We are thrilled to welcome you all back to another wonderful musical year!

Mrs. DuQuette and Mr. Smith are looking forward to seeing all of you this year as well as our new part time music teacher from Cypress Elementary.  Please give Mrs. Braman a warm welcome when you see her on campus on Mondays and Tuesdays.

We have three separate music rooms this year and excited to be able to spread out and move to the music in each of our rooms.  We have many fun activities planned for this school year.  We will still be singing and playing instruments, and best of all…..everyone will have a chance to perform on either the Odessa stage or the Performing Arts Center at River Ridge!!!

Keep checking back with us as we update our concert dates and locations as well as happenings in our department!

On Friday, May 12 at 6:00 p.m. all of Odessa Kindergarteners are invited to perform on stage for their families as part of our annual Mother’s Day celebration.

This is a free event and all are welcome to attend!

Important letters home can be found below….

Kindergarten Permission Letter 051217

mothers day lyrics 2017

DVD order form Mother’s Day 2017

We hope you pre-ordered your cakes for the students to decorate too!!

We would like to thank all the students and their families that participated in this year’s March is Music in Our Schools Motown Concert.  It was incredible to have so many wonderful singers on stage and they all looked so awesome in their bright colors and era clothing!

DVD’s came in and if you ordered one they were given to your child’s teacher on Thursday, 3/31 to bring home.  If you didn’t get a chance to purchase one, below you can find the order form.  Affordable Recordables keeps the master for a few months past the event for this reason.

We can’t wait to surprise the students and families with next year’s theme!

Concert coming soon!!! 

Thursday, March 16th 7:00pm. 

Student report time is 6:30pm

River Ridge High School:https://www.google.com/maps/dir/28.1960392,-82.5961338/River+Ridge+High+School,+11646+Town+Center+Rd,+New+Port+Richey,+FL+34654/@28.2291381,-82.6702884,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m10!4m9!1m1!4e1!1m5!1m1!1s0x88c2976c818de749:0xe286aca06bd4185e!2m2!1d-82.6217532!2d28.2670732!3e0

FREE

National and State standards in music have a section on preparing for and performing in a concert.  This year students in Grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 have been practicing songs from the Motown era for our annual concert at River Ridge High School.  Whether or not your student can attend this event, it is expected that they learn the songs  by memorization while using proper breath control, and posture.  Letters and DVD order forms went home in their Tuesday folder on January 17th and can be downloaded from here:  Motown-Permission-for-Concert-2017 and here: DVD order form MOTOWN 2017. The words to the songs (lyrics) were sent home in the Tuesday folder on January 24th.  Grades 2 and 3 lyrics sheets can be found here:MOTOWN 2-3 LYRICS, and grades 4 and 5 lyrics sheets can be found here:MOTOWN 4-5 LYRICS.

The dress code for this concert is very eclectic.  Students are allowed to wear jeans with bright colored t-shirts or t-shirts with Motown logos (Walmart, Target, Amazon carry a variety).  You are encouraged to google the style of clothing during the several decades of Motown.  Button down shirts in bold patterns and long pointed collars (think Jackson 5), vests, fringe, and  even  dresses/skirts  for the girls. We ask that no one wears shorts or short skirts.  Again, jeans and sneakers are acceptable.

Our school chorus with Orff Ensemble had an amazing evening of music for their Winter Concert on Thursday, December  15 here at Odessa.   Together they performed a beautiful arrangement called African Noel, a story about Christmas with a catchy beat.  There were many other songs about winter, snow, Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa.

The following day, our chorus students donned their concert attire once again and traveled to two nursing homes in the area. We have a special tie with these two homes as they receive heartfelt cards written by our students through a program called, “Bring Smiles for Forgotten Seniors”.  https://www.facebook.com/Nursinghomesmiles/

The first being Sunshine Christian Home where we fit 90 students on a cute little stage.  Students were then able to stay, eat pizza, and mingle with the residents.

This picture collage customized with Smilebox

The second stop was Regency Residences.  We sang around a huge Christmas tree while the residents ate lunch.  During their dessert our students spread out amongst the tables and had a sing-a-long of popular Christmas songs.  It was a beautiful sight to see and hear them sing together!

On December 6th our First Graders put on a cute concert for their parents and guests at our annual Family Holiday Night.  They all looked and sang beautifully on stage and we are very proud of their performance behavior as well.  We thank everyone who helped make this evening a special one for our families!

Hello Wildcat families!   Our Primary students have been having a lot of fun singing songs and SQUILT-ing.  That is Sit Quietly Un Interrupted Listening Time.  During this time, they closed their eyes and zoned in to the music looking for specific sounds and they were amazing with what they could hear and describe.  Look for John Williams’ theme to the movie Superman and play it.  Can you hear cymbals crashing? A triangle roll?

Second grade has been learning about Folk Tales/Music and even trying their “hand” and clapping games and playing instruments to accompany the songs.

Third through fifth grade have had their minds and their hands on the RECORDER!  I’m sure you have all heard the wonderful, and not so wonderful, sounds this instrument can make.  Please encourage your child to practice at home using their purple lesson book and to use gentle and calm air support.  Working slowly to obtain a nice sound is their goal.  This takes a balance of warm, slow air and correct hand position with their finger pads completely covering the open holes needed to play their pitches.  Have them log into MyPascoConnect and click on the Quaver icon to access many lessons for the recorder as well.

So that you can better prepare for rehearsals and our upcoming Holiday Concert, please listen to, and play along with these two audio tracks.  African Noel will be performed with the Odessa Chorus.  Good King Wenceslas will be performed with an audio track.

African Noel:

Good King Wenceslas:

Recorders are coming, Recorders are coming!!!

Yellow half sheet order forms went in the Tuesday folder of every third and fourth grader two weeks ago.  Fifth grade students who need an order form need to ask their music teacher for one. You can click recorder-letter2016b to download another one.