K-1 ABC from Whitney DuBose on Vimeo.
Author: The Arts at LFCSA
4th Grade Celebration
<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/219606173″>4th Grade Celebration</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user21428761″>Whitney DuBose</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
4th Grade Celebration Gallery
Mr. Velasco and Ms. Soffer’s 4th graders connected deeply with dance, music, readers, and writers this trimester. Using the book, “Island of the Blue Dolphins” for inspiration, they composed and choreographed music and dances that retell the story of the book. We delved deeply into how moods connect a listener with the plot of a story, and our musicians used a combination of GarageBand loops and natural collected sounds from their field trips to create these incredible soundcscapes. As you listen and explore, listen for a beginning, middle, and end within each scene.
In Ms. Chen’s class, in addition to exploring guitar with their 5th grade classmates, our 4th grade students used GarageBand to create original rondos. Their rondos make use of creative music technology composition techniques, and if you listen closely, you should hear a repeating “A” section that creates the traditional musical rondo form, (ABACA…).
Finally, Ms. Soffer’s and Mr. Velasco’s class Mickey Mouse Foley videos are done! Check out their completed takes on creating sound effects for this classic cartoon. Musicians worked in small groups collaborating and rehearsing to create sound effects like foleys for a small segment of of the whole video. Their group decided on, practiced, and recorded these takes live. Enjoy!
A World Journey Through Music
K/K and K/1 musicians have set out on a journey to explore music of the world. Our journey always begins with a mystery… where are we going? Young musicians listen to samples of music from our destination and guess where in the world we might be headed.
Students listened to the following samples to inspire their guesses.
We learned about the rhythms that make up samba music, learned a classic folk song about monkey named Sambalele who’s always in trouble, and played, sang, and danced in the style of Brazil. We took a brief journey from Brazil to Chile before spring break to learn a folk song and game, “Pavo, Pavo” or “Turkey, Turkey”.
When we return from break, our next mystery destination awaits!
Fifty Nifty United States
Explore the following videos with your partner or partners. Discuss and decide which one you like the most. Why do you like it? Is it familiar? What is the meaning behind the lyrics? Am I missing your favorite patriotic song? Email me yours! ksmith@losfelizarts.org
When you finish watching and discussing, use the last video “Fifty Nifty United States” to complete the first side of your worksheet. If you want even more of a challenge, try out the word search. Good luck!
GarageBand Rondos
You are about to embark on a journey to create a GarageBand Rondo. You are your group members will use skills of collaboration, creativity, musical knowledge, and more to compose a Rondo that will blow your listeners away. Ready? Let’s begin!
THE BASICS:
Opening GarageBand on your computer. Look for this icon 
Once you get there, the most important thing is to save your project!!
Go to FILE –> SAVE AS –> WHERE (Click Desktop) –> Then Save your project as all group member names then the word Rondo
Next, explore GarageBand! Ms. Smith will walk you through some of the basics. At the end of class you will have a virtual exit slip to complete with your group. As you explore, pay attention to how you create and add musical content to your tracks. It will help you in your exit slip quiz!
When Ms. Smith tells you, follow the link below to access your exit slip for the day.
Make sure to write all your group member’s names before starting your quiz!
Take your three question quiz, and when you’re done, exit all window, logout, and close your laptops for dismissal.
The Story Behind the Song
With your group, you’re going to explore the story behind a song we all know… but do we really know it?
Figure out the story behind the song by exploring here!
When you’re done go here and click on 
Complete the three prompted questions. The last question you should answer is:
In your words, what is really going on in Yankee Doodle. 3-5 complete sentences!
When you’re done, logout of your laptop, and when I dismiss your group, you can go to lunch!
Peter and the Wolf
Our Third Grade musicians have taken their knowledge of instruments of the orchestra, and put it into action as we explored the music of Sergei Prokofiev set to the classic story, Peter and the Wolf.
Using what we know about the many instruments within the orchestra, and the characters in the story, our musicians made predictions about which instrument might have been used to play a theme for each character. We then discovered through listenings, if they were close in their predictions.
After the students had learned about the music, characters, and plot, we watched it all together in a short video which narration and orchestral accompaniment. We watched the classic Disney version narrated by David Bowie, but there are many more adaptations of this classic tale. I’ve included a couple below you might like to watch. See if you can hear when certain themes come in, and when two or more themes are combined throughout the story.
Our Mixed Up Lovable Creatures!
Our K-1 artists are exploring the art of illustration. Inspired by the work of our LFCSA artist in residence Jasser Membrano and author and illustrator Eric Carle, K-1 artists are creating their own illustrations for their class book “You Are Lovable.”
They are using the textured papers their created to develop original collages of mixed up and lovable creatures inspired by various animals. Their illustrations, along with a collection of stories gathered with the help of the students’ families, will be published into a class book soon. Stay tuned!
Exploring Texture!
Our K-1 artists have been hard at work (and play!) experimenting with and exploring texture in art. We created textures together using various techniques: from cup printing to bubble wrap printing, to crayon rubbings! It’s been messy, but oh-so-fun!!
We will be using our newly created textured papers in our illustrations for our class book “You Are Lovable” inspired by our LFCSA Artist in Residence Jasser Membreno and by Eric Carle.
The Arts at LFCSA 
You must be logged in to post a comment.