Music in our School Month

Did you know that the month of March is Music in Our Schools Month?  This is a time when we are all aware and recognize what an impact music can have on our children in the schools around our nation!  Research shows that music education can improve academic performance, social and emotional well-being, and creativity. It can also help students develop skills like collaboration, listening, and problem-solving. Children and teens who study music perform better in school. In addition, music education can boost self-confidence in children.                                                       . 

Here, at Hometown School, we are actively making music every week for every grade level!  Kindergarteners and first graders make music through movement, singing games and playing classroom instruments.  Dancing and moving with scarves and ribbons help engage the students to experience musical form and phrasing!  Second graders are expanding their learning to reading and playing basic rhythmic patterns and accompaniments to songs on barred instruments.  Did you know that our music classroom is equipped with more than twelve barred instruments?  We also have several hand drums, triangles, sand blocks, large standing drums called djembes, guiros, maracas, tambourines, and more!  Third graders begin to sing historical songs including African American spirituals and more patriotic songs as well.  All grade levels sing or listen to a variety of music from diverse cultures and historical time periods.  Third graders begin to sing more using solfege syllables and are now learning to read and perform notes on the treble staff.  This prepares them for fourth grade, where the students continue to perform more complex rhythm patterns and read treble staff notation while playing on the recorder.  Fourth graders also begin to compose their own music for the recorder!  Did you know that music students at Hometown School are always being supported in their social-emotional development in music class?  They are singing and listening to music that calms the nervous system and encourages them to feel their feelings.  They can have an outlet for their unknown emotions!  In fifth grade, various musical styles are touched upon, including rock n’ roll and the blues.  Fifth graders play harmonies on barred instruments and on the ukulele.  They strum chord progressions while singing some of their favorite tunes.  We have many opportunities for group collaboration in music class as well as problem solving together with our groups.  Each grade level has one opportunity per year to participate in a concert performance with their classmates.  Extra performing groups like the Hometown Chorus, offered for fourth and fifth graders, and the school band, offered to fifth graders, are available to enhance their music education experience.  These groups perform in additional concerts and community-sponsored events.  Join the nation in celebrating Music in Our Schools Month!  Ask your child what they like best about music class at Hometown School!