New Bryant Website!

Attention Bryant Families!

Our music website has MOVED!!! 

 I chose to update the Bryant Music Website in order to make it more parent and student friendly. The new site is much easier to navigate and allows me to add awesome new features. It functions like a website, but still has a Blog feature, so you can still receive email updates about things that are happening in class. 

Here is the address to the new site...

www.bryantsings.weebly.com

NOTE: If you were previously subscribed to the blog, you will need to RE-SUBSCRIBE to the new one. If you enter your email address in the box below, it will subscribe you to the new site. You will then get an email asking you to confirm your subscription for "New Blog." Once you confirm your subscription, you should be all set to go! I hope you enjoy the new site!

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

"I Love Bryant School!"

We have had such fun time the past two weeks in Kindergarten music class! Along with lots of fun songs, chants, movement activities and games, the Kindergartners have been learning the Bryant School song. Here is Mrs. Peterson's class singing along today. I hope you enjoy these sweet little voices!

Happy Birthday "Banner!"

This Sunday, September 14th, marks the 200th birthday of our country's national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner." Written on September 14th, 1814, by a man named Francis Scott Key, the song describes a particular battle that happened in Baltimore, Maryland during the War of 1812. Key, along with another American man, were aboard a ship in the water near the coast of Baltimore, overlooking Fort McHenry. Throughout the night, as the battle went on, Key describes how the flag continued to wave, standing as a symbol of the United State's victory. While aboard the ship, Key took a letter out of his pocket, and wrote a poem on the back of the paper, which was then turned into the song we know today. 

Unfortunately, many Americans say that they do not know all of the words to "The Star Spangled Banner," so this week, the 2nd graders listened to many different versions of the "Star Spangled Banner," and learned what many of the different words in the song mean. We learned, that once we understood the story behind the song, it was much easier for us to understand and remember the words. 2nd graders also made a book to take home so that they could share the song with their families. Here are the slides that we used (Many thanks to "The Crafty Classroom" blog for the graphics and printables!)

Curriculum Night

I enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces at Curriculum Night tonight and really enjoyed meeting new families as well! My highlight of the night is always talking with you about your child and their relationship with music class and I am so glad so many of you stopped by to talk to me tonight. This school year is shaping up to be a great one so far and it has been a joy to teach music to your children these past two weeks. I am looking forward to a great year at Bryant school! As always, please feel free to contact me at any time. My email address is still ritter@aaps.k12.mi.us.

--Mrs. Krohn

Do you sew?!

Do you sew?!

With the $3,000 grant that Bryant’s music program received from Bank of Ann Arbor last year, we were able to purchase 8 new keyboards!

In order to keep the keyboards clean and dust free, we are looking for someone who would be able to sew 8 basic covers for the keyboards. I would provide you with the dimensions and fabric needed. Please email Mrs. Krohn if this is something you would be willing to do. Thank you so much!

Email: ritter@aaps.k12.mi.us

Welcome back!

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year! I had so much fun seeing so many familiar faces at the back-to-school picnic tonight and can't wait to get started next week. 

As many of you already know, I had a very exciting summer as I got married this past June. I had promised the students at the end of last year that I would post some pictures after the wedding for them to see, and in the craziness of the summer, I forgot! Fortunately, some students reminded me tonight at the picnic, so here they are. Looking forward to seeing everyone next week!

New Keyboards!

Thanks to the $3,000 grant that we won from Bank of Ann Arbor, we were able to purchase 8 brand new keyboards for our students, along with new headphones, keyboard stands and benches. We also were able to purchase a guitar for our school and 14 new African tubano drums that will be coming in August. The shipment with the keyboards arrived last Friday, so I spent the last couple days getting them ready and setting everything up and we have had a lot of fun playing the keyboards during Music Centers this week. Here are some pictures of Mrs. Joseph's Kindergartners enjoying our Music Centers. What a fun way to end a great school year!

Because I'm happy!

Hi 2nd graders! I am really looking forward to singing again with you at your transition ceremony next Thursday, June 12th! Here is the video that we watched in class of a kids choir in Detroit for some inspiration!

More Animusic...

Due to popular demand, here are some more Animusic videos :)

Way to go, Kindergartners!

Last Thursday the Kindergartners presented "Going Buggy!"--their first concert as Bryant students! In case you missed it, here are some photos from this fun evening. The Kindergartners were so well behaved during the performance and I couldn't be happier with how they have grown through music this year. I am already looking forward to 1st grade! Thank you to everyone who came out to support our Kindergartners for their concert this year, and I hope you all have a wonderful summer vacation!

Bravo, 1st Graders!

Last night the 1st graders had their Spring Sing Concert, "A Chorus of Colors" and sang beautifully! We have spent so much time this year talking about the importance of singing in our nice, light head voices (instead of shouty chest voices), and everyone did just that in the concert. My favorite song of the night was probably when they sang "Lavender's Blue" and their voices floated so gently as they sang. I am so looking forward to next year in 2nd grade as they continue to grow and develop in music. Way to go, 1st graders!

Animusic! Create Your Own Instrument Project

For the past week, the 2nd graders have been working on a project called Animusic! Animusic is an American company that specializes in the 3D visualization of MIDI-based music. To start, we talked about how the word Animusic combines 2 words, animation and music. We talked about how we see animation in the movies we watch and the video games we play, and how animators use science and math, along with their imaginations to create amazing visualizations. We watched a variety of animusic videos, and after each video we answered 4 questions....1. What is it called? 2. What is it made out of? 3. How is it played? 4. How does it sound? After getting some inspiration, students either decided to work on their own or with a partner to create their own instrument. With the only limit being what they could dream up in their imaginations, the students drew their instruments and then had to add a written description answering those 4 questions. It was fun to see the creative instruments students created and I loved watching them collaborate with one another to create something new. Like I told the students in class, engineers are people who solve problems and use their creativity to dream and create new things. Many of the skills that students develop through music are ones that directly correlate to professions in math and science. Perseverance, creativity, collaboration, teamwork, attention to detail, self-reflection, recognizing patterns (or lack there of), sequencing and so many more are all things that students practice daily in music class, and it is so fun to see those skills come into life for this project. I can't wait to see their finished instruments--keep up the good work, 2nd graders!

3 Part Harmony?! In 2nd Grade?!

Here is another snippet from the 2nd grade concert this past Tuesday where they combined the songs "Biddy Biddy Hold Fast" and "Water Come A Me Eye" while singing and playing the bass line for a total of 3 vocal parts. I have already listened to this recording a ton of times, and never get tired of listening to them sing in their beautiful head voices. I am very happy with the independent singers they are becoming!

Bravo, 2nd Graders!

I want to congratulate the 2nd graders on a FANTASTIC performance last night! I loved seeing everyone all dressed up and was so proud of how they represented themselves and Bryant. After a bit of a rocky rehearsal last week, they really rose to the occasion, and boy did they shine! Every 2nd grader should be proud of all of the hard work they put into making their concert a success and all of the incredible growth they have made this school year. One of my very favorite moments from last night was hearing them sing "Freedom is Coming" in 2-part harmony (something which they would not have been able to do at the beginning of the school year). In case you missed the show, here is a little sample of last night's performance! Way to go, 2nd graders!

2014 "Spring Sing" Concerts!

You are invited to our Bryant "Spring Sing" concerts, which start next week! The concerts start next Tuesday the 20th with the 2nd graders performing "Turn the World Around." The following week, the 1st graders will perform "A Chorus of Colors" on Tuesday the 27th and the Kindergartners will sing in "Going Buggy!" on Thursday the 29th. The concerts will begin at 7pm, but all students who are participating are asked to arrive at 6:40 and meet in the multi-purpose room. We hope you will come out and support our amazing Bryant students!

Creativity

I saw this quote the other day and thought it ought to be shared. One of my goals as a music teacher is to not only help our students develop music skills and grow in their understanding of music, but to help foster and inspire their creativity. All too often the emphasis is put on simply repeating back the "correct" answer, but our students are capable of so much more. To me, there is nothing better than listening to the songs and compositions they create, and watching them become more and more confident as they continue to experiment and grow through music. This is just another one of the endless reasons why I love teaching music at Bryant school!

2nd Grade "Instrument Petting Zoo"

Today our 2nd grade classes had a special visit from some volunteers with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. They set up an "Instrument Petting Zoo" where all of our 2nd graders were given the chance to try out some orchestral instruments! As you can see (and hear!) from the video, they brought instruments from 3 of the instrument families (cello, violin, trumpet, trombone, clarinet and flute) and the students were given the opportunity to rotate through some of the instruments. They also brought a coloring page that taught them about the different parts of the violin. Each class had their own 30 minute session, and as you can see, had a great time! We are so grateful to the A2SO for giving our students this wonderful opportunity and hope they will visit us again next year. And a special thanks to Laura, Joan and Don for being our "zookeepers" today and teaching us about the different instruments! We had a BLAST! (get it?!)

***Disclaimer***: When looking at the photos, you might see some of the students were holding the instruments incorrectly. With only about 2 minutes for each child to play each instrument, some important details may have been left out!