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!