Gong Xi Fa Cai!

February 14, 2010 marked not only Valentine's Day, but also the Chinese New Year. Happy year of the Tiger! The second graders entertained Grandparents and Special Friends on February 5th with the traditional song Gong Xi, sung in both English and Chinese.

Tuned in to Technology

Students explored www.nyphilkids.org, a fun website run by the New York Philharmonic. Here you can learn about composers, musicians, conductors, and instruments. After reading about how "Mozart is in love," students explored the musical game room. Kindergartners stepped up to the SMARTBoard to play the memory game Music Match Composers. They were asked to match composer cards or listen to match musical motifs. Kindergartners also loved Music Match instruments in which they had to work in pairs to match instruments. I encourage all families who play at home to say the composer or instrument name out loud so students are familiar with their names and faces.

2nd Grade Song Writers

Second graders sang through the many verses of the traditional English tune A-Hunting We Will Go. Students then used rhyming words to create their own verses.  Second graders illustrated their song and recorded them in Garage Band. Nearly all of the second graders said their voice sounded "funny" when their heard their own recorded track!