The Note - Phoenix Elementary School Districtemployee.phxschools.org/.../The_Note-November_2015.pdf · The Note The Phoenix Elementary District newsletter for all things Music! ...

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The Note The Phoenix Elementary District

newsletter for all things Music!

The Note The Phoenix Elementary District

newsletter for all things Music!

Welcome to our Phoenix Elementary School District Music newsletter! We

are very excited to have the opportunity to share with you all of the success, events, opportunities and experiences that our students

have in our district. From chorus and piano, to guitar ensembles and

general music classes, your children have the chance to learn from

experts in the field of music. Many of the teachers are not only teachers,

but practitioners of their art as well. Through performance, reading, writing and listening, Phoenix

Elementary music students are flourishing into wonderful young

musicians. We thank you for your continuing support and cannot wait

to see you at one of our next performances!

“Music doesn’t lie. If there is

something to be changed in this world,

then it can only happen through

music.” - Jimi Hendrix

November 2015 – Issue # 3

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WELCOME BACK!!!

New Information

Here you will find many new pieces of information about our schools, events, classrooms,

classes and music educators. From our new teachers and their transitions into their new schools, to the

new traditions like singing the Phoenix Elementary School District Alma Mater, we are off to a great start

for this 2015 – 2016 school year. In this issue of the Note, we will be shining a spotlight on Kenilworth

School and its music director, Debra Brandsma. We also will have a section on our extremely successful

Greater Phoenix Choral Festival.

Our Wonderful Music Educators

Richard (Rick) Hernandez Bethune general music

Shannon Avecedo Capitol general music/choral

April Pettit Dunbar general/choral/instrumental music

Malgorzata Ceglinski Edison general music/choral

Dianne Anderson-Nickel Emerson general music/choral

Shawna Balzar Garfield general music/choral

Jacob (Jake) Nurse Heard general music/choral

Chris Granger Herrera general music/choral

Ricardo la Paz Herrera general music/guitar

Debra Brandsma Kenilworth general music/choral

Erin Crawford Lowell general music/choral

Michael (Mike) McDonald Magnet Traditional general music/choral

Katherine (Katie) Merrill Shaw Montessori general music/choral

Abdiel Bernal Whittier general music/choral

Debra Brandsma Kenilworth general music/choral

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Kenilworth – Our Spotlight School! Director Debra Brandsma

My name is Debra Brandsma and I have been teaching music at Super Cool Kenilworth for 5

years. I have been teaching music in the District for 39 years with most of my years at Whittier

School.

Kenilworth is a Thinking Maps School, helping students to think and learn every day.

Kenilworth celebrated” 95 years of Thinking and Learning” on Saturday, October 24th. Our

school was built in 1920 and is the oldest existing school building in Maricopa County. It is

included on the National Register of Historic Places. Kenilworth’s alumni include Barry

Goldwater, Paul Fannin, and Margaret T. Hance.

General Music at Kenilworth involves singing, playing various percussion and keyboards. We

also dance and studying the instrument families and famous composers. Many of our

classroom teachers participate in the Musicfest Listening Program with their classes five

minutes per day. The Musicfest Listening Program provides assemblies such as the “Tetra

String Quartet” the “Brass and Woodwind Quartet”. The “52nd Street Jazz Band” will present

another assembly in the spring. We also participate in the district-sponsored Symphony for

Schools field trip.

Kenilworth is the only school in our district that has a historical auditorium. Our beautiful

Auditorium makes a perfect setting for programs and performances. Kenilworth students

always love to perform for their family and friends! Music is an integral part of learning at

Kenilworth School!

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School Updates In this section, you will find the updates from each of our Signature Schools in the

Phoenix Elementary School District.

We had a guitar workshop with

the world renowned Swedish

classical guitarist Johannes Moller.

It too place at Herrera school on

October 6th. Herrera was the only

Elementary / Junior High School

chosen by Mr. Moller to present a

guitar workshop in AZ.

Emerson Eagles have been flying

high since our last newsletter.

Every grade level has studied a

musical element including,

melody, rhythm, harmony,

expressiveness, and dynamics.

Learner engagement included

instrument playing various

classroom instruments, Boom

Whackers, and Orff instruments.

The Eagle Choir worked hard

preparing for the Greater Phoenix

Choral Festival held in Phoenix

College. They also sang with the

CHS choir for the last home

football. What fun!!

Both the World Drummers

Ensemble and the Eagle Choir had

a wonderful afternoon performing

at the AZ state fair and then

enjoying all the activities.

Currently, we are preparing for

our holiday programs. World

Drummers and Choir have a

concert, the choir will sing at the

Capitol, and 4-5th graders will

present a musical. After school

piano students will also perform.

Herrera Guitar Ensemble Emerson School

Garfield

Garfield Grizzlies are working to increase

their music literacy. Grizzly cubs in

kindergarten and 1st grade are working on

reading, notating, and performing

rhythms. Using the solfege staff to read and

notate melodic patterns have been

objectives for2nd and 3rd graders. The choirs

were asked to perform at our school’s mural

unveiling and are working very hard to

prepare the music for the performance.

Garfield has also received 10 ukuleles that

will be used after school by the Music Club.

The students in the Music Club will learn to

perform on the ukulele and piano and

increase both individual and ensemble

musicianship.

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Students at Heard Elementary School are busy working to improve their musical literacy!

Kindergarten through 3rd grade is working on reading many musical examples using solfedge. The

4th grade students are applying their music reading to piano performances. Our 5th and 6th grade

Musical STEAM class has finished their work in calculating the velocity of transverse waves and has

moved on to learning about Pythagoras’s Monochord and the first examples of a musical, diatonic

scale. They have been working with ratios to learn why certain intervals sound the way that they

do. Music appreciation students have been working on several projects relating music to their

everyday life through a cross-curriculum design of a movie soundtrack. Choir is excited to receive

new music for our winter program coming up soon. They have been working very hard on

developing their musicianship through singing and are more than ever being HEARD! Our piano

and guitar clubs are also well underway as the students build the fundamental techniques to

become proficient guitarists and pianists. Everyone is looking forward to what the rest of this year

will musically bring at Heard School!

Edison students started anew 2015-16 school year learning, practicing Seven Habits Songs which

they will In September and October Edison students studied tempo and dynamics markings. While

practicing singing Halloween songs with good posture and diction students observed how changes

in tempo and dynamics changes the mood of the songs. Grades 3rd and up learned Italian names

like pianissimo for very soft , crescendo for gradually louder or largo for very slow. Upper grades

students also composed a Halloween song using repeat sign, DS al Coda, segno and coda.

Everybody enjoyed playing “spooky” high and low organ sounds on MIE keyboards.

Malgorzata Ceglinska

Heard School

Edison School

The Lowell Bucket Drummers and Junior High Choir have been diligently preparing for two

upcoming performances. They are excited for their performances which will take place on Friday,

Nov. 6 at 1:00 at the AZ State Fair and at the Governing Board Meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12 at

6:00. Please check-out the attached photos of the 8th grade drumming ensemble.

Lowell

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Shaw Montessori is very excited about what

is happening in the music classroom. First

through third grade had a lot of fun

practicing composing both in an

improvisation style as well as actually writing

down their simple compositions. They have

also had the opportunity to play many Orff

instruments this semester and are learning

how to read the treble clef. Recently,

students have been working on ear training

and are practicing identifying Do and So in

different key signatures. Students are putting

all of their knowledge together and are

learning fun winter and holiday Orff songs for

their holiday concert which will take place on

December 15th at 6pm. 3rd graders are having

a wonderful time in recorder getting ready

for the holiday concert as well and learning

more and more about the language of music

each week. Kindergarten students are

working on their singing voices and learning

lots of songs, some of which they will do at

the holiday concert. They have also been

exploring space and movement in each class.

After school choir has been approved for

next semester and will take place on Tuesday

and Thursday each week for fourth through

eighth grade students. We cannot wait to see

where the rest of the year will take us.

Shaw Montessori

Dunbar K-3 students are preparing to

dazzle their families with a winter

wonderland performance “How the

Penguins Saved Christmas”. Students

are already excited about this clever

musical featuring adorable penguins

and Santa’s reindeer. The students can

hardly wait for December to perform

their play!

Fourth and fifth graders are now working

in the piano lab. Learning to play the

piano is a lifelong joy and lead to a

greater understanding of music.

The beginning of second trimester

means preparing for winter concerts and

recitals. The Dunbar Dragons band

and orchestra students aren’t “dragging

their heels”, but are preparing music for

their winter recital.

Choir rehearsals are sparkling with

energy as learning music for the winter

concert under full swing. They are

looking forward to some

fun performances with student-

created choreography.

Dunbar

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The Greater Phoenix Choral Festival

On October 23rd and 24th, choir students from several schools throughout our district and a few others took part in a fantastic Choral event, the Greater Phoenix Choral Festival! Hosted at Phoenix College, our students had the opportunity to sing in a large group of students, attend workshops on musicianship and singing, rehearse with many high caliber music professionals from the greater phoenix area and enjoy a concert in which they not only performed, but were able to listen to some fantastic groups from across the valley. Students were able to learn breathe support, the importance of vocal health (both for singing and otherwise) and practice some of the most important skills used in singing. During the concert, students sang three pieces (wonderfully we might add!), were able to listen to honor groups from High Schools in the surrounding area and had the opportunity to experience the Phoenix College choir perform. We are all very proud of our students and are looking forward to more fantastic events to come!

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Musicianship in Action Welcome Back to the Musical School Year

Students at Herrera had a

fantastic clinic with Master

Guitarist Johannes Moller!

Students at Heard experiment,

attempting to tell the difference

between coins by sound alone

(dropping them into different

material glasses)

Bucket Drumming at Lowell!