IHES Music Grant Funded!

The Rock Hill School District Foundation grants recipients were announced on Wednesday, and the grant I composed for our music classroom was fully funded! The grant is entitled: "Up, Up, and Away Wii Go". Next year our music room will have the Wii gaming system complete with 4 controllers to use the Wii Music Software as part of our curricullum to reinforce the skills and concepts students learn in music. I am excited and believe that this will be a wonderful incentive for the IHES students and engage them in music lessons even more next year! Check out the activities available in Wii Music online at any web-site which sells Wii games.

Music This Week

Here's what we're doing in music this week:

Kindergarten:
-Review "One Potato, Two Potato" and keeping a steady beat with our rhythm sticks
-Learn a hand clapping game to accompany the nursery rhyme, "Pat-A-Cake".

First Grade:
-Discuss the use of themes in "Peter and the Wolf" to represent the characters in the story
-Play a matching game between animals and instruments to explore which instruments would represent the animals best in the orchestra.

Second Grade:
-Label "Barline" and "Measure" in a musical context
-"Five Little Monkeys"- label "tempo" and "forte/piano"
-"A Thousand Hungry Savages"- prepare "rondo" form
-" Cut the Cake"- Singing game from Nova Scotia

Third Grade:
-Continuation of preparing for the May 20 performance of movements from "Carnival of the Animals"

Fourth and Fifth Grades:
-"Mallet Madness": rhythmic echoes, body director, and crazy 8's

Week in Review

Kindergarten: Students reviewed the song, "The Cuckoo", which is centered around the pitches for so-mi. They also enjoyed playing many different instruments for the rhyme, "One Potato, Two Potato". Students were required to play only when they spoke the number words or the word "more".

First Grade: Students viewed the movie of Sergio Prokofiev's, Peter and the Wolf. Over the next few weeks, we will study the musical themes, which accompany all of the characters in this tone poem.

Second Grade: Students notated a melody on a 5 line staff to accompany the children's book, Swimmy. They also learned a song based on the pitches, so-mi-do. The students enjoyed playing an instrumental accompaniment to the song.

Third Grade: Students began choreography on their classes' movement from Carnival of the Animals. The choreography will be practiced over the next few weeks, and then presented on May 20 at the IHES Night of the Arts.

Fourth Grade: Students continued using the classroom instruments during Mallet Madness, which allows students to experience playing each instrument in our music classroom. Students practice correct playing technique, sharpen their aural and rhythmic skills while having fun!

Fifth Grade: Students completed the study of Ludwig Von Beethoven with the conclusion of Beethoven Lives Upstairs. Students began Mallet Madness this week in class and will continue in the next few weeks.


**Remember to check out the musical items available for purchase from Music in Motion to help our music program.

Dear IHES Parents,

We have had an incredible year in music! The students have grown so much in terms of their musical development. Students have used a variety of musical instruments and have studied various composers and famous musical works. I certainly want the learning to continue over the summer months; therefore, you and your child(ren) have the opportunity to purchase home instruments, books, and DVDs before the school year ends.

IHES Music has partnered with the Music In Motion Company in order to bring music education into your home. The web-site, www.musicmotion.com, offers thousands of music related items. The IHES Music program will also benefit as a portion of the sales will come back to the music classroom to purchase supplies and instruments for our classroom. If you chose to order online, please use the following affiliate code when checking out: AL1048.

Below I have also included another document (Music in Motion Order for Parents) highlighting instruments, books with CDs, and DVDs which we have used in the music classroom this year. The prices for these items include tax and shipping. I will place a bulk order (reducing your shipping costs) for those items on April 30 in order for you and your child(ren) to receive them in May. You may send your order form (or e-mail me your order) with a check made to IHES for your order by April 30. I hope you will take advantage of this great opportunity to bring music into your home!

Musically Yours,

Mrs. Odom

http://www.box.net/shared/cdb3t982ox

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Earning Money for Music Supplies with Great Quality Music Products

Dear Parents, Students, and Friends,

We're trying to raise money for India hook Elementary School Music! By simply shopping with Music in Motion on the web-site: www.musicmotion.com, you'll help us earn a percentage of each sale. Just use our affiliate code AL1048 when you check out, so that our group gets credit for the sale. Thank you for your support!

Music in Motion has a huge selection of over 5000 music education resources and gifts for all ages, including:
- Books, CDs, & videos on composers, instruments, music history, & theory for all ages
- Hard-to-find gifts for musicians of every age--fashions, mugs, stationery items, & novelties
- Extensive children’s resources on music and the arts
- Music and movement games
- Posters
- Software
- Folk and ethnic instruments
- Incentives
- Equipment
- Awards
- Creative dramatics resources such as musicals, puppets, hats, and masks
- and much more!

Happy shopping, and don't forget to enter our affiliate code AL1048 when you place your order!
Thanks for your support,
Mrs. Odom

Spring has Sprung!

I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break with their children! I had a terrific time with my boys, Bailey and Carter, who are 16 months old now. They continue to love their Tuesday evening Kindermusik classes, and I have already enrolled them in 2 sessions in the summer. If you are interested in enrolling your child(ren) in Kindermusik for the summer, please go to the web-site, www.ourmusictime.com

Kindergarten and first graders are both beginning to work more extensively with the xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels.

Second Graders are learning about musical phrase length, extensions of ABA form, and notating do,re, mi, so, la on the musical staff.

Third graders are preparing for their performance on May 20 at the IHES Night of the Arts. The performance is a culmination of the study of animal vocabulary in French, the art work of the French composer Henri Rousseau, and "The Carnival of the Animals" by French composer Charles Camille Saint- Saens. Each 3rd grade class has been studying one of the 14 movements in Saint-Saens work.

Fourth Grade began "Mallet Madness" this week. "Mallet Madness" involves the entire instrumentarium in our music classroom. This week we worked on playing rhythms dictated by myself. When students became comfortable with echoing my given rhythms, they then took turns being the "teacher". I was very pleased with their ability to improvise rhythms for their fellow classmates to echo play on their instruments. We will continue with "Mallet Madness" activities in the coming weeks.

Fifth grade has completed Recorder Karate. I am so proud of all of the students who practiced and actively participated in belt testing! Some of the students will perform on recorders at the IHES Night of the Arts on May 20. The black belt song for "Recorder Karate" is Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his Ninth Symphony. This week we began studying about Beethoven's life by reading about him in The Lives of Musicians: The Good Times, The Bad Times, (and What the Neighbors Thought). We also began to watch the DVD Beethoven Lives Upstairs.

**I have posted a project on Donor's Choose.com to raise money to purchase more instruments for our music room. You may view and donate to the project by visiting this web-site:http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=374852&verify=-1351871806
Thank you for your support!