Primary through Kindergarten met a very interesting man this past week! His name is Aiken Drum and he lived in the moon. His hair is made of spaghetti, eyes of meatballs, nose of cheese, and mouth of pizza. He also plays upon a ladle! We have so much fun singing about him and playing our drums!

1st through 8th grade began work on our Spring Musical, SEUSSICAL JR.! It features some famous characters, Horton the Elephant, The Cat in the Hat, and many more! I am so excited to bring this wonderful show to St. James. It’s a story of friendship, imagination, and fun all in the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss!

We had a lot of fun these past couple of weeks! We have been singing Christmas songs and getting ready for Candlelight! We had Lower School’s service last night and they did a FANTASTIC job! I am so proud! I know that Middle School is going to do a great job tonight at 6pm.

The past few weeks we have be working very hard on our music for Candlelight. These kids amaze me everyday! I’m so lucky to be their music teacher! Their practice is paying off and we can’t wait to show off on December 15th and 16th!

When we haven’t been working on Candlelight, we have been continuing out work on rhythm by playing, “Turkey Rhythm Run” and “Black Friday Deal Race.”

This week, we have been studying body percussion and music theory!

We created body percussion compositions and “Rumbled” in the Jungle:

Last week, we celebrated Halloween by listening to the “SPOOKIEST” piece of classical music, Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor. We explored mood, tempo, and dynamics while coloring a picture of Bach and his pipe organ!

This month we have had a lot of fun exploring the world of spooky music!

Primary: Put on a puppet show while singing, “Five Little Pumpkins” and busted some ghosts!

PreK- Kindergarten: Added some spooky scenes to their, “Five Little Pumpkins” song page! We sang and did some math too!

3rd-8th: We had so much fun I forgot to take pictures(my bad)! We listened to spooky music and talked about the people and stories behind it. We started learning a Bucket Drumming Routine to The Addams Family Theme.

This week we dove into the wonderful world of Latin and Hispanic music in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month! We talked about the different types and how they have influenced music around the world. We celebrated by,

PreK-2nd learning a classic Spanish nursery rhyme: Los Pollitos!

3-8: A cup and rhythm stick routine to Gloria Estefan’s Turn the Beat Around!

We have been exploring sound and movement in class. We have played with and created our own instruments. We created our own songs. We have performed with puppets and masks

Primary students studied nursery rhymes: Mary Had a Little Lamb and Hickory Dickory Dock:

1st-4th grade created their very own kazoos out of straws and songs with Boomwhackers:

Kindergarten created their own monkey mask and performed Five Little Monkeys.

The first couple of weeks have been a blast! We had fun getting to know each other and playing music!

Primary-Kindergarten learned the monkey song on djembes:

1st-5th played the Back to School Rhythm Game!

6th-8th used dice to compose their own Boomwhacker piece:

I’m excited for the days and lessons to come!