The transition to virtual learning has been a positive experience in Music courses. Ms. Cecilia Calvelo and Ms. Damaris Ortiz report on how students fro Preschool to Grade 8 are enjoying a variety of instrumental and vocal activities in the virtual music lessons.
Preschool and Grades 1-3
Music Makers from PreKinder 1 through Grade 3 are working hard. Ms. Cecilia Calvelo says that regardless of the quarantine, students are playing lots of recorder songs, refining their pitch/note recognition on staff paper:
We are getting better at the Cup Game, we are singing lots of call and response songs, we are dancing to Erik Satie’s piano music, we are mastering the coordination games we used to do at school and added a new one from Brazil, we are going around the house collecting objects we can use to make up Orff rhythms with, we have learned about Sergey Prokofiev and “Peter and the Wolf”, we have kept track of our acts of kindness, made origami, and we have even learned a new breathing/relaxing exercise to do before taking a nap or going to bed,” she described.
I am so proud of the kids and their parents for finding ways to make music together and for being so creative. Keep sending us your videos. You rock!!!!
Grades 4 through 8
Ms. Damaris Ortiz remarks how everyone in these grades is learning more about “the advantages of technology, not only to communicate with each other but to bring our music skills to the forefront by creatively taking advantage of different digital resources.”
In April, students in Grades 4 and 5 performed and merged together into a huge recorder orchestra and students have had the opportunity to ‘see’ each other and feel a community spirit in producing music together.
Our Middle School musicians have been using their time productively to fine-tune their ukelele skills, explore the multicultural world of music, and hone in on the essential elements of sound.
“I am also delighted and proud to report that many students have gone above and beyond to present their own ‘online’ performances playing a variety of instruments of their own.
