Ms. Perry and I are so incredibly proud of our hardworking 5th through 8th grade students who were part of the 3 amazing performances of Once On This Island Jr.! Here are some pictures of our cast and crew wearing their OOTI Jr. t-shirts with pride right before opening night!
Thank you to all of the students and families who attended our first-ever Arts Residency Kick Off event! The evening was full of music, art, and fun! Those in attendance were treated to an introduction of all of Stone's fabulous arts opportunities, an amazing sitar performance by 8th grader Faith G., a gallery of impressive textiles from the Minasian Rug Collection, and an awesome performance by Edgar Gabriel's StringFusion. I am very much looking forward to an enriching year of arts education at Stone, and hope you are too! Welcome back to school everyone! I'm excited to be getting back to Stone after a great summer break! I hope everyone is excited for all of the new musical opportunities that will be going on this school year. I am excited to announce that this year, each grade level will participate in a unique arts residency at some point during the year. Many of this residencies will reflect our ongoing arts partnerships throughout Chicago, while others will introduce new arts partners to our Stone community. And as always, there will be plenty of student performances occurring this year, including our annual Holiday and Heritage Assemblies, an Evening Performance featuring the chorus and fall play, and the Middle School Talent Show. And of course I will be working with Ms. Perry on another fantastic musical theatre production this winter! We'll be adding in an additional assembly in the month of March as well. Stay tuned for additional information about the dates of these performances. I'm excited to have some new technology tools in my classroom this year, including a cart of Chromebooks that will be housed in the Auditorium, and some new MakeyMakey invention kits I received as part of a DonorsChoose grant. I am looking forward to a musical year at Stone! If you have any questions throughout the year, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. 5th graders were the first to experience the new littleBits Synth Kits I purchased as part of a grant I received from the Chicago chapter of the Illinois Computing Educators. Students enjoyed creating their own space-age robotic sounds using the various synthesizer modules that came with the kit. We'll continue exploring these kits in the next school year, but students can watch the video below for inspiration and check out the littleBits website for more ideas about music making with these kits! Talent Show auditions will take place on Tuesday, May 20th after school in the Auditorium. The Talent Show is only open to students in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade. All students must have a signed permission slip; you can download a permission slip below if needed. Contact me with any questions.
How can you play a recorder duet with yourself? 6th graders brainstormed a few ideas involving technology, so I challenged them to try playing our recorder duet Que Pasa with themselves at home. The link to the audio background track file is below. Send any audio/video recording evidence to me by email for some extra credit! Good luck! Our annual Winter Celebration of the Arts, held on Thursday, December 5th, was a huge success! Thank you to all of the families, alumni, and community members who came out to support the Stone chorus and drama students!
Zombies have taken over the Auditorium at Stone! Well, they may not be real zombies, but they sure can dance! 5th and 6th graders learned a cool recorder song about zombies that uses only the notes B and A. Students can play along with the track below if they brought their music and their recorders home this week. (Students: if you did bring your recorder home, don't forget to bring it back to school on music class day next week!) As all of the students figured out, this recorder track is based on Michael Jackson's Thriller. If you have your parents permission, watch the full 14 minute Thriller music video/movie on YouTube by clicking here!
We had a fantastic trip - perfect weather, fun activies, great food (and awesome chaperones too!) Until next year... |
AuthorMr. Marsland teaches K-8 music at Stone Scholastic Academy in Chicago, IL. Archives
April 2015
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