Hello Everyone,

Mr. Skaife and I will be holding live, multi-grade Zoom sessions together starting next Monday. The sessions will be bi-weekly, alternating between Grades 3-5, and Grades Kindergarten-2. Please note that our next meeting for grades 3-5 will be on Thursday next week due to the Memorial Day holiday.

Lastly, see the announcement below regarding our upcoming Virtual Music Fest. The deadline for video submissions is next Wednesday, the 27th.

Mr. Spano:

anthony.spano@watertown.k12.ma.us

Mr. Skaife:

kurtis.skaife@watertown.k12.ma.us

Grade 3-5 Zoom Meeting:

Thursday, May 28th, 2:00pm

Password: musicart

Grade K-2 Zoom Meeting:

Monday, June 1st, 2:00pm

Password: musicart

Instrument Lesson Zoom Meetings:

Mondays from 3:00-3:30pm

• Mr. Spano's students
• Ms. Schneider's students
  
• Mr. Boynton's students
• Ms. Byham's students
• *Ms. Slesinger's students (Mondays from 2:30 - 3:00pm)
• *Mr. Jordan's students (Tuesdays from 3:00 - 3:30pm)

Finally, an important message:

Calling all musicians!

Corona may be keeping us apart but it isn't keeping us silent. The music lives within us, bringing us laughter, joy, strength and solace. The Watertown Public Schools Fine, Applied and Performing Arts Department, in collaboration with Friends of Watertown Music, invites all Watertown musicians, students, teachers, families, and community members to join us in a musical celebration.

If you would like to be part of the first ever Virtual MusicFest, please use this form to submit a video of yourself performing. By submitting a video, you are giving permission for this video to be posted on the internet via our soon-to-be-created Virtual MusicFest website and various social media platforms.

You will need a gmail email address to fill out this form. If you do not have one and are unable to acquire one, please contact anthony.spano@watertown.k12.ma.us for an alternative way to be part of Virtual MusicFest. We will figure out how to include you if you want to be part of our celebration of music!

By submitting a video, you are giving permission for this video to be posted on the internet via our soon-to-be-created Virtual MusicFest website and various social media platforms.

Submission Deadline: May 27th

Let's spread the joy of music beyond our homes and share it throughout our community!

Enjoy a new singalong this week, Going to the Zoo in honor or our zoos reopening this week.

In early March, we had started exploring how sound and vibration work in the different families of musical instruments.

Woodwinds, Part 1

Woodwinds, Part 2

Earlier, we looked at a classic piece of orchestral music called "Peter and the Wolf." It was composed in 1936 by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. When performed traditionally, a narrator tells the story while a live orchestra "illustrates" it. In it, the characters of the story are all played by different instruments of the orchestra.

"Peter and the Wolf" - read-along, narration by Mr. Spano

"Peter and the Wolf" - original arrangement by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Please enjoy my Beatles medley videos. Sing along if you'd like. The lyrics are all there (although I suspect many of you know the tunes by heart).

Beatles singalong #1: Here Comes the Sun / Blackbird

Beatles singalong #2: You've got to Hide your Love Away / Let it Be

Here is a readalong/singalong of Abiyoyo Returns, the second in the Abiyoyo books by Pete Seeger. Typically in class, we would read the book, sing the songs, and act out the story for an informal play.

Abiyoyo Returns - Singalong/Readalong

Enjoy the orignal Abiyoyo book with this video clip from "Reading Rainbow."

Abiyoyo - Reading Rainbow

Last month, we did the "Banana Boat Song"

Banana Boat Song

Banana Boat Song - Harry Belafonte - The Muppet Show

2nd Graders - click here or look down below in the 3-5 section at my Isle of Tune video tutorial. You'll probably need your parents help getting setup with the program, but it's a lot of fun. Give it a try.

Here are the first videos of my singalong series:

Los Pollitos Dicen/Rubber Blubber Whale

Over in the Meadow

Check out the video section of the Mr. Spano Website:

https://sites.google.com/a/watertown.k12.ma.us/spano-lowell-music/video

It features a mish-mosh of songs we've sung this year and other interesting short videos. I'm also hoping to include some personally recorded sing-alongs in the coming days.

Also, check out the Piano and Guitar pages on my website. If you have a keyboard, piano, guitar, or even ukulele at home, you can print out some of the packets and materials we use in class for home practice.

Lastly, I'd like to plug a few fellow music teachers:

Mr. Boynton

Quite a few of our PreK and Kindergartners may have had my colleague Mr. Boynton as a pre-school music teacher. He's been creating amazing videos on his YouTube page over the last few weeks.

Mr. Evan - Music at the Blissful

Mr. Evan has been my sons' music teacher from the time they were both babies. He teaches private music classes in Jamaica Plain and has been live-streaming his super-engaging music classes on both his Instagram and Facebook pages every morning at 9:30am. His lessons are perfect for ages 2-6, so our PreK-1st graders should definitely go check him out.

The main assignment for this week is to sign up for the music Google Classroom . You'll need to enter the invite code:

autm6sl

This week in our Google Classroom, I'm having you read and explore the third chapter of Ableton - Learning Music called "Chords."

Previously in our Google Classroom, I assigned you to read and explore the second chapter of Ableton - Learning Music called "Notes and Scales" and the first chapter called "Beats." Watch this video tutorial I made last week to explain the website. If you haven't already, take some time to explore and fool around with some of the music sequencers. They're fun and easy to understand.

I've made an Isle of Tune video tutorial. Many of us have worked with Isle of Tune in class. Watch the tutorial to either introduce you to or review this fun web-based composition game. Feel free to copy my composition, create your own, or just experiment. When you're finished, figure out how to create a web link to your project and email it to me. Mine and Mr Skaife's addresses are above.

Check out the links page on the Mr. Spano website and also this musictheory.net video tutorial which will show you how to customize our keyboard and note quiz that we do in class.

Instrument students! Check out this video tutorial I've created introducing you to Essential Elements Interactive. It's basically a digital version of your instrument lesson book. It'll make practicing a bit more exciting with play-along backing tracks, a recording function, and lots more cool stuff. You'll need your instrument, your book, and the "school code" which is 'watertown.'

Lastly, check out the Piano and Guitar pages on my website. If you have a keyboard, piano, guitar, or even ukulele at home, you can print out some of the packets and materials we use in class for home practice.

We may have missed our formal art show but Corona can’t curb our Creativity! In this time of social distancing, many people are struggling with feelings of loneliness and isolation. Artists throughout our community continue to make connections, boosting one another up, creating a sense of artistic community, finding joy within themselves and sharing it with others through visual art.

Watertown Fine Arts wants to showcase these creative endeavors via WPS’s first ever “Virtual Art Show”. Our Art Teachers are already organizing art from this school year from both our regular school environment and now, in quarantine’s distance learning, for this purpose. Here’s where we need you:

We are asking for submissions from student artists who would like to be showcased in our show on our “Spotlight on Student Artists” page to write a few words about what art means to you. Not sure where to start? Try answering one of these questions to get your thoughts flowing:

1. Why do you love art?

2. What do you miss most about art class?

3. What are some things you learned in art that aren’t about art?

4. How does art get you through difficult times?

We would like to showcase these artist biographies on our Art Show website, so if your child would like to be spotlighted, have them write a few words answering that question and send it in with a photo of them (possibly holding up some of their art work or in the process of making art?). Also, please lt us know that you give persmission for us to use the photo and writing on the website. Thank you for helping us celebrate our student artists!

Below is how you can send me images in the Google classroom. Just click "Add or create" which is in the upper right hand corner.

You can also email me images at kurtis.skaife@watertown.k12.ma.us

This week we are making a rainbow with the correct color order of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Many students may already be familiar with this order already.

The challenge with this piece is that we are not going to make a traditional rainbow, instead we are looking for creative, unique rainbows that nobody has ever seen before.

There are two paths that you can choose for this piece.
1.) Make a rainbow on a surprising object. Below you will find a drawing I did a rainbow cat and a man with wild rainbow hair.

2.) Make a rainbow that is in a surprising place or coming out of something unusual. Below you will find a drawing of a rainbow that is coming out of a house's chimney.

Learning the order of colors on a rainbow is a fairly simple task but your job as an artist is to challenge yourself with personal creative ideas that make your art your own.

Kindergarten invite code: cvs562m

1st Grade invite code: 4r4lm6p

2nd Grade invite code: qubt4px

This week we are making a comic.

In the video below, I highlight some of the essential elements of a comic.

You can make a comic about anything you wish. Here as some possible themes to your story: superheroes, mystery/detective, your own version of a popular story, your real life, your exaggerated life and many more.

I recommend making a one or two page comic. If you are looking for a challenge, try making a 3 or 4 panel comic strip. A comic strips appear in newspapers and have to tell a short story or joke in only a few panels.

In the end of the video I mention doing the comic cover next week. You can ignore that direction as we will do a different project next week.

3rd Grade invite code: plicrt5

4th Grade invite code: 7xxxuqj

5th Grade invite code: cbrihpi