MS Keyboarding Success

Congratulations to Cole, Alex and John who today became the most recent graduates in our keyboarding program. Well done boys!

Music Theory, on a Ship.

Busy and fun times in music this week. K-1 students sang a variety of songs and chants while playing xylophones and non-pitched percussion as well. A fun one in particular, was "The Boat," where students sang a peppy boating song and called out the boat leaders name at the front of the ship. Students accompanied the songs with hand drums (large and small) and a shakera, a special gourd shaped instrument with beads, that when gently rubbed and swirled makes the sound of water/an ocean. It is fun to see the students switch instruments, in a ship formation!

2nd grade has been drilling time signatures, meter, and more rhythms. They are getting good at sight reading and counting the rhythms!

K-4th PE

So much for April showers bringing May flowers (knock on wood)!  In celebration of the fantastic weather that found its way to CHA this week, all of our classes went outside and worked on our soccer skills during PE.  After playing a game that focused on passing the ball to one another, we enjoyed a friendly, competitive game of soccer.  It was awesome to see our students running around the field and getting some excellent cardiovascular exercise in at the same time!  Here below you can see a shot of a game between a 3rd grade class.  Enjoy your weekend!

Keyboarding Success!

Congratulations to our two must recent recruits to the CHA Keyboarding Wall of Fame (it's a virtual wall at the moment, but I hope to make it a reality soon!). Hayden and Ethan C completed the final lesson of Type to Learn 4 this morning, which is an excellent accomplishment. I was particularly impressed by how they have coached each other through the process - a little competition here and a little encouragement there. Well done!

Composing in Rondo Form (ABACABA)

 It was a lot of fun to see students creating some great music this week. Students learned about RONDO form, where there is an A section and new sections occur then repeat, but the A is always between them. 3rd graders mastered the A section on the board to the left, first with speech, then adding the pats (drumming). Then working in small groups, students rearranged the rhythms to form their own composition for the class to play. One class had a great time with their composition "I Don't Know Why the Minnesota Vikings Rode Their Rainbow Ponies to the Musical 'Stars' of Hollywood."

To the right, 2nd graders prepare for a surprise performance for their classroom teacher in their rendition of "1000 Hungry Savages". The chant of the title comprises the A section, and for the B and C sections, the boys created a rhythmic chant of various favorite foods, while the girls created their own. They added various tempos, dynamics, choreography, and one even had a dance. We all the left the room hungry.

Middle School Technology

The students have been making PowerPoint presentations to show their parents the research they did prior to the trip and the fun they have while they were on the trip. This week I showed them how they can add music to the slideshow and then save the slideshow as a movie. The example shown here is by 5th Grader Alex; I particularly like how the theme and the music compliment the subject matter. You can download the other presentations here https://www.box.com/s/vz508nnqxbht7nwxojpv

3rd Grade House Projects and Presentations

Third graders finished up their House Projects last week and presented their Houses to the class this week and last week. Here is a sample of one of the presentations:)!

First Grade Board Games in Spanish

 First grade students have been learning that names of family members in Spanish, as well as the names of places in Spanish. They are having a great time creating their very own board game in Spanish class with the vocabulary they have learned!

K-4th PE

What (mostly) beautiful weather we had this week!  Mother Nature allowed us to soak up some sun and play a little frisbee.  Each of our classes worked on the fundamentals of gripping, throwing, and catching a frisbee.  In addition, we had some friendly competitions within each class that honed in on these particular skills.  Our 3rd and 4th grade classes actually took these skills and transferred them into a game of Ultimate Frisbee, which took place out on the soccer field.  It was great running around in the sun and learning the concepts of a new game.  No doubt we will be getting our Ultimate Frisbee on again sometime this school year if the weather permits.  Have a fun and safe weekend!

CHA Mural Painting

Finally!!! our Paint the Wall at CHA project is done and our students are very proud of their masterpiece. Our students had such a great time painting the background, making a tree with hand print leaves, and gluing glass pebbles with their names on.
Please check out our masterpiece along the 2^nd floor north stairs. (right by the elevator).

Typing to Learn

The first graders have been spending time during their Technology classes practicing their typing skills using the program Type to Learn 3.  This program shows them proper fingering using a variety of practice lessons and games. 

New Books!

A CHA parent generously donated money to the library for the purchase of new books.  The students were able to peruse and hear some of the new titles as well as check them out this week.  Many of the books flew off the shelves, and eager children shared them with one another.  The older students were challenged to read some of the Sasquatch nominees, while the younger students flocked to the poetry books.

K-4th PE

Happy Spring Break!  What a week it's been with all of the spectacular performances each grade put on during their musicals.  In between all of the activities this week, we were able to sneak in some quality PE time.  All of our classes did a little running outside while the weather was still nice.  Once the rain decided to creep in, we then transitioned to bowling indoors, which is displayed below with some 1st graders celebrating a strike.  Hope everyone enjoys a safe and enjoyable Spring Break!

Relief Printing

 This week, 2nd grade students learned about Relief Printing and created the Turtle Relief Printings with leftover styrofoam lunch boxes.  In the relief process, the artist carves away the area of the picture he doesn't want to print, leaving only the image area raised. The ink/paint is applied to the surface with a brayer. The carved away areas don't receive any ink/paint and, therefore, won't appear on the finished print. Relief printing is usually done with a carved piece of wood. However, we were able to achieve similar results using a piece of styrofoam!

The students had a great time making several prints of their design.

Coding with Scratch Cat

Week 2 of coding in 2nd Grade. This week the students were introduced to Scratch. Scratch is a programming language out of MIT that "makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively." This week the students started with the online beta version which you can find a link to here http://mrsmorlidge.com/Technology.htm. Hopefully it is going to be a lovely, sunny Spring Break wherever you are; but if it isn't this is something you could have hours of fun with
 at home!

April is National Poetry Month

To kick off National Poetry Month, students who had library this week heard a variety of children's poems.  This week, we focused on Jon Scieszka and Bruce Lansky.  After Spring Break, students will hear poems by Shel Silverstein and others.  The older students will be reciting poems for their classmates. 

The library recently received a generous donation.  I was able to purchase over 100 new books which I will be sharing with the students the next few weeks.