It's almost the most wonderful time of the year!

Can you belive that it will be Thanksgiving in one week??!!!?? I knew that once Halloween was over, time would FLY and it sure has. We're all beginning to feel the crunch of just 4 weeks until our first concert! Because we only have school Monday and Tuesday next week, and not Wednesday, I will be cramming ALL of my students from BOTH schools into small group lessons on TUESDAY, November 22. I will start the day at RGS with an optional before-school full band rehearsal at 8am and then once they check in with their teachers, three small group lessons. Then I'll head to SGS and spend the rest of the day teaching lessons and end the day with full band at the normal time.

The songs that we will be playing for the concert are:

Concert Warm-Up No. 1 (2.23 in book)

The Syncopated Row Boat (2.25 inbook)

Crown Of Majesty (2.26 in book)

On Carribean Shores (2.30 in book)

Rock the House (2.31 in book)

A Winter Medley, made up of Good King Wenceslas (1.27), The Dreydl Song (2.11) and Jingle Bells (2.10)

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

Amanda Storer

678-6726

astorer@nsd2.com

Concert Countdown: 5 weeks!!

I hope you all had a nice long weekend with your children last week! Some students really upped their practicing during their 4.5 days off! But quite a few of my students did not have practice records filled out or signed. It's the beginning of the second quarter now. It's not a good idea to be starting with two zeros for practice records. Filling it out and getting it signed is an easy way to get a good grade in "Preparation" (assuming they actually did practice, though!)

Now that it's the second quarter, I've upped the ante with incentives for practicing 80 minutes or more each week and for coming to their lessons prepared. I've given each of the band students have a chart to keep with their practice records and books. At every lesson, if they come with all of their materials (instrument, book, music, signed practice record) they will get signed off on their chart. After 6 sign-offs, they will get ribbon for the Bronze Attendance Award. After 12 is the Silver Attendance Award and after 20 is the Gold. Similarly, there is a chart for when they practice 80 minutes or more in a week and there are bronze, silver and gold ribbons for the Practice award as well. Hopefully this will encourage the band students to be practicing harder and always be prepared.

With our first concerts only 5 weeks away (12-13-11 for SGS and 12-15-11 for RGS! Are they on your calendar yet??), I'm starting to count how many full band rehearsals we have left. At SGS, we have 4. At RGS we only have 3!!! It's the week of Thanksgiving that puts the RGSers at a disadvantage. I'm not sure if you noticed on the schedule that I WILL BE AT RGS ON TUESDAY MORNING, November 22 for a few lessons so that I don't miss those kids all together. I want to have a full band rehearsal BEFORE school that morning. It is totally optional and your child will not be penalized or marked down for not attending. But for those students who can make it, there will be an extra full band rehearsal for RGS students ONLY at RGS on Tuesday, November 22 at 8:00am.

Please encourage your child to continue practicing! They have to start building the muscles and endurance to get through a whole concert! Full Band rehearsals and lessons have been like sprinting the 50 yard dash: short spurts of activity. The concert is a marathon! If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to email or call. Have a great weekend!

 

 

Amanda Storer

678-6726

astorer@nsd2.com

www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

 

 

 

Concert Countdown: 7 weeks!!

We've officially begun counting down until our very first concert! 7 weeks until Tuesday, Dec. 13 for SGS and Thursday, Dec. 15 for RGS! Our concert will consist of mostly pages 16 and 17 in the band books and the students know that if the are well prepared with their homework for band that they should start looking at the concert music. I know 7 weeks sounds like a lot, but it really isn't when you only have band one time a week and when you throw in crazy schedules like for Parent-Teacher conferences and Thanksgiving. I sent home schedules for November/December with the band students this week. I will post the schedules on my website next week. I left the file on my C drive at school and can't access it to post it until then.
If you have some time, you should look around on my You Tube channel. I have my own "channel" that has playlists of videos of different instruments, full bands, small groups and other interesting things. I know that every household has different rules and that some of the 5th graders might not be allowed to surf around You Tube. I haven't really been promoting my You Tube channel to the students. I will leave that up to you, as the parents, to show them the channel and then take a look and listen together, if you so wish. I will be taking some time next week to add many more videos, so check back next week too!
It's coming to the point for many students where they have to start practicing a little more in order to be prepared for lessons. It's not quite as easy as it was in the beginning and we are learning new notes more frequently. Please encourage your child to practice 20-30 minutes for 3-5 days a week. Unfortunately, some students have already thrown around the dreaded "Q" word...shhhh.....quit.....It's only been 8 weeks and we're more than half-way to our concert! I don't think that anyone should be considering that right now. They haven't even experienced a tiny bit of what band is really like. Please encourage your child to stick with it and not take the easy way out. When one person considers this, it's like a horrible domino effect on the whole group. Besides, it's way too early to be thinking about that, anyway! Many of the students (and me too!) are getting really excited for the concert in December. It will be here before you know it!
Have a great week! Feel free to stop by my office during Parent/Teacher conferences next week. I'll be at RGS on Wednesday 4-8, and Thursday 12:30-3:45 and at SGS on Thursday from 4-8. My office is in the cafeteria at both schools. I'd love to discuss your child's progress with you!

Amanda Storer

678-6726

astorer@nsd2.com

www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

Countdown to the First Concert: 2 months!!!

The band students are moving along quite nicely! I know that 2 months seems like a long time from now (and it kind of is) but when you only see your students once a week, that means I only have like 8 lessons with my band students before our first big concert!! And factor in a sick day or two between them and me and my children and that means there might even be less!

If you don't already, be sure to mark you family calendar's with our Winter Concert so that there are no conflicts. The Winter Concert at SGS is Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 7pm. It is the same night as the 3rd grade musical and all of the 5th graders also sing at this concert. At RGS, the 5th grade musical and band concert is Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 7pm. More information about what to wear will be sent home closer to the date.

Now that we are learning more notes (most students know how to play and read 5 notes!) some students are having a hard time reading the notes. If your child struggles with reading in general, it may transfer to note reading as well. Or even if your child does not struggle in class with reading, they may struggle with note reading. I've instructed a few students to write the letter names in their music before they practice. Some students might need this for most of the year, but most do not. I don't mind if they write the notes in if they really need to, but I don't want it to become a crutch where they are not reading the notes at all, but just the letters. Because there is more to notation than just pitch (ie. note duration and length, articulation, etc.) they can't just be looking at letters above or below the notes. I am always trying to reassess and see what each child needs and when they may be able to stop writing in the names, we'll figure it out. Note reading games and flashcards are a big help! Look at my blogpost from a couple of weeks ago for links to cool music reading games!

I know of one family that has purchased a subscription to Smart Music and has started using at home! That is so cool! I hear that next week I should be getting a Mimeo that turns my white board into a smart board!! Then I will be able to project the music from Smart music on the white board and we can start really seeing what the program can do. I can't wait to update you next week about how it went!

I hope you have a fantastic week! As always, please feel free to call or email if you have any questions or concerns.

 

Amanda Storer, Band Director

Richmond Grade School and Spring Grove School

www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

astorer@nsd2.com

(815) 678-6726