Delaney School Blog: Week 9 (10/28-11/1)

Happy Friday and happy November!

As we prepare to turn back the clocks, please take a moment to enjoy this week's edition of the Delaney School blog. The kids were quite busy this week thanks to the PTO. Some attended a special party, everyone enjoyed the book fair, and others met with an individual with profound hearing loss as part of the Disability Awareness program. Overall, it was a fantastic week!

Students in Mrs. Maxwell and Mrs. Pitman's class got into the holiday spirit. Great costumes everyone!

What's Happening in Music...from Mrs. Mariotti

Here is what we learned during October…

Composer of the Month is….Edvard Grieg

Kindergarten: This month we explored with our voices. We learned how music has pitch and can be high (like a mouse voice) or low (like a dinosaur). We are learning that high and low pitches are different from volume. This is tricky for kindergartners. Any sound can be loud or soft no matter its pitch. We have played lots of high and low games where we have to match our bodies with the pitch while Mrs. Mariotti plays different low and high sounds. Sometimes the kindergarteners get to compose the music and chose which sounds to make. It has been a lot of fun! We have sang lots of songs about the fall like “Have you ever seen an apple?”, “What Falls in the Fall?” by Laurie Berkner, and “Five little Pumpkins”. We listened and sang a song story called “Wizard’s Brew”. We add various ingredients into our “brew” and it changes our voices. The children have really enjoyed this song. You may hear them singing about their wizard’s brew. One of our favorite games have been “Pumpkin, Pumpkin”. We sing a little song and magically change our bodies from pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. Finally, we watched a puppet show called, “Peer Gynt” by the famous composer Edvard Grieg. It is based on a Norwegian fairy tale. Edvard Grieg is our new composer for October.

First Grade: October has been a busy month! We began by learning about long and short sounds (rhythm). We also learned that there are silences (rests) in music too. We sang “Hot Cross Buns” and found all the silent parts (rests). We also played a hand clapping game to that song as well. We also learned that music has an alphabet just like our regular alphabet. We discovered that it starts off the same (A, B, C, D, E, F, G), but learned that the musical alphabet only has seven letters. We were able to explore with the musical alphabet using the xylophones and could even make words with the musical alphabet (E,G,G or D,A,D). We also learned about melody. The melody is the part we would hum or whistle. We learned that melody can move up, down or stay the same. We pretended our voices were the wind and ghosts. We sang expressively as we made a mini play to the song “Five Little Pumpkins”. We added feeling with our facial expressions and our voice. Once we had the song down, we could add a xylophone for the wind sound effect. It sounded pretty good! We also loved playing the singing game, “Pumpkin, Pumpkin.” One person is the wizard and will sing the song with a magic wand (a mallet) and turn the class into jack-o-lanterns. Lots of fun! We also listened to music by a Norwegian composer named, Edvard Grieg. We found Norway on our map. Grieg was really proud to be Norwegian. He loved to compose music about famous stories and sights in Norway. We listened to “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and “Morning Mood”. Wow! We really did a lot this month!

Second Grade: This month we focused on two musical concepts: duration in rhythm and melody. Second graders have mastered quarter and eighth note rhythms, so we added two new ones this month: quarter rest and half note. We have discovered that rhythm is a lot like fractions. A half note (ta-a) is held for two beats. It is twice as long as a quarter note, which gets one beat. A quarter note (ta) is twice as long as a single eighth note. Each eighth note (ti) gets a half of a beat. We often say them in pairs (ti-ti). It sounds pretty confusing, but I am always amazed how kids learn this so quickly! We played a rhythm game called, “Snakes and Ladders”. It is like the game “Chutes and Ladders”. We roll a musical dice and will move our game piece however many spots the note is held for. (Ex. Roll a quarter note and you will move one place. Roll a half note and move two places.) We also learned about melody (the part you would hum or whistle). We learned that melody can move up, down or stay the same. We pretended our voices were the wind and ghosts. We reviewed the musical alphabet (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) while exploring on xylophones. We also learned a spooky song called, “Skin and Bones”. We learned how to play the refrain on our xylophones and performed it in class. We also learned about Edvard Grieg (a composer from Norway) and followed a tapping listening guide to Grieg’s famous song, “In the Hall of the Mountain King”.

Third Grade: This month we focused on learning how to read music notes. We learned that music is written on a staff. The staff has five lines and four spaces. Every note is either a line note or a space note. To help us read music, there are “sayings” to identify the different notes. We learned that the line note saying is “Every, Good, Boy, Deserves, Fudge”. We learned that space note sayings spell the word “F, A, C, E”. We also discovered that the words “space” and “face” rhyme. When we read the notes, we need to count up the lines or spaces to find the letter. We practiced this in lots of ways. We laid a giant staff on the floor and took turns hopping on the lines and spaces of the staff. We also put bean bags on the various lines and spaces to identify the various notes. We also played a game called, “Note Naming Relay”. The class would divide into two teams and try to guess the letter name. Whichever team guessed correctly first, won a point for their team. We also reviewed the musical alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) and would make up words with the letters. It was a busy month learning how to read notes! We also learned about Edvard Grieg (a composer from Norway). We listened to his famous song called, “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. It has a spooky sound to it and reminds us about Halloween.

Spirit Day - Food Drive/Super Hero Day

On Friday, November 8^th, the Roderick and Delaney Schools will be having our first official spirit day of the 2013-2014 school year. Children are asked to show their spirit by bringing a non-perishable food item to their classroom. Donations will benefit the Wrentham food pantry and the families of the Wrentham Public Schools. In addition, students are asked to dress as their favorite Super Hero on this day. Please note that no toy weapons will be allowed. We hope you choose to join us; however, participation in Spirit Day is always voluntary.

Principals' Coffee
The first Principals' Coffee of the 2013-2014 school year will be held on Friday, November 8th at 8:30 a.m. in the Vogel Auditorium. The formal topics of discussion will be MCAS and parent/teacher conferences. Coffee/snacks will be provided by Food Services and children are welcome.

Halloween Safety
Thank you to King Philip National Honor Society students for visiting the Delaney School on Thursday, October 31st to perform Halloween safety skits and discuss tips for remaining safe when trick-or-treating.

Book Fair
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Delaney students visited the Scholastic Book Fair and had the option of purchasing a large variety of books. Thank you to the PTO and all of the volunteers who helped to make this experience possible.

Disability Awareness
Third grade students met with Carole Rossick, an outreach training specialist from the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, as part of the Disability Awareness program. Thanks to the PTO, the children have the opportunity to see, hear, and learn from individuals living with both physical and intellectual disabilities. We are so grateful for this amazing program and offer our most sincere thanks to the PTO and Carole for visiting with us today.

Lost & Found
The Lost & Found area in the Delaney School (YMCA entrance off of the cafeteria) is rapidly filling up with lunch boxes, clothing items, etc...Mrs. Maguerite Fifolt has organized the items on the shelving (thank you!!!) to make it easier to locate/identify belongings. I would like to encourage you to stop by check for anything that belongs to your family. Unclaimed items will be donated periodically to charity throughout the school year.

From the PTO

Mark your calendars...PTO "Catch-up Meetings"
On the Tuesday morning following a Thursday evening meeting, there will be a PTO catch-up meeting at 8:30 a.m. The catchup meeting are designed specifically for the parents with small children. Kids are welcome!!

On Friday, October 25th, the PTO held a Halloween party for kids in preschool, kindergarten, and grade one.