5th and 6th graders' Project Based Learning

 Music class ties into the circus residencies

Check out this 5 minute video outlining a project that MRV 5th and 6th graders worked on this spring in music class! 

Can you hear music in your head just by looking at it?

It's all about familiarity. Students from 1st through 6th grade are using the staff as a jumping off point for learning about and experiencing a range of music literacy-infused topics and activities. Our older students are focusing on the skill of "inner hearing" music before they sing it. Some can already do it with familiar note combinations! 

General Music Update - 1st Semester Wrap Up!

Our 3rd through 6th graders have extended their singing activities to the xylophone where they've been learning to play and accompany a familiar melody. They rhythmically improvise a section for this song in triple meter, and also explore the material in its written form. They are developing the ability to sing harmony with a type of song called a round. Engagement with both of these activities improves their skills and their joy making music with a group. These students have had some time to play ukulele and there will be more of that to come, and they've recently enjoyed composing with the Musicfirst software called Soundtrap by selecting and arranging from thousands of pre-recorded loops in the Soundtrap library. 

1st and 2nd graders are exploring a variety of activities that develop their musicality through listening, singing, moving, and interacting with each other in fun ways. 1st and 2nd grade students learn to sing and recognize melodies and patterns using tonal and rhythmic solfege syllables that lead directly to fluency with written music. 

Kindergarteners are currently building their vessel by learning many fun songs and movement activities. They are developing an internal sense of musical awareness that will be built upon as they grow. 

Please enjoy the pictures from our semester in general music thus far! 

 

Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield, and Warren students during these first few weeks of music class.

 

Fayston 5th and 6th graders dance, sing, and accompany with xylophones. 

Moretown 5th and 6th graders learn some chords on ukuleles! 

Moretown Kindergarteners learn a new dance! 

Waitsfield Students sing, dance, and play xylophones!

Warren Pre-Schoolers get some instrumental exploration time! 

Warren 5th and 6th graders are all in for creative movement and dance! 

Welcome Back!

 And just like that, we're back in action! The air already feels cooler and crisper while students sing, dance, play instruments, and continue their musical journey here in our Mad River Valley elementary schools. 

Soundtrap! - Fayston 5th and 6th grade

 Fayston 5th and 6th graders are engaging with some electronic composition using the software Soundtrap, which is part of the MusicFirst suite our district is subscribed to. 

Musical Hopscotch - Moretown 3rd and 4th Grades

 Moretown 3rd and 4th graders are hopping out melodies on a floor staff. 

Musical Hopscotch - Waitsfield 1st & 2nd grade

 Waitsfield are hopping out Do, Re, Mi patterns on a home made floor staff. "Moveable DO" get it? 

Write a Song You Can Play - Warren

 Warren 5th and 6th graders are putting pencil to staff paper to write a tune they can play on xylophone. 

Write a Song You Can Play - Moretown

 Moretown 3rd and 4th graders are learning to compose music the "old fashioned" way with paper, pencil, and a xylophone. 

Moretown Kindergarteners' Creative Movement

 Elementary students are wired for play. Here, kindergarteners from Moretown explore the possibilities with a creative movement and dance activity. 

Field trip to the VSO

 Warren 5th and 6th grade took a field trip to hear the Vermont Symphony play and discuss excerpts Stravinski's Firebird Suite and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet! 

Pre-K comes to music with 3rd and 4th grade!

 

A Moment of Musical Play With Kindergarten

 *Photo Credit to Eileen Casey

Our First two Weeks of Music!

Friday, 9/6/25

Music classes in our MRV elementary schools are off to a great start! Kindergarten through 2nd grade students are being “tuneful, beat-ful, and artful” as we implement John Feirabend’s First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege curricula, combined with my own Orff influenced approach. This particular combination of influences will ensure a systematic approach to introducing a range of material that will prepare students for being able to understand and work with music concepts in an informed and creative way. Experience first, then analyze. Our 3rd through 6th grade students are similarly engaged in material that is leading them toward music literacy, creativity, and, ultimately, composition. All of our students are getting a healthy portion of creative movement activities that serve them in a variety of ways on their journey to becoming musical people!

Moretown Kindergarteners Play an Old Favorite!

 

Moretown Body Percussion Compositions!

 

MORETOWN group compositions

 

FES students are composing music!

 

Fayston Students' Impromptu Performance!