Lesson Plans & Things to Practice! Check out the new photos on the photos page! Novmeber 29 Thanks for the picture today. Concert is next Tuesday! Dress rehearsal will be in the gym at 10:00 am for the MES students, and then we meet at 6:30 Tuesday evening in the orchestra room to tune. I can’t wait! You will be awesome! November 27 Welcome back! You sounded great today on your concert pieces. Don’t forget to practice them all this week. CONCERT is December 4th!! November 20 I enjoyed playing for you today. Thanks for letting me practice my wedding music on a friendly audience of stringers. Remember to practice page 22 over vacation and to play your Thanksgiving concert for your family. Pass or fail grade, A or F?! November 15 Great job of playing for the 2nd graders today! I was very proud of you! November 13 Your homework assignment for Thanksgiving vacation will be to play a concert for as many family members as possible. Let them brag on you and tell you how talented you are, and it will be our motivation to keep practicing. Also, please teach Twinkle to someone in your fam. On Thursday, we will be playing all the tunes on pg. 22, as well as our concert songs. Only 4 more lessons before the concert on Tuesday, December 4th! November 8 Thank you for your patient work on “spelling” with notes. When you REALLY know the notes on the lines and spaces, so that you recognize them instantly, then you can play anything! Remember to practice French Folk Song for a test, and then the concert songs listed below. Only five more lessons until our Dec. 4th performance! PS: Check out the photos of what I did last night! November 6 I suspect that no one ever really reads this. If you are reading it, would you send me an email at shigbee@smokyvalley.org. Thanks! Our concert is December 4 and we will play: Hot Cross Buns, Merrily We Roll, Indian Lament, Short Round, Good King Wenceslas, Folk Dance, Can Can, Jingle Bells, Long long Ago, French Folk Song. November 1 We started a new page today, pg. 22 and played #1,2,3. Please practice on French Folk Song and we will be working to get our bows to all match slurring three notes on a bow. For our concert in December we will play all the songs we’ve learned so far, so review all our old favorites. “That was easy!” :) Be sure to take your String Fling note to your parents. Deadline in 3 weeks. October 30 - Whew, what a party class you are! Thank you for all of the treats and drinks. You deserved to celebrate for getting all of the slurs right on Long Long Ago, matching bows down and up. I’ll have String Fling information for you to take home soon! Practice pg. 21 & 22. October 26 You were much faster today on note values. And today, we got EVERY SINGLE SLUR WITH EVERY SINGLE STUDENT and that deserves a party!!! No instruments next Tuesday, and we will pig out on the treats that you bring. Kati & Luke said they would each bring a 6 pack of pop, and everybody else can surprise us with 13 treats. Congratulations!! October 24 Worksheets today on note values; 4 beats for a whole, 2 for a half, 1 for a quarter. We’re getting better on matching bows on the slurs in LLAgo. Have you practiced it on pg. 21? October 18 End of the nine weeks already, can you believe it?! Thank you for playing your solos this week. I am very pleased with each student’s individual progress. Today we reviewed slurs and ties on pg. 21. When we can play Long Long Ago with all the slurs correct, so that we match bows for the whole piece, we will declare a PARTY for the next lesson! Practice LLAgo! October 11 Next week for the end of the quarter, I want to hear each of you play a solo with the bow. Pick you favorite piece and practice like crazy. I’ll be watching for long bows, no poison wrist, hitting only one string at a time, right notes, big tone! Can’t wait to hear you! October 9 Today we played Jingle Bells part A, but next time we’ll let some people try part B for harmony! I’m starting to think of concert pieces and I hope you’ll keep practicing on each of these: Indian Lament, Folk Dance, CanCan, Jingle Bells. October 4 Nice job of playing measure 7 & 8 of CanCan (it’s really just D scale, isn’t it?) Next lesson we will start on pg. 20 with Jingle Bells and then work our way backwards in the book. Be sure to practice pg. 17-20. :) October 2 Today I tested the 2nd line of Folk Dance. I was watching for no poison wrist, long heavy straight bows, correct notes, 2 beats on the half notes, and eyes on the book! :) We sight read Jingle Bells on page 20, and on Thursday, I’m going to test each person on bars 7 & 8 of CanCan. Practice! September 27 Hey, we’re getting better and better on page 19. Have you played CanCan and Folk Dance for your parents? We’re going to “race” on CanCan at our next lesson. Be sure you find several times to practice before our next lesson. Did you know that Jingle Bells is on the next page? We’ll have to get our coats & mittens! September 25 I liked hearing all the correct notes on your test of the 3rd & 4th measure today. Can you play all of Folk Dance now with no mistakes? I also loved seeing your bows straight on the highway and no poison wrists! Thursday we will also be playing CanCan. Feel free to write the fingers numbers in your book, if that will help you. Practice! :) September 20 Great job on Folk Dance today. We will be testing again on Tuesday, so you can play for me again then if you wish. You have five nights now to practice before I hear you on Tuesday, so play Folk Dance every night ten times for your parents! If you read this, send me an email about what you practiced. September 18 We are just getting better every day on playing with long heavy bows, BIG tone. And now we know about “poison wrist”! Please practice pg. 18 & 19, next test will be on Beethoven Folk Dance. September 13 Great job on Indian Lament test!! Now try pg. 19! Folk Dance & CanCan September 11 Test Thursday on pg. 18, #4 Indian Lament. Don’t forget to practice! September 6 Practice page 15, 16, & 17 and try pg. 18. The next test will be over Indian Lament on pg. 18. I’ll be watching for straight bows on the Kreisler (Chrysler) Highway. September 4 No school, teacher inservice day. Bummer! August 30 Page 17, test will be over #6 Merrily We Roll Along. I’ll be looking for long bows, and big tone, good playing positions, with correct notes (natch!) August 28 Page 17, test on #5 Hot Cross Buns August 23 Play anything from last year’s book. Think about long bows and big tone. August 21 Find your fiddle. :) Be sure you have some rosin & a rag. Come to the Band room tomorrow evening 5-7:00 p.m. to buy your new book and rosin. :) August 16 Recruiting talk. I’ll play the instruments for you and we’ll talk about being in orchestra class. mailto:shigbee@smokyvalley.orgshapeimage_1_link_0
Fifth Grade Strings