Music students at William R. Davie Elementary have been tapping, clapping, and stamping to the steady beat as the school year got under way.

Kinders enjoyed singing with their animal friends in “Good Day” as they learned what the animals really say when they get up in the morning. They added their own verses, experimented with high and low voices, and played rhythm sticks to the repeated patterns in the song. They were also jamming to “Bluegrass Jamboree” as they found new ways to make sounds with their rhythm sticks.

Lou Wilson’s first grade students tuned up their listening ears as they played “Step the Beat” while following all kinds of silly rhyming directions. They moved to the polite game, “How Do You Do?” while comparing steady beat to a repeated rhythm pattern.

Second graders reviewed quarter note, eighth note and half note rhythms with the poem, “I Had A Loose Tooth.” They loved adding instruments to specific word patterns in the poem and figuring out which rhythm pattern they were playing.

Third and fourth grade students have been busy with rhythm reviews. Working with partners, they tested their knowledge of note values, and their movement skills as they played and sang a “Welcome Back to School” game. Using these skills, they moved on to following a musical score and creating their own movements to “Give It a Rest”. Rhythm rounds started the year for the fourth grades as they performed “School, School” as a two-part round with movement, then with unpitched percussion instruments. Each line of the poem used note values that were a review to the students and challenged them with new 16th notes.

Fifth grade students began the year with a rhythm review by creating name rhythms and joining others with similar rhythms to participate in a Name Ensemble. They were able to demonstrate their knowledge of dynamics, and their ability to watch a conductor as the name rhythms were combined into a performance piece.

Second graders are engaging in learning through hands-on activities in math.  They have been studying place value and the thee ways to represent numbers:  standard form, word form, and base 10 models. They are also excited about Letterland coming to second grade. Students will build on their knowledge of the Letterland characters and syllable types to start working with multi-syllable words.

Ms. Steele’s preschool class has been working hard the past two weeks learning the rules and routines .  The children have taken a lot of time to get to know their classmates and teachers.  This is the first time most of the preschoolers have been away from their families for a full day at school.  Last week they read the story “The Kissing Hands” by Audrey Penn. After reading the book the children made handprints for their parents to remember them by when they are at school. This book taught the children that when they are at school, they can still think about their family and their family is thinking of them, too.