Teaching the little ones
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Monthly Archives: January 2016
Grade 2 and 2/3 performance
For the IRC carol sing-a-long/PJ Day, Room 204 composed and performed their four-part ostinato in a jazz carol arrangement. Room 206 taught the school to sing “Sing Noel” and accompanied us on mallet instrument.
In a reflection
I asked the students, “what does improvisation, in Music and in Drama, feels like to you?”
They answered..
More like recess than school and it feels like real life and I love it.
It means to me that you can act or sing or dance to show others how good you can do it or do it just for fun. It inspires us to be more creative.
It means to me that I can just be free in music and I can express my feelings in drama
It feels like a party in my music and my mind.
It feels like you haver a million ideas rolling in your mind and then you have to choose one.
Improvisation in music or drama is when you get to express your feelings. It makes you think hard, learn hard, and not really care what people think about what you think.
To me improvisation feels like freedom where I can get my feelings out without someone criticizing me.
Improvisation makes me really happy because it’s super fun to do and can turn out very funny.
To me it feels like I can show my funny feeling to the class and show my creative feelings, and really who who I am.
I feel I am free having fun and being myself.
Mr. Friesen’s visit
Mr. Friesen, a music tech and composition guru, came in from the TDSB board office to help us with our GarageBand project. In December, Chris Thornborrow, the composer for this project, also came to work with us. Lucky!
Guitar Club
Guitar Club ready to perform at the I.R.C. Carol Sing-a-long. We rocked. Just in case you’re wondering, it was pajamas day.
Keyboard Corner
There are no stated learning objectives in the keyboard corner. Each student gets solo creative time. It’s also a great place to chill out after a tumultuous recess. 
I.R.C. Improv. Night
February 18th at 6:30pm is I.R.C.’s Improv. Night! Grades 3-6 students will be featured as well as the Improv Troupe. Here are pictures of Grade 3s improvising and creating new music with movement. 
Blowin in the Wind
Some of Guitar Club accompanying Quinn singing “Blowin’ in the Wind” at the Remembrance Day Assembly. Gorgeous.
Improving Improv.
We’ve been jamming a lot in Music class this year. Improving improv skills and learning to listen. The students are creative and ready for any challenge!
GarageBand Composition Project
The Grade 6s and I are part of a TDSB GarageBand composition project: We are using garageband on the iPads to compose a piece that will then be scored for the ensemble, Continuum, by composer Chris Thornborrow. We will attend a concert where the professional musicians perform OUR masterpiece. It’s still in the working stages but, as you can see, we’re pretty excited!