Ms. Miller's Music Blog

  Hi Parents and Students,  With advanced technology, scientists are now able to study and measure effects that music has on the brain.  This short video, demonstrates the postitive benefits of learning to play an instrument and how that affects brain development.   Please enjoy! How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brai n

  Hello Tuscany Families,  What a joy a privilege to work with such talented and creative students!  Bravo to all the students who are working hard and doing a fantastic job in music.   Part of the music curriculum is to participate in singing a round.  I chose the tune of "Frere Jaques" and changed the words to match the season of winter.  In some classes we also played it on xylophones, with one group of students playing one phrase of the round. This is what makes my day!!  Such beautiful music I get to hear daily!   We also enjoy playing the Boomwhackers and I think partly because of the name.  There are winter songs we have been performing as a play-along and when we are practiced enough, we turn off the sound and just listen to ourselves playing the melody.   Here we are, very focused. 

Hello Wonderful Tuscany Families,   These are just a few of the activities we have been doing in music recently.  Enjoy the photos! There are many fun rhythm play-alongs to use on technology.  We learned 'repeat sign' on this one, plus it helps us to track music from left to right and reinforces reading rhythms that we know. These colorful and fun ribbons are new to the school.  When we perform our movement activities, it is great to use these new ribbons to move creatively.  We are using instruments to practice reading and playing the rhythms that we know.  It's a fun way to read rhythms.  What is happening here?!   We are playing a game of "Cobbler Cobbler Mend My Shoe".  Half of the students are the "store" waiting for a customer.  While Ms. Miller sings a song in Spanish about a shoemaker, the students walk around.  At the end of the song the "customers" sit and have their shoe mended by the cobbler tapping the rhythm ...

Hi Tuscany Families, The grade 1 and 2 classes are awesome!  Please read the Success Criteria below to find out some things we have been doing in music: 1. I can move to a steady beat using various actions. 2. I can ID ta, ti-ti, and rest (gr. 2's can) 3. I can perform a steady beat in a group, while another group plays the rhythm. 4. I can perform the rhythm in a group, while another group plays the beat. 5. I can use a singing voice. 6. I can understand that pitch can be high, low, or in the middle. 7. I can understand that penta  means five and when some bars are removed from the barred instruments, the bars that are left make a pentatonic scale. 8. I can understand that music is organized into sections called FORM and is labelled with upper case letters beginning with A. 9. I can identify most environmental sounds I hear. 10. I can show different ways to use my voice, such as singing, talking, whispering, shouting and thinking.  (Ms. Miller likes the thinking voice th...

  Hi Tuscany Families; The KG students have been enjoying music class and I have been enjoying the KG students.   Success Criteria for the KG students so far includes: 1. I can participate in playing instruments, games and singing.   2. I can show a steady beat. 3. I can feel when my voice is on and when it is off. 4. I can make lip puffing sounds and I can make tongue dancing sounds. 5. I can identify four families of non-pitched percussion instruments.  Woods, metals, shaker/scraper, and skin families. 6. I can experience pitch as high, low and medium. 7. I can move and improvise movement to music. 8. I can experience music and movement as fast/slow and loud/quiet. The KG classes participate in a variety of games that have a particular focus in music. We play games that encourage students to use a solo singing voice and games that help the student to experience music at different tempi and dynamics.  They enjoy the opportunity to choose which tempo o...

 Hi Tuscany Families; Recently, the grades 3-5 students recorded the song, "Strawberry Moon" by Tara Williamson, who composed song in Ojibiway and in English.   Tuscany registered to compete in the Canadian Music Class Challenge and chose a song by a First Nations Artist because of our rich work surrounding the First Nations people.   Let's cheer on our students for a job well done!! Strawberry Moon recording Learning Intentions for "Strawberry Moon" by Tara Williamson 1. I can sing the melody. 2. I can understand that the melody makes a song recognizable. 3. I can understand the musical FORM of the song as A B A B A B A A 4. I can sing using good diction, enunciating the lyrics clearly. 5. I can sing using different dynamics. 6. I can experience singing in a group. 7. I can respond to the conductor's cues

 The grades 3/4/5 classes have been experiencing and learning about strong beats and weak beats.    We sang a song that had a pattern of strong/weak, strong/weak and placed an accent mark above all the strong beats.  We discovered that this song had beats grouped in 2's, meaning that there are two beats between the bar lines with a strong beat and a weak beat.  The students are learning to understand the vocabulary TIME SIGNATURE.  The time signature of the song we learned is 2/4.  The top number means how many beats are per bar and the bottom number means the type of note that gets the beat, in this case it is a quarter note.

Hi Parents; Grade 1 and 2 students have been learning how to hold the mallets properly!  The top picture shows, "come from the top, come from the top, curl and stick your thumb, curl and stick your thumb".  Below we show that the mallets are held at an angle, although they are not supposed to cross!  This is the students practicing pre-paper/pencil notation of rhythms.  The circles represent the beat and we use pop-sickle sticks to 'draw' the rhythms.  Our next step is to use paper and pencil, which they have now completed.  Grade one's can print a 'ta' and grade two's know how to notate 'ta', 'ti-ti' and a rest.  

Grade 3/4 students have played a game that practices  the note values, moving the number of spaces with corresponding note values and missing a turn if they roll a rest!  We have also been learning about ACCENTS, and that music is grouped in groups of 2, but could also be grouped in 3 or 4.  We have stepped the strong  beat so strongly that the vibrations activated the cymbal! That was a very interesting discover! We have practiced patting the strong beat and clapping the weak beat.  Our next step was to then show the accent mark on paper above the strong beats and discovered a pattern of strong/weak.  We discovered that the song we were singing is grouped in 2's, which means there are 2 beats/bar.   Grade 3-4's have also been focusing on FORM of music.  Understanding that music is arranged in sections and that each section is different.  We learned a song that has an AB section and we have now created our own forms using a 4 x 4 grid an...

  KG students have learned the 4 non-pitched percussion (NPP) instrument families:  metals, skin, woods, shaker/scraper. KG's are learning about syllables.  We are creating a 4 beat pattern using animals and fruit (not seen here).  To ensure success, we have started with animals that are only one syllable, then will add two-syllable animals/objects and have them create a 4 beat pattern using both.  Our next step will be for them to create these patterns independently.     Not pictured:  students have been using scarves while listening to music about the fall leaves falling to the ground to experience self-expression and are they moving to the music appropriately.  For example, if the music is fast are they acknowledging that tempo in their movement, or if it is slow, are they following the music with their bodies or doing their own thing. 

Hi Tuscany Families; We are very excited this year to participate in the CBC Canadian Music Challenge .  There are 8 first place prizes to be won, along with a gold-plated record with our name on it.  The grades 3, 4, & 5 classes in both the French and English programs will participate and learn the song we have chosen.  The name of the singing groups collectively is, Tuscany Together Ensemble.   Tuscany School is a school that is rich in learning Indigenous ways of knowing and because of our work surrounding this, we have selected a Canadian Indigenous Artists song called,  "Strawberry Moon" .     Please scroll down until you find the song, "Strawberry Moon".  Tara Williamson has composed this beautiful song about the Strawberry Moon and is sung in Ojibwa with one verse in English.  Students can listen to the song using the hyperlink above.   Thank you for your help to learn this song and help Tuscany students to...

Hi Parents;   Please see the diagram below for an overview of what students will learn in music in grade 5. I am looking forward to an awesome year with these fantastic and talented grade 5 students!  

Hi Parents:   Please see the diagram below for an overview of what students in grade 4 will learn in music this year.  I look forward to a great year with awesome students!   

Hi Parents; Please see the diagram below that provides an outline of what students can be expected to learn this year in music. I am looking forward to a great year with the students!  

Hello Parents;   Gr 2 classes are working on review of rhythm names, along with learning how to use mallets and the xylophones/metalophones properly.   Please practice steady beat with your child and also practice keeping a steady beat in the feet and a simple rhythm while clapping.  Being able to perform these two actions at the same time is such a great brain growing exercise and improves coordination!  I am  looking forward to a great year in music!  

  Hello Parents;   Please read the outline to get an idea of what students learn in Gr 1 music class.  Please note that students will learn correct terms for dynamics (loud/quiet) and for tempo (fast/slow).   If you have time, it would be immeasurably beneficial to your child to help them practice clapping the syllables of words/objects and determine how many times they had to clap to say the word/object.  That directly correlates with rhythm and being successful in learning rhythms.  I am looking forward to a great year!

Hello Parents;   The following diagram is an outline of what Kindergarten students are learning this year in music.  The classes have learned 4 instrument families of non-pitched percussion instruments: woods, metals, skin, shaker/scraper.  They've also learned that some instruments can belong to more than one family.    In Kindergarten we have focused on BEAT and keeping a steady beat.  The concept is related to a clock keeping a steady tick tick...time and also to the heartbeat keeping a steady beat.  Even when the heart speeds up or slows down it is steady.  Just like music, which has a steady beat and keeps a beat that can go faster or slower.   I am looking forward to a great year!  

  Home Page - overview of Music The systematic development of musical skills, knowledge and perception is fundamental to the total development of the individual.   Music education should begin at an  early age  and should continue to encourage  creative expression  through  performance, listening and composition . As students become sensitive to the expressive elements of music,  they develop insight into human feelings. The sense of  meaning in music can be developed  by the student as:  Performer:   Performance is an  active process  involving the  development  and  application  of  musical skills, knowledge  and  perceptions .  Listener, evaluator, consumer, historian : These experiences develop an understanding of  music  and  musicians  of the  past and present.  Composer:  The  organization of the elements of music  into an...