9-11 Memorial Concert Update

Attention 4th and 5th grade parents: Due to construction in the immediate area of Sims Park, the 9-11 Memorial Concert has been moved to Orange Lake Park which is adjacent to Sims Park. The times have stayed the same. Below is a link with a map pinpointing the location of the meeting area and performance area. We will still meet at 6:30 at the north end of the Lake. Roads will be blocked off, so please park early to walk to the site. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to seeing you and your children.

911 Map

Don’t forget to have your child practice with the recordings below!!!

THIS IS AMERICA!

CANDLE FOR REMEMBERING

Kindergarten – speaking, singing, and whispering voices

1st grade – the difference between one singer and a group of singers

2nd grade – the difference between the voices of a child, adult female, and adult male

3rd grade – the difference between unison and two-part harmony

4th grade – identifying and describing the four primary voice types (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass)**Getting ready for 9-11 Performance – See below**

5th grade – identifying the four voice types by ear **Getting ready for 9-11 Performance – See below**

Sims Park 091115

2015 9-11 concert lyricsWe once again have been invited to share our love for our Country and show tribute to those we lost on that tragic day through our students’ beautiful voices. All 4th and 5th grade students are invited to perform at the 9-11 Memorial held at Sims Park in New Port Richey on Friday, September 11, 2015. Letters will be going home in their Tuesday folders on September 1, 2015. Please read over the information and let us know if your child can or cannot attend by indicating on the bottom portion and returning it to their music teacher. A copy of the letter, lyrics (words) to the two songs, and recordings to practice with have been uploaded at the top of this post. We hope you and your family will be able to attend.

Welcome back to school Odessa families!! We are so thrilled to have three full time music teachers on our staff this year. Miss Brooks has joined us from Polk County and we all wish her a fabulous year here as a new Wildcat! Please be sure to stop by and see us at the Open Houses on September 8th and 10th.

We are in the process of securing our Spring performance date for the 2nd, 3,rd, 4th, and 5th graders at River Ridge and will send letters home after Winter Break. We do have the dates set for the 1st grade Concert which will be in the school’s cafeteria the evening of our Holiday Night and the Mother’s Day Concert where we feature the Kindergarteners. Our ‘by audition only’ groups will be getting underway in September. Letters regarding the audition process and dates for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade chorus(es) as well as Orff Ensemble will be coming home in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes out!

All 4th and 5th graders will be needing a recorder for music class for performance and composition. Letters will also be coming home on a half sheet with information on ordering one as well as the instruction book.

Happy New Year families!
The students of Odessa are in high gear learning new material and utilizing information they learned in previous years but in a more complex manner. While our students are continuing to work on their Learning Goals and ‘show what they know’, the majority of them are also getting ready for the annual Spring Concert in March.

All 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are learning songs from the British Invasion and beyond. The Beatles? check. The Who? check. Elton John? check Queen? check. These are just a few of the artists they are being introduced to. I am thrilled to learn that some of our students know many of them and their songs. A packet was sent home to all students in the above grade levels with an attached permission slip that needs to be signed and returned. Please return the lower portion even if your child cannot participate. Prepping for a concert, singing together and on pitch and having proper posture are all music standards for the State of Florida. However, the actual performance at River Ridge High School on March 9, 2015 is voluntary. If you have not seen the packet or it’s been lost or eaten by the dog, click here Permission Letter 030915 to download the information letter permission slip. If you need a copy of the lyrics, click here for 2nd and 3rd lyric sheet 2015 and click here for 4th and 5th grade lyric sheet . It will be an amazing concert!!

Hello Odessa Wildcats!
We have been very busy diving deeper into learning about musical elements and singing and playing instruments this first quarter.

Each quarter of music class, each grade level will be working on anywhere from one to four different units. Your child may be very strong in some areas like creating and composing, where others may be stronger in performing. Both formative and summative assessments will be used to see where your child is on the learning scale. We will also use pre-tests and post-tests which help show growth.

Here are our new learning goals for the second quarter for kindergarten through 5th grade:

Kindergarten: I can identify sounds within a piece of music. (These may be instrumental, found sounds, or environmental sounds.)

First grade: I can read, match, create, and improvise rhythms. (Students will use quarter notes, quarter rests, and beamed eighth notes for this standard.)

Second grade: I can identify the form of a simple piece of music. (Forms students need to know are AB, ABA, and call and response)

Third grade: I can identify the form of a familiar song. (Forms students need to know are AB, ABA, ABABA, rondo (ABACA), verse/refrain, introduction/coda, and call and response)

Fourth grade: I can classify band/orchestra instruments AND identify and describe the four primary voice types. (Students may identify through video, image, or listening example)

Fifth grade: I can aurally identify band/orchestra instruments AND the four primary voice types. (Students must identify ONLY by listening)

Some of these learning goals will take MANY weeks. We will be finished with some rather quickly, and then I will update again when we begin a new one for a certain grade level. Please feel free to contact your child’s music teacher (or me personally) if you have any questions about how or what is being taught in the classroom, or how your child will be assessed.

March ended with two awesome concerts, Westside Sings featuring all the elementary schools that feed into Seven Springs Middle School as well as SSMS’s own chorus. The stage was an awesome sight with so many members and what a beautiful sound they projected on March 27th!!! The following night featured many of Odessa’s 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders performing an ecletic selection of songs from musicals and movies. The students all had a fun time preparing for this concert and the feedback from parents was overwhelmingly positive. Thank you families for your support!! We look forward to next year’s big

Since returning to school in January, all 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders have been preparing for their annual concert. This BIG concert will take place on Friday, March 28 at 7:00 p.m. at the River Ridge Performing Arts Center. The theme for our show is music from popular musicals. Many of these musicals have been made into movies that the students know, but the great part is that the teaching comes in when the students DON’T know the musicals!

Here is a copy of the letter sent home to let us know whether or not your child will be attending:
2014 Spring School Concert Grades 2-5

Here are the lyrics to all the songs your child has been working on since January:
Grades 2 and 3 Lyrics
AND
Grades 4 & 5 Lyrics

It will be a wonderful and entertaining evening for you and your family and friends. As always, this event is free!

Congratulations to Odessa’s First Graders who put on a most superb performance on Tuesday night, December 10!!!
They looked and sounded top notch and made both their music teachers proud.

Our extracurricular performance groups, The Wildcat Chorus and the Rockin’ Orff Ensemble, will be performing at the Tampa International Airport next Wednesday, December 18 at 10:00 am. If you are in the Tampa area, come check us out in the main terminal by the trams.

On Thursday night, both groups will present their Winter Concert in the Odessa School cafeteria at 7:00pm.
Please be sure to come on out and bring your children for this free performance.

Speaking of free…..even though the concert is free, we are asking each family to bring a new, unwrapped toy for our collection box as we are again participating in the Toys For Tots campaign. We thank you all for your generosity during this Holiday Season!

A big shout out and THANK YOU to all the parents and students who came out to Sims Park last month for the 9-11 Memorial. Our 4th and 5th graders sang their hearts out and sounded amazing! We were so proud of you!!

Chorus and Orff auditions are done and rehearsals are underway. If your child is in either or both of these performing groups, please make sure they are listening to their chorus CDs on a daily basis and singing along with their sheet music. Orff students need to be studying their parts and clapping out their rhythms or tapping out their melody on their ‘paper xylophones’.

In the classroom, all students kindergarten through fifth grade have been singing every week and are learning about proper vocal techniques and how music is put together (form). Ask them what they have been singing lately and what they have been listening to. We are also introducing instruments into the curriculum at this time.
This month we will begin the journey into the world of improvisation!