

Grade 1 

Students in grade one have been learning about the difference between beat and rhythm. Students can explain the difference between beat and rhythm. They can also identify when the teacher is keeping the beat of the song, and when she is playing the rhythm. We can keep the beat using body percussion (patting, clapping, stomping), and using instruments such as rhythm sticks, egg shakers and drums. Students have kept the beat while singing many songs including Cree songs. Moving on to rhythm, students can identify quarter notes, eighth notes and quarter rests by using their rhythm names 'ta', 'ti-ti', and 'shh'. We used the song Hop Old Squirrel to play accompaniment with non-pitched percussion instruments such as sand blocks and wooden spoons. Students have been writing their own 4-beat rhythms.

Grade 2

After reviewing beat and keeping the beat to many different songs, students have been diving into rhythm. Students can recognize a quarter note, eighth note, half note and whole note. We have practiced clapping out these notes, saying their rhythm names, and playing them with instruments. Students have explored with non-pitched percussion instruments. We have also practiced rhythmically speaking by chanting to the beat. 

Grade 3

Grade three students have reviewed quarter notes, half notes and whole notes from last year, and have moved on to learn sixteenth notes (four sounds on one beat). We have practiced rhythms on djembes and other non-pitched percussion instruments. We have also layered rhythms using non-pitched percussion instruments to create an instrumental song. Students are starting to practice vocal and movement canons (when one group starts singing/moving before another). Reading the stories Jingle Dancer and Firedancers introduced us to Powwows, and students learned some Powwow intertribal dance moved.

Grade 4

This month, we have learned about ostinatos and canons. An ostinato is a rhythm that repeats underneath a song. We have practiced body percussion ostinatos. Students have also used the classic French song Frere Jaques to study rhythm. Students can sing and do the actions to the song in canon. At the end of the month, students used the rhythm and tune of Frere Jaques to complete a songwriting project. Projects will go home this week.