Blog

Choir Updates – 2/16/2021

  • 7/8 Choir Students: You have received a schedule on Google Classroom for the dates your part will be rehearsing. Since our choir is divided into three parts, you will not rehearse every class period. The rehearsal schedule is here: Following a rehearsal, you will have a recording assignment due within the following two weeks. All of the due dates for your recordings (for each part) are in the schedule. The recording schedule can also be found here:
  • REMINDER 7/8th & 6th Choir Students: No recordings will be accepted late. Show responsibility by submitting your recordings a day or two before they are due and asking for help if there’s a problem recording or uploading. These recordings will give Mrs. Isaac feedback to plan the next rehearsals. No recordings will be graded after the due date and will receive a 0/10.

Welcome to 2020-2021!

Mrs. Isaac – Music Teacher Intro

Good morning!

Welcome to St. Monica for a brand new year of experiences and learning. I am excited to meet all of my students and to work with such a great team of administrators and fellow teachers. This year will bring about new challenges, but I remain confident that God will provide a meaningful year for all of us. Music is a valuable, vital art for all people, and I believe that it will prove to be incredibly helpful to students as they deal with the new stresses of this unique school year. I look forward to learning how to best support students through my subject area, providing emotional support through music as well as a foundational education.
As we engage in a hybrid program of digital learning and in-person learning, I wanted to take time to introduce myself to all of my families. In the first few weeks of school, as students learn how to use our Google Classroom platform and gain education in navigating that space, I will have students turn in a similar assignment to me with a picture and a little bit of info so I can get to know my students better! Our health precautions and masks will make it harder to get to know each other as we can’t see faces, and I am thankful for a digital platform that can assist us in making connections and building relationships.
Be on the lookout for a Google Classroom invitation to your students for Music – most have been sent out from me already. Assignments, any homework, resources, videos, etc – EVERYTHING they will need will be put on Google. I will be using similar platforms as your child’s classroom teacher – Google Classroom and Harmony (for grades).
Please feel free to send me an email with any questions. My email is n.isaac@smsindy.org. I am also happy to set up an appointment for a phone conversation if that would be helpful to you. Know that I am praying for all of my students and their families. I can’t wait to meet you!

~Mrs. Natalie Isaac

¡Buenos días!

Bienvenido a St. Monica para un nuevo año de experiencias y aprendizaje. Estoy emocionado a conocer a todos mis estudiantes y trabajar con un gran equipo de administradores y compañeros maestros. Este año traerá nuevos desafíos, pero sigo confiando en que Dios proporcionará un año significativo para todos nosotros. La música es un arte valioso y vital para todas las personas, y creo que resultará increíblemente útil para los estudiantes al lidiar con las nuevas tensiones de este año escolar único. Espero aprender cómo apoyar mejor a los estudiantes en mi área temática, brindándoles apoyo emocional a través de la música y una educación fundamental.

Mientras participamos en un programa híbrido de aprendizaje digital y aprendizaje en persona, quería tomar un tiempo para presentarme a todas mis familias. En las primeras semanas de clases, a medida que los estudiantes aprendan a usar nuestra plataforma Google Classroom y obtengan educación para navegar por ese espacio, haré que los estudiantes me entreguen una tarea similar con una imagen y un poco de información para conocer mejor a mis alumnos! Nuestras precauciones de salud y máscaras harán que sea más difícil conocernos, ya que no podemos ver caras, y estoy agradecido por una plataforma digital que puede ayudarnos a establecer conexiones y establecer relaciones.

Esté atento a una invitación de Google Classroom para sus estudiantes para la música; la mayoría ya las he enviado yo. Las asignaciones, cualquier tarea, recursos, videos, etc., TODO lo que necesitarán se incluirá en Google. Usaré plataformas similares a las del maestro de clase de su hijo: Google Classroom y Harmony (para las calificaciones).

No dude en enviarme un correo electrónico con cualquier pregunta. Mi correo electrónico es n.isaac@smsindy.org. También estoy feliz de programar una cita para una conversación telefónica si eso le fuera útil. Sepa que estoy orando por todos mis estudiantes y sus familias. ¡No puedo esperar a conocerte!

~Sra. Natalie Isaac

eLearning Music Week 5

Good afternoon! I hope you are all doing well and have found good routines and structure to make learning at home successful!

Here are some resources for our elementary music engagement. I will be consistently adding more songs and activities to my YouTube page, so feel free to check it out if you’re looking for a brain break or a quick music lesson!

Down By the Bay – Song and Activity

Music Class Opening Songs w/ Mrs. Isaac

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

eLearning Week 3 Music Resources

Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope the week proved refreshing, fun, and joyful in the midst of social distancing and learning at home.

Here are some new resources to keep us musically engaged this week:

Preschool:

Buenos Dias – Song

The Cat and the Fiddle

Freeze Dance

Exercise, Rhyme, and Freeze

Bingo – Spanish

Bingo – English

5 Green and Speckled Frogs

Alphabet – Spanish

Kindergarten:

Shrimp Glockenspiel

(For Shrimp Glockenspiel – can your child identify the instruments the characters are playing in the video?)

Exercise, Rhyme, and Freeze

Beat Lesson

 

1st Grade:

Beat Lesson

Miss Lindsey Music Lesson 1

2nd Grade:

Oceanophony – Game

Bim Bom – Hand Clapping Song

Epo I Tai Tai E ~ A Body Percussion Song from New Zealand

3rd Grade:

What’s in a Piano? – Game

Bim Bom – Hand Clapping Song

Epo I Tai Tai E ~ A Body Percussion Song from New Zealand

4th Grade:

Hansel and Gretel – Build Your Own Opera

The Cup Song – Solo Version

Epo I Tai Tai E ~ A Body Percussion Song from New Zealand

eLearning Week 2

Good morning, St. Monica students and families!

I imagine the past week has been overwhelming and stressful for you. My goal for this week is to provide some music resources for our students that are age appropriate, coincide with what we’ve been learning in music, and provide a welcome distraction to being cooped up!

Below you’ll find links to some appropriate videos, games, and worksheets that are appropriate for your student’s music levels.

Preschool & Kindergarten:

PreK/K Music Resource 1

PreK/K Music Resource 2

PreK/K Music Resource 3

PreK/K Music Resource 4

1st -3rd  Grade:

Treble Clef Game 1: Classics for Kids

Treble Clef Note Names Game 2

Treble Clef Note Name Game 3

Bach, Bluegrass, and Bugs

4th Grade:

Scheherazade Lesson

Middle School students have their assignments posted to Google Classroom.

 

My email is n.isaac@smsindy.org. Please email me with any questions or if you would like additional resources (specific or in general) to help keep your kids occupied during this quarantine!

 

 

 

 

Down By the Bay

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In first and second grade this week we learned the song “Down By The Bay.” This classic song is all about rhymes and echos. The beginning of the song is all echoing – the teacher sings the phrase and students echo it back. Then, there’s a silly rhyme; in the original song, these are, “Have you ever seen a bear, combing his hair?” or “Have you ever seen a fly wearing a tie?”

An important aspect of music education in elementary school is connecting music to other art forms. To do this today, each student composed their own rhyme and drew it on a piece of paper, connecting composition and song with art.

A few rhymes from second grade:

“Have you ever seen mice eating some rice?”

“Have you ever seen a tiger wearing a rider?”

 

First graders came up with these verses:

“Have you ever seen a llama, causing some drama?”

“Have you ever seen a bunny, eating some honey?”

“Have you seen ever a spider being a rider?”

“Did you ever see a llama eating his pajamas?”

 

It’s not abnormal to incorporate cross-curricular subjects into a music lesson. We regularly incorporate math through our rhythm and counting activities, and language arts make their way in with words and composition that the students do. It was great to see the little ones lining up, so excited to present their picture and rhyme to the class when it was their turn!

 

Welcome to St. Monica Music!

Hello all! Welcome to the blog for the St. Monica Music classroom. This is my first year at St. Monica and I’ve discovered and fallen in love with the family atmosphere that St. Monica School embodies. In order to maintain that atmosphere within my classroom, I’ve tried to make our learning experience as transparent as possible – I want parents to know what their child is learning, for the school to appreciate the art the children enjoy, and for the kids to sense the achievement that comes with sharing art. I’ve already started a Twitter page for our classroom and an Instagram page – I’ll be honest, the Twitter is often neglected, but the Instagram is usually up to date. On these pages you can see rhythmic compositions the classes have created, videos of the Pre-K and K singing songs that they’ve mastered, clips of our classroom routine (such as our “If You’re Ready for the Hall” exit song!), and much more.

The rest of this year will be documented appropriately on here, but let me give you a quick recap of our first semester in music:

  • Students are actively practicing echo-singing and Solfege patterns, and all students grades 1-8 performed in the Christmas program.
  • Students learn to count and play rhythmic patterns through instruments (our favorites currently are the tubano drums and the Boomwhackers), ostinato patterns, and regular practice with Ta/Ti-Ti patterns.
  • Our General Music Middle School class is small this year, and we’ve gotten to dig into a bit of music history, do a compare/contrast project on musical soundtracks, learn to use the GarageBand app as a means of composition, and most recently, created a “Mickey-Mousing” project where students wrote new music to accompany a cartoon. We’re just beginning a keyboarding unit to give the students a basic overview of piano technique and history, and from there we’ll do a unit on rhythm and drums.
  • We had 6 students from our MS Choir attend Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) Solo and Ensemble contest in January and February, performing vocal solos, piano solos, and a violin solo. ALL of the students who participated received a gold medal for their performance and excellent scores from the judges. How amazing is that?!?

I look forward to sharing with you in more detail what the children have been working on recently and what they’re learning as we continue forward. Music is meant to be shared!