The Peotone Music Program News

1. Congratulations to the PHS Choir on their incredible performance Wednesday night and hard work all day at the ICE Choral Festival. I was very proud of all the students from PHS choir who brought their best focus and positive energy to the entire day! I was inspired by the sound the festival choir created together in such a short amount of time -- and was so pleased with the large turnout for the concert that night to show support for the students and enjoy the choral music!

2. PHS Choir - don't forget to wear any combination of red and/or white and/or blue to school on Monday as we perform at the Veterans Day Assembly in the morning.

3.The PJHS Choir is honing in on their sight reading skills this month! Every rehearsal includes a short sight-reading exercise that develops the students' abilities to be independent singers (as opposed to exclusively relying on the piano or recordings to learn music). Last month, we had a "word of the day" that focused on various music vocabulary and symbols. Keep up the great work, PJHS Choirs!

PJHS Band Sectionals are back! In continuation with what Mr. Forlenza set up last year, students are taken out of class once every 2 weeks to work on some band fundamentals and/ or music. Above is the schedule for this upcoming week.

The classroom teacher has permission to tell the band student that they can not attend sectionals if a quiz or test would be missed or difficult to make up or if the student is doing poorly (need to have higher than a C+ or a 79 %) in the class. If there is any other reason for staying in class, please let Mr. Kowalski know so we can work something out.

The Peotone Fine Arts Boosters (FAB) is a wonderfully supportive extension of Peotone CUSD 207U fine arts activities. As the holidays are upon us, consider using the Raise Right gift card fundraiser as a way to support FAB. Simply use the gift cards for your own shopping needs and/or to give to other people. Peotone Fine Arts Boosters receives a percentage with every gift card purchase (yes, it is that easy!).

There are two ways you can purchase the gift cards:

1. Download the Raise Right app on your phone or

2. Go on their website: https://www.raiseright.com/enroll

Either way, find the “Join a Program” box on the sign up page and

enter the enrollment code: BG9W1BDBRTYN

That code will link any purchase you make to the Peotone Fine Arts Boosters.

All the Bands are hard at work getting ready for our Christmas concerts (and for the Highschool their Veteran's Day in school performance). Here are some upcoming events in November to keep in mind of.

• Mr. Kowalski will be out from November 13-15th for the PASIC (Percussion Arts Society International Convention). Unless your question is urgent, please save all questions you have during that time until I come back.

• To support their music practice, 6th graders have been given a practice log to track their playing. Please review your student’s practice sessions and encourage them to play for an 15-20 minutes each week, even if they can't take their instrument home. They can practice along with videos of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" available on Google Classroom. Remember to sign their practice log weekly, as students are expected to show it to Mr. Kowalski every Friday.

While the music program certainly loves Thanksgiving, we wanted to promote our next concert series in December, our Christmas Concerts!

We have one small change: All Christmas concerts will begin at 7 p.m.

December 10th: We will have our PIC band and PJHS Choir and Band concert! If you are able to help chaperone the band that night, please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTo1uGiyvDJL8QyrRHi8GJxEZ8fxEzc499cAU3BV_uJu_prQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

December 12th: PHS Choir and Band Concert will be playing some Christmas classics!

• PowerSchool
• Google Classroom (if it is an outside of class assignment)
• The calendar in the band room

• A reminder that Mr. Kowalski will be out from November 13-15th for the PASIC (Percussion Arts Society International Convention). Unless your question is urgent, please save all questions about assignments until I come back.

A reminder that band calendar dates have been sent home and are posted below if you need a copy.

Anything with TBD means you will receive and update on that information as soon as I have it available. Also, for 6-8th grade, due to a scheduling conflict, the October 29th date has been taken off the calendar. The concert will now be on October 22nd.

In order to make sure that both band and choir performances run smoothly, we are asking families to fill out a conflict form (the button below) if a student is not able to be there. This is to be filled out at least 2 weeks in advance before the date of conflict. This form will be posted on the newsletter and shortly is available on both band and choir student's Google Classroom pages.

Performances are grades and the expectation is for you to be there. If you are unable to go to an event, there will be a makeup assignment that will need to be completed. Usually situations of work or family events do not qualify as reasons for not going. Once completing the form, please alert Mr. Kowalski or Ms. Marshall about the submission so we can review it.