| Events: |
| 2008 FILLMORE West Arts Festivals |
| 5/27 - ROSS Festival |
| 5/29 - KEY Festival |
| 6/4 - HYDE Festival |
| 6/6 - STODDERT Festival |
| Hearst |
| Walker Jones |
| Oyster@Adams |
| space |
|
2008 FILLMORE East Arts Festivals
|
| Backus - TBA |
| Clark - TBA |
| Mamie D. Lee - TBA |
| Raymond - TBA |
| Rudolph - TBA |
| West - TBA |
Music - Parent Letter From Ms Tiik Pollet
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Young students in the preK–K music classes are learning, both as individuals and in the group, to hear and feel beats, rests, tempo changes, and notes in the C scale. They also are allowed time for rhythm and piano improvisation. Sounds amazing, right?
The Key 1st grade students are learning beginning guitar. Through a partnership with the "Little Kids Rock" organization, Fillmore received 30 new acoustic guitars; 16 regular size and 14 3/4 size for smaller hands. Students are doing great learning the correct fingering for a variety of chords to Beatles songs, such as Eminor, C, Aminor, G and E.
I am a strong believer in "feeling the beat" as a way to become interested in music. Rhythm is a compelling experience and motivator for embracing a passion for music. Our general music lessons include clapping exercises that involve counting both beats and rests. While I play the conga drums the students accompany on a variety of percussive instruments such as sticks, maraca’s, paper(yes...paper is a great rhythm instrument), various bells and wood strike instruments, as well as clapping and stomping hands, feet and knees. After warm ups each student is given time to improvise rhythm with a partner on conga drums. We also engage in various rhythm games.
Piano is used for learning to sing and hear notes in the C scale using a variety of elementary songs and games. Students particularly enjoy the monotone speaking game "My name is (insert student’s name)" which we practice with C, D and E notes. Students are shown correct fingering for piano notes, and then are each allowed solo improvisation on the piano with full class attention and applause. In addition, while I play an upbeat jazz tune on piano, students improvise with percussive instruments, dance and vocal sounds.
While I play guitar we sing a variety of educational songs by Ella Jenkins, giving students an enjoyable and diverse cultural experience as they learn words, animals and many things about different cultures. We also sing one well known song from a musical or popular music. Currently we are learning "The Red Red Robin" as sung by Ella Fitzgerald, and "One Love" as sung by Bob Marley.
Body movement is an important part of learning to feel music. Students learn a variety of steps and movements to the beat of various styles of music, including jazz, reggae, classical, and popular music such as Joni Mitchell, Bobby McFerron and others.
Please encourage your child to SHOW you what they learn each week and enjoy their development. All music students will be assessed through Semester Progress Report Cards, classroom assignments and Festival Evening Performances.
Watching the students enjoy and grow in their relationship with music is an exciting and magical experience. Please feel free to call me to discuss your child’s progress in this class. I look forward to getting to know you.
Musically yours,
Ms Tiik Pollet
