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!

Hello Odessa Wildcats!

I am so excited to be here at Odessa Elementary full time this year. We have so much planned for a year full of musical fun!

Our 4th and 5th graders have been invited to represent our school at this year’s September 11th Memorial Event held at Sim’s Park.
These students have been practicing several songs in class, including Yankee Doodle Dandy by the American composer George M. Cohan. If your child is in fourth or fifth grade, be sure to sign the permission slip and return it to school so we know whether or not your child will be attending this solemn event. We hope to see everyone at the park on Wednesday, September 11 at 7:00pm.

We have also scheduled our concert dates for the grade level concerts and the Chorus and Orff groups. Please go to the Performances tab for more information.

I would first like to add how proud I am of the awesome First Grade Concert and Winter Concert for the Chorus and Orff performers. They really looked and sounded like top notch groups! When viewing other school’s concerts on YouTube, I am proud to say that our students really rock!

As we wind down from the Holidays and begin a new year, we now set our eyes on the month of March.
Across the Nation many schools put on concerts or special programs in their music departments in celebration of Music in Our Schools Month. Our second, third, fourth, and fifth graders are busy preparing for their big night on Friday, March 1, 2013. We will have a combined 2nd and 3rd grade performance followed by a combined 4th and 5th grade performance at the Center for the Arts at River Ridge High School. This will be the first time we at Odessa will be using their large stage and theater style seats. We are also thrilled to be using their state of the art sound and light system!
http://rrhs.pasco.k12.fl.us/site/theater/CFA_Welcome.html

Check your child’s back pack for the permission slip to participate in this exciting concert. Please check off the appropriate box and sign it and have your child return it to either Mrs. Grimsley of myself. Attached to the information/permission slip is the lyrics to all their songs. They should be practicing every day. Fourth and fifth graders also have songs that need to be practiced on their recorders. They should be spending at least 10 minutes a day on these songs!

My days and schools have changed slightly from last year. I am an Odessa Wildcat on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but I end my week at Trinity Elementary on Fridays. It is good to call both schools home!

We started the school year with lots of review as I introduced the newbies (kindergarteners) to the beat of the music. Everyone should be able to tap their toes to the music or pick up a frying pan and wooden spoon as they play to the beat!

We jumped right in with Patriotic music and had all the students playing hands on with our wonderful Orff instruments and recorders. Quite a few students earned RWB belts for their recorders for playing America. Please click this link to learn more about Carl Orff…. http://www.orff.de/en.html

The fourth and fifth graders are in full swing playing their recorders and will be earning their Recorder Karate belts as they perform songs of graduating difficulty. My avatar is a picture of some hot cross buns. This is the first song students must play to earn their white belt!!

The third graders are finishing up their performances of Don Gato! Ask your child what a BALLAD is and which character they got be. It was a great time for all. We have some really promising actors and actresses!!

Second grade is learning about the different parts of the music staff and how notes can be placed on lines and spaces. We are playing simple rhythms on un-pitched percussion instruments and keeping a steady beat on pitched instruments. Can they tell you the difference between the two types? Ask them!

Kindergarten and first grade continue to explore through a lot of dance, movement, and playing on instruments too! They had a wonderful time singing about autumn leaves falling and letting ‘real’ leaves fall from their fingers. Next they played in a train style where the first person in a short line of 4 or 5 students move to the end of the train to let the next person play. They had a ball of fun with Halloween’s Coming using a steady beat accompaniment and each child got to perform a ‘solo’!!! This week we started 5 Fat Turkeys and added a hide and seek game that goes along with the song.  Soon K, 1, 2, and 3 will be singing Over the River and through the Woods while they gallop like fast horses!!

Hello Pasco County music students!  I’m glad you found me and hope you enjoy this ‘connection’. If you weren’t aware, I am at Odessa Elementary on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  I also teach at Oakstead on Wednesdays!

Please visit the different pages to find information on what we’re doing in class, Chorus, or Orff Ensemble.