Hello & Happy September! Here’s a look at what we have been and will be working on in music class this month:

Pre-K: We will continue learning new songs and rhymes. We will learn about different ways to use our voices (high/low, loud/soft, singing/speaking). We have also been using a few classroom instruments (maracas and rhythm sticks) to work on the concepts of Beat/No Beat, Play/Stop, and Fast/Slow.

K & Grade 1: We will continue to review the concepts of beat vs. rhythm and high/low voices (pitch). We have been working on long vowel sounds with the song “Apples & Bananas” and continue working with classroom percussion instruments to create sound effects and rhythmic accompaniments. We begin learning about pitch with the major scale song, “Jack & Jill.”

Grade 2: We will continue reviewing the concept of beat vs. rhythm, dynamics (loud vs. soft) and tempo (fast vs. slow). Students will be creating their own rhythmic compositions to the song “Poor Little Bug” and will perform their compositions later this month.


Grades 3-4: Students started on recorders this month, which is very exciting!! Third graders are learning about parts of the musical staff and how to read notes in treble clef plus learning to play B-A-G on our recorders. Fourth Grade students have been reviewing note reading in treble clef and songs using B-A-G-E-D. We are going to be starting Recorder Karate soon, which I know this class is going to have so much fun with!


Grades 5-6: We had some amazing performances of student created arrangements of the song, “Dinah.” We will also do some basic improvisation using a pentatonic scale and xylophones. We will be talking about contrasting triplets with eighth notes in music and will listen to “America” from West Side Story, which is an excellent example of this concept. We will then work on 16 note patterns and come up with words that fit the various rhythms that we are learning. Students will present their rhythm word groups later this month.


Grades 7-8: We started Listening Journals, which is a great way for our students to experience a lot of different styles of music and review all of the musical concepts they’ve learned over their years at St. Cletus. 8th Grade started on guitars last week- so exciting! 7th Grade finished up their unit on Renaissance Music and started exploring Chrome Music Lab. After that, we will begin our unit on the Baroque period of Classical music.

Band in grades 5-8 has been going very well!

With my Advanced Band kids (Grades 6-8), we are meeting with a full grade level at a time during the school day and meeting as a full band (with students from all 3 grades and 3 schools) after school every Thursday. With the grade level groups, we are working on individual technique using our method books, but with the after school group, we are working on full band pieces! These kids sound fantastic!

For my Intermediate Band kids, we have been reviewing what we did last year and are getting ready to move on in our method books and start some full band pieces. We just started using Smart Music and will be doing “Band Karate” again using this fantastic learning tool. The kids are sounding great and it is awesome!!!

I am looking forward to getting started with my beginners the week of September 14! If you have a student who is interested in joining the band (grades 4-8), please let me know. It is not too late to get your child signed up, just contact me via Fast Direct or email.