Hello Magnolia Families,

We’re getting so close to the end of our school year! We wanted to share a special blog about all of the ways we’ve had a musical year here in Magnolia. During a recent music activity a child shouted: “We’re the musical class!” and us teachers smiled. It’s been a joy to share music with the children this year. At our end of the year party on Thursday June 8th, we will have a sing-a-long dance party to look forward to. Enjoy!

Can You Make a Beat?

Emily shared that her dad was a musician! One of the many instruments he played were the drums. Emily learned when she was little how to count off “1 E and a 2 E and a 3 E and a 4 E” to create a rhythm. To hear more about this method, you can visit this site here.

Jump in the Line

Teaching artist Julianne visited Magnolia and shared the music of Harry Belafonte with us. We learned that Harry Belafonte died and so in honor of his memory, she showed us how to make a paper collage book inspired by his song “Turn the World Around.” Friends LOVED discovering Harry’s music and particularly enjoyed his songs “Jump in the Line” and “Day-O (Banana Boat Song).” We will enjoy dancing and singing along to these songs at our End of the Year Party!

Bells

We now have two sets of bell instruments in Magnolia! One set is a Montessori Bell Set, and another is a set of handbells. Both of these instruments foster the development of strong rhythmic skills, physical coordination, and listening skills. Teachers created easy to follow color coded music for the children to play along to. Many of the children have internalized the color-coded order of notes! Middle C is red, D is orange, E is yellow, F is green, G is light blue, A is dark blue, and B is purple and C elsewhere on the bells or keyboard is pink.

More Fun Around Magnolia

Thank you to Hayes’s family for joining us for a fun bear hunt! Check out the video below to take a peek at our adventures.

Happy Birthday to Eloise!

This month we celebrated Eloise turning 5! Thank you Brendan, Elissa and Avery for joining our morning circle celebration 🙂

You’ll see more from around our classroom in our next blog- the last one of our year together! We look forward to seeing you at our end of the year party 🙂

 

♥Emily.Mitra.Darius