A Special Concert at HSES

How lucky are we at HSES?? Our new principal, Mr. Eddy, is a musician and former band director so our 2nd grade classes were treated to a special concert performed by him and his family! The Eddys demonstrated the clarinet, oboe, saxophone, flute, piccolo, and violin. Since our 2nd graders are currently learning about the Instruments of the Orchestra, they loved being able to see the instruments up close and hear their sound in person. Here are a few pictures from their performance:

The Snowy Day... on the Mallets!

I love the book, The Snowy Day, and so do my students! First graders have been experimenting with various sounds they can make with the mallet instruments. I thought this activity would be a perfect way to give them experience on the instruments as well as allow them some creative expression.

First, we read the story and talked about all of the things Peter did in the snow. Then, I had the students partner up and I assigned each of them an action from the story...

The students then worked with their partner to create a sound effect that could represent that action in the story. It was so neat to see the ideas they came up with!

After each group shared their ideas, I re-read the story and had the groups add their sound effect at the appropriate point in the story.

An extension idea could be having half of the class play the sound effects and the other half act out the story. Maybe we'll try that next! :)