Welcome Back!

What I like is not a particular genre,

it's storytelling.

There's a lot of great storytelling in jazz,

and in folk and in country music...

~ Lizz Wright

I couldn't agree more with American jazz singer Lizz Wright.  We start off our year with many musical storytelling opportunities.  Kindergarten students are exploring the story Mother Frost.  They will be orchestrating this story with different non-pitched instruments.  Grade 1 students chose to experience Nursery rhymes in a different way.  They will be singing and performing familiar nursery rhymes in a medley.  Grade 2 students are inspired by a poem entitled I Shall Wait and Wait by Alootook Ipellie.  They will be performing pieces through singing and instrumental playing.  Through these pieces, they will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Inuit way of life.

While Grade 3 students are in the midst of creating their original percussion pieces using basic building blocks which we call "musical legos," Grade 4 students apply the concepts they have learned in rhythm to create "Fantastic Musical Machines."  Grade 5 students are experiencing storytelling in the most unique way:  just as artists are often inspired by music and vice versa, these students are doing an interdisciplinary project to show the relationship between music and art.  We draw parallels between the two disciplines and try to represent what we hear through abstract visual arts.