We are less than two weeks from our concert day, and have just finished another grade level rehearsal.  The students are doing well and seem to be enjoying their songs. I love to watch their excitement grow as they sing.

Since we have the concert songs well in hand, the students have been studying a few other aspects of music.
Kindergarten is leaning about different kinds of tempo and demonstrating a running, walking, or swaying tempo.
1st Grade is studying different families in the orchestra and enjoyed learning how important it is for certain woodwind instruments to have reeds.

Spring Concert

As we head into this last quarter of the 2014-2015 school year, most of our focus is turned to concert prep. Your students are surprising me with the speed at which they are learning their music and we are all so excited for the upcoming Spring Concert. 

The cocncert will be held here in the Arete Gymnasium at 5:30 on May 5th. The dress code is the same as for the winter concert with the addition of colorful ties or bows. I wouild love to seee some bright spring colors during the concert which will reflect the life and vibrancy of the students as they joyfully sing the works they have prepared.

As a reminder for concert attire, the young men should wear black pants and a white shirt, with the addition of a tie of any color.

ladies should wear a black skirt coming to about the knee or longer and a white top with a colored hair bow. In regards to the bow, please keep it to a size that is not distradting for the student or anyone standing behind the student.

A New Semester

We are back from winter break and took a week to review material from last semester before we move ahead into new material. This week, your kindergarten students will begin a study of musical instruments starting with the piano. They will listen to and discuss different sounds the piano can make and in later weeks compare the sound to other instruments they hear. Meanwhile, your 1st grade students will finish a study of the Classical era of music and experience the transition between the traditional forms of the 18th century and Romantic music of the 19th century through the works of Ludwig van Beethoven.

We are one day away from our first concert here at Archway Arete and are very excited to share your students accomplishments with you in this special way.

We have been working to make this evening as seamless as possible from the moment you arrive on campus. We will have you dropping your student off before your park but it will be different than normal morning traffic. We will have staff ready to help unload your students and escort them safely to their classrooms on the Western side of the building, but unlike morning traffic, you will be unloading your student before you make the circle around the football field. You may then proceed to finding a parking spot on campus once your student is dropped off. You will have to come back through the main doors on the Western side of the Archway building to get over to the gym. We will have staff available to assist as needed. please plan to drop off your student between 5:00 and 5:15. I anticipate many students will have grandparents and other extended family coming for the performance, if possible, please carpool in order to cut down on the number of vehicles.

Thank you so much, I can't wait to see your students all dressed up ready to sing!

December Concert info.

Your students are working hard and we are all looking forward to sharing their work with you in the upcoming winter concert. If you have not already, please mark your calendars for Dec. 2nd. Your students performance begins at 5:30 P.M. Please have your students in their classrooms by 5:00 as they will need time to warm up and line up before the concert begins, this will also give you time to find your seats in the gym. 

Concerts are very exciting for the students, they get a chance to dress up and sing the pieces they have been working on all semester. Students will not be wearing their regular Arete uniform, but should be wearing concert black and white. For the boys this will be black pants and shoes with a white button down shirt and hair neatly combed. Girls should wear black skirts, black tights, and black shoes with a white top. Hair should be neatly combed back and any bows should be small so as not to distract the individual, or the students standing behind.

Your students have been asking so many questions about this event in class I've had to ask them to stop so I could continue their lessons on eighth notes. I know they are getting very excited about the performance. It is required that the students attend the concert, participation is incorporated into their grade, but I hope they participate because they enjoy it, not because it is mandatory. 

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at ebolzman@archwayarete.org

For some of my students, this is the first week back in music class after break and our focus this quarter is preparing for the concert in December. I'm working on singing technique and memorizing lyrics with the students and am excited about sharing their work with all of you. 

Students are reviewing theory we learned last quarter but also exploring how to recognize 8th notes and how they relate to all the other notes we have learned up to this point (quarter, half, whole)

First Graders will be listening to "Autum" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TdgK5nSfuP0

Kindergarten will be listening to various selections of Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite"

1st Quarter Conferences

Please follow this link to sign up for K-1 music conferences

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c4eafad2ca3fd0-1stquarter