Musikgarten Students Celebrate With Tea Party

CYM students completed the second of three Music Makers courses; Music Makers Around the World continues the sequence of learning where students continue to gain mastery over identifying tonal and rhythm patterns. In this Musikgarten course, students delighted in being able to read printed music! First, they knew the song well, and had worked with it through singing, creative movement, dance, or ensemble building. (Or a combination of all of those!) Then the time would come for the children to see the “song page”. (Many thanks, by the way to the parents who were constantly serving as stage managers and materials coordinators!) Using a “view finder” the children easily deciphered the music – finding familiar patterns of tone and patterns of rhythm. In just a few minutes they were pointing to notes and singing the correct solfege language, then the Gordon rhythm language, and then, when it all comes together- pointing to the notes and singing the words! 
The music this year came from all over the world. We focused on the British Isles and Germany, and learned about the various tribes of the Native Americans. We enjoyed the unit on African-American influences on music in the United States while exploring jazz, Spirituals, and learned dances and call-and -respond songs. Each unit ended with a celebration of our “favorites”, reliving the many dances, ensembles, and drumming activities. A highlight of the whole year came at the end of the British Isles unit: we had a tea party over Zoom and enjoyed the many favorites from those few weeks. These delightful students are poised for the final level of Musikgarten, Music Makers at the Keyboard. They will continue to build on the skills learned this year, taking their music to the piano. They will still dance, sing, and build ensembles as the experiences go even deeper, and they will take their skills to an instrument, their pathway to music literacy nearly complete. Truly a delightful year. Mrs. Paul made African bread for our celebration at the end of the unit – looks so good!