Fleming Tower Elementary School Mon. April 28 2.15-3.15pm

What a fun class we had today!
Here's what we did:
LEVEL 1 (Benjamine and Ryan)

• Lesson 3 and 4 with Mr. Beethoven.
  
• Reviewed high bird notes and low whale notes.
• Learned about Middle C. The note that comes right before the group of two black keys in the middle of the piano keyboard.
• Keeping a steady beat and curved finger hand position.
• Long sounds and short sounds. We learned about rhythm and how often times we divide music into groups of 4 beats. Very good work here.
  
• Practice lessons 1-4 if you have the CMJ software at home. If not, practice clapping four beat rhythms for your Mom and Dad. For example: My Par-rot talk a- lot (there is rhythm in language isn't there!), Long short short short short long!
  

LEVEL 1B (Jessica, Jacqueline, Lauren - we missed you Emma)

• Lesson 15 with Scott Joplin and a little bit of lesson 16 with Miss Mendelssohn.
  
• You're learning how to set both hands in Middle C position with all five fingers on the keys.
• Make sure to keep your wrists up and fingers curved.
• Keep a steady beat.
• You're learning about notes moving by step, one finger after the next. You can step higher (going up the keyboard) or lower (down the keyboard).
• We are becoming more familiar with note names now, A-B-C-D-E-F-F and back to A.
• For practice, try Folk Tunes for Both Hands, in the CMJ software. If not, practice your stepping exercises, and try playing different finger number patterns in Middle C position.

LEVEL 2A (Noah, Jared, Brianna, Reece, Aly and Jansyn)

• Lesson 29 with Mr. Dvorak.
• We talked about Dvorak's life. He came from the Czech republic. He moved to the U.S. when we was a little older and wrote the "New World" Symphony. Can you remember anything else about Dvorak?
• Practiced quarter, half, dotted half and whole notes.
  
• Practiced folk tunes for both hands.
• Play exercises stepping and skipping in Middle C position.
• Pretty soon you will be learning how to read notes in what we call the Grand Staff. Try looking at any music books you may have at home to see what this looks like. Can you see how your right hand plays the notes on top and the left hand plays the notes on the bottom. You've been learning how to do this all along - how exciting that you've come this far in such a short time!

At the end of class we played Keyboard Race, drawing cards to move our game pieces higher up the keyboard to learn the musical alphabet. Finally, we had a chocolate chip cookie and then went home. Have a good two day break everyone.
I'll see you next week.