music – Page 2 – Beyond The Desk

Its Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Christmas . . .

February 26, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Wow! It’s Thursday already. I haven’t written for awhile. It was a bit of a tough getting over the fact that there was no snow day but we soldiered on.

I didn’t get a chance to write about our field trip on Monday. The students behaved very well. I was very proud of them. We had a great time at Granville Island albeit a little short. The orchestra was a lot of fun and we got to hear a nice mix of composers and musical styles one of my favorite being the Aaron Copland piece, “Fanfare for the Common Man”. Copland writes such quintessential and beautiful music that brings pictures to life.

I created an animoto of our day which you can view below.

In Science today, we saw a neat site as an introduction to constellations. It was a nice guide to how to find Orion’s belt and the north star with the Big Dipper as a guide. It also started talking about Cassiopeia but we are going to wait a bit until we learn about some of the other constellations. The site is called “The Night Sky”. The students found it fun finding the constellations in the sky. Give it a try. We also made star finders but did not get a chance to learn how they worked. Once that is done, I will put the website on the blog so they can download and make their own! Once we have learned about a few constellations, we will be having a constellation party but I am not giving any details about that away yet!!! Ah yes, more SUSPENSE!!!!!! Bu-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!

For our problem of the week, we had a bit of a toughy. The question was “A number multiplied by 3 gives 21. The same number added to 21 gives . . .” A.B worked it out though with her usual aplomb and confidence. Here is how she worked it out.

As you may have noticed, there was no spelling list this week and there was no memory verse. Those will be starting again next week. However, we will be having our Mad Minutes. If you would like to practice you can download some pages from the Box.net widget or here (adding) and here (sub).

Starlight, Star – Oops, No Star Tonight!!

February 19, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

One of the students asked a good question today about how our Sun could ever destroy the Earth as it is so far away. Luckily, I had just found a news article about a star that is just now in the process of dying. Well, it’s not actually dying right at this instant, as it takes so long for light to reach us from that distance. We are just now seeing the light from that star.

The dying star is actually fairly close to the constellation Orion, which we have been learning about, though the star is further out than the stars that make up the Orion constellation. The star, name Te Leporis, is about 500 light years away. As it dies, it is actually getting bigger. Down below you can actually see what this means. You can see the comparison of the size of the dying star compared to the distance of the Earth from the Sun. The splotch of light underneath is an actual photo of the dying star with the comparison to our Earth and Sun above it.

Amazing!!!

A reminder that Monday is the field trip to Vancouver for the symphony and Granville Market. We will be leaving here at 8:15!!! Students need to wear Full Dress uniforms.

Music of the Week

February 10, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Our music of the week is the incomparable artist, Bobby McFerrin. He is an incredible artist and does almost all his music without instruments. Here are some videos with him, including my favorite, “Blackbird”.

A Short Week

November 11, 2008 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

I hope that you were able to enjoy the concert today. The students did a wonderful job and also did a wonderful job listening and sitting respectfully for the rest of the concert.

It is an important day for students to be involved in. I was talking to my students about how my grandfather, who passed away last year, never really talked about the war (Second World War). He kept telling me that it was a terrible time and that he didn’t want to share that experience with me; that it was a sad time where he lost many friends. However, we need to make sure that we never forget this time. In my conversations with the children last week, it was reassuring to hear that many of the students had some understanding of the importance of the day. However, there were some misconceptions and things that needed to be clarified. Having these conversations with students is a very important process and learning experience for children to help ensure that we continue to put a precedence on peace making.

As for the rest of the week, as it is a short week, there will be no spelling or memory verse this week.

This week, (and probably a little next week) I am showcasing a great album as our music of the week. The album is called Hush and it features Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma. Yo-Yo Ma is a famous cellist who I got to see live last year. The concert was magnificent. Bobby McFerrin is not someone I have ever got to see live but he is an amazing vocal artist probably best known for “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. However, most of his work is in the classical area and is a very well known conductor. So I thought I would highlight a couple of songs. One is from the album “Hush”, the other is a song that Bobby McFerrin did live. It is just an amazing song that only he could ever pull off. The last one is his mst well-known one, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.

SeeqPod – Playable Search

An Active Monday!

September 15, 2008 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Lots of stuff happening today!!!!

We started our Oobleck machines today! They are looking really good. Aftre looking at the Oobleck, the students wrote down five important properties of Oobleck. After discussing those properties with the class, each group chose 5 properties that we titled Laws of Oobleck. The five laws we came up with were:

It melts in your hand sometimes but not always and after it has been used a lot.
It melts and dries because it was a solid and a liquid
The liquid evaporates but the other stuff doesn’t
It hardens in a quick amount of time.
It hardens when we squish it.

Now that the laws have been established, students are working on designing a vehicle that could move around on the surface of Oobleck and collect specimans to further study Oobleck before it takes over the world!!!

Students also got their first ten spelling words today. I have put the entire list here in the post. If you can’t see the list, you can click on the document in the Box.net widget on the right side under where it says Class Files. If you click on the file, it will give you the option to download it. You can also click spelling-l-1 to download it.

Spelling L 1 – Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Spelling L 1

This weekend, the school is holding a golf tournament in support of purchasing more equipment for the playground. The information is as follows:

September 20, 2008 Aquadel Golf Course, 9am Shotgun Start, includes lunch and prizes for all! Cost $60.00 please purchased tickets at the school office. :

Sponsor a hole at the golf tournament:

Bronze Sponsor $ 300.00

Silver Sponsor 500.00

Gold Sponsor 1000.00

All cash donation exceeding $25.00 will be issued a Tax Receipt.

Students also have their first bible verse today. They will need to have these verses memorized for FRIDAY!

The verse is Ephesians 2:10.

“We are God’s Masterpiece. he has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good thinkgs he planned for us long ago.”

I have had lots of great comments about doing the favorite verses as memory verses. I believe it is really affirming to hear how the bible affects people and how each of these special verses speaks to each of us. I also have been reading verses I have not heard before which is great for our growth in studying God’s word.

Finally, I was told that I just have to add some of the songs from the Bungee Jumpin’ Cows on the blog. This group is a band from the States that goes around to schools and sings songs that are science related. They are great fun and I actually met one of them when I went down to take a science course. It was great fun and the kids just loved the CD.

Have a great evening!

Neat Song

April 2, 2008 eoin24 Comments 3 comments

I found a neat song this morning which I will be sharing with the class. It is very cute. Especially since it’s about animals. Take a look.

Beyond The Desk

The Class Blog for Mr. Hancock's Grade 5/6 Class

Browsed by
Tag: music