Our National Music in our Schools Month spotlight moves to Cottage Lane Elementary School this week, where Music and Chorus teacher Danelle Greene is teaching her students how to play the recorder and to sing different genres of music.
Last week, fifth-graders practiced singing “Stars and Stripes Forever,” “Fifty Nifty United States” and “Never Give Up,” the Character Education song of the month. Greene focuses on one segment of a song at a time so students can begin to understand the typical structure–intro, verse, chorus, bridge and outro. She also seeks opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration by connecting music to topics students are studying in other classes to enrich their learning.
All CLE students begin playing the recorder in third grade and have the opportunity to take instrumental music lessons on the instrument of their choice, as well. By the time these young student-musicians enter fifth grade, they can read music and play scales. During a recent lesson, students practiced playing Blues music and experimented with improvising their own sequence of notes at the end of the song.
Greene ended the class with a song where students participated in body percussion which included stomping, clapping, and snapping your fingers.
