Music with Mrs. Karia

Here are the rubrics for 4th and 5th Grade for 2nd trimester. They are based on a month long GarageBand project. Please email me at akaria@op97.org if you have any questions.

 December 2022 All month, all of the grades have been focused on learning songs for the Winter Sing. The whole school gathered in the gym on Wednesday at the end of the day to sing a variety of songs together from different countries, cultures, and traditions. The slides with the lyrics are at the link below. WINTER SING SLIDES Also, I wanted to say thank you to the teachers and the students who helped me through my journey to become a National Board certified teacher. This December, I received the news that I passed! An extra special thank you to Ms. Kula's, Ms. McDaniels'/ Ms. Gawne's, and Ms. Herron's classes last year who were essential parts to my learning journey. 

  This is the rubric for the 1st trimester grading There was a written test and 2 performance tests (xylophone and singing) based on their grade level skills and concepts. The written grades were averaged together as well as the performance grades. There was no listening grade this trimester. If you have questions please email me at akaria@op97.org

  What has been happening in music class? Week 1: Due to holidays and other days off, the first week of October was a catch up week. For classes that were already caught up, we learned a dance. In most grades the dance used a rhythm we were learning about in class. Here is a 3rd grade class dancing to "Hoe Ana" a dance from Raratonga. It was in triple meter so it utilized the dotted half note which is 3 beats long. The dance is supposed to look like people rowing in a long canoe like boat.  Hoe Ana Dance Week 2: During week 2, 2nd-5th grade students were preparing for a new melodic concept, though they may not have known it. Through songs and listening activities the new pitch was introduced before we labeled it.   In 5th grade, we sang "Ah Poor Bird" which is in diatonic minor. (a 7 pitch scale). 1st graders review their pitches from kindergarten (so and mi). Kindergarteners started our opposites unit, exploring loud and quiet in music. 5th Graders singing Ah Poor ...

 What has been happening in music class? SONG OF THE WEEK: Each week all the K-5 classes I teach learn a quick song that connects us as a Whittier family. The first week we learned the Wildcat song. In the upcoming weeks, we will start to brainstorm ideas about what makes a wildcat wild. Students will sing this and the Whittier song before we start our next all school assembly. Here is a link to a first grade singing the song! Wildcat Song PARENT SURVEY:  Have you filled out the specials survey this year? (It helps us learn about your child, you and the Whittier Community as a whole)... Some interesting stats so far: Kindergarten and 1st grade: Students have been working on our procedures for music classes over the past few weeks.  We enter with our "Follow the Leader" song where students sing and do steady beat motions. We then move into our "hello song" and jump right into call and response hellos where we explore different parts of our voices.  We have been revie...

 Welcome Wildcat families! I am so excited to be starting my 5th year at Whittier. This year our music bulletin board follows a theme that I will be exploring with students of all ages throughout the year which is to think about the questions surrounding music: What is music? Where can music be found? Who makes music? How do we make music? and Why do we make music? Through playing, singing, dancing, and creating I hope all students will explore and think about music in new and exciting ways this year!

 This trimester 4th and 5th graders wrote a composition and chose a focus for their project: arranging, writing, or singing. Arrangers focused on taking their composition, recording it into GarageBand and making a LiveLoop background. Writers focused on writing the melodies of their pieces on a staff. They also added a Liveloop background if they had time. Singers focused on learning to sing their composition and added a Liveloop background if they had time. Students used the rubric below to assess themselves after the project. I used these rubrics as well but also factored in how much assistance and adjustments I made to the assignment for them to be successful. If after looking at these rubrics you have any questions please write me at akaria@op97.org. You only need to look at the rubric that matches what your child focused on (I put it in their report card comments).