Come join students in grades 2 through 5 as they perform in a huge concert titled, Music of the Movies at River Ridge High School’s Performing Arts Center on Thursday, March 8th at 7:00 p.m.

If your child is participating in this concert, you can find all the information you need on the school’s electronic Tuesday folder for the month of January or click here:

March Concert Lyrics 2018

Movie-Permission-for-Concert-2018

DVD order form A Night At The Movies 2018

This event is FREE and open to all ages.  We hope you can all come out for an exciting evening of music!

All 5th grade students are going to see the Florida Orchestra at the Performing Arts Center at River Ridge HS next month, October 18th, 2017.  We will be taking school buses right after the morning news and return back to Odessa in time for lunch.  Please look for your child’s permission slip and district field trip form.  These need to be completed and sent in with the $10 fee for ticket and transportation by the end of September.

A copy of the letter:    October TFO field trip 2017b

A copy of the district permission form:  mis_166

We will be taking the first 10 approved district volunteers with us to help out and enjoy the presentation. Please contact your music teacher if you have any questions regarding this trip. We think it would be awesome if all our 5th graders wore their Odessa shirts to show unity.

The beginning of the school year brings fun songs to sing and games to play.  Older students learned a Welcome game that they sang with hand movements and put into a circle ‘dance’.  The younger set sang Hello songs to get accustomed to singing with and to each other.  We also reviewed a steady beat and brought some anchor rope in to sing some sailor songs together!

Next we will be singing and learning the history of several Patriotic songs

Ask your child what they remember learning in music class and to explain to you why?

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)

5th grade – Identifying the four voice types by ear only (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass)

SOON all classes will spend a a whole week learning to navigate our online textbook, Quaver.  Students will have time spent in the computer lab and/or laptops in class. You can find more information here: https://www.quavermusic.com/infocenter/

Students in grades 3, 4, and 5 will have the opportunity to audition for the Wildcat Chorus on Tuesday, August 29th.  Doors open at 8:15 a.m. and auditions begin at 8:30 a.m.  Please drop your child off in front of the music room in the car loop.  Please have your child bring their audition ticket completely filled out and legible as email is our #1 form of communication. Students are encouraged to bring a book to read as the process is long and we need a quiet room to listen to the students while they sing our school song in small groups.  Students will know by the end of the day if they were accepted into the chorus and will begin rehearsal on Thursday, August 31, 2017.  At this time, we ask the chorus members to bring in their $40 member fee.  This covers the polo shirt, music and CD’s as well as one field trip in December and the end of year breakfast.  If your child will be using a shirt from last year, or a siblings, the fee is reduced to $30.

Students in grades 4, and 5 will have the opportunity to audition for the new Percussion Ensemble on Wednesday, August 30th. Doors open at 8:15 a.m. and auditions begin at 8:30 a.m.  Please drop your child off in front of the music room in the car loop.  Please have your child bring their audition ticket completely filled out and legible as email is our #1 form of communication. Students will know by the end of the week if they were accepted into the Ensemble and will begin rehearsal on Wednesday, September 6th, 2017.  At that time, we ask the members to bring in their $20 member fee.  This covers the polo shirt, music, and the end of year breakfast.  If your child will be using a shirt from last year, or a siblings, the fee is reduced to $10.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at the school or email one of us!   (727)246-3700  mduquett@pasco.k12.fl.us  mijsmith@pasco.k12.fl.us

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!