Sunday 14 December 2014

I'm Yours by Totara Team!

Hi everyone! This is the final blog post for this year. The Totara Team at Grey Lynn have been learning ukulele and a few chords on metallophones this term. Each group chose to make an introduction or arrangement of the song 'I'm Yours' for their end of term task. This is my 'favourites' edit!

I'm Yours from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.


Happy Holidays!

Thursday 16 October 2014

The Totara Musical Elements Bands

Recently in Totara music we have been learning about the musical elements. We used what we learned about timbre, texture and structure to improve the quality of our rhythm compositions.




Look out for our audio and video performances soon to appear at The Music Room!

Sunday 15 June 2014

Rm 3 discover 'London's Burning!'


On 5 June Room 3 put 4 beats into their carriage of the Music Train. Clapped through all of the carriages on the Train and were off on another Journey to discover the music of the world.



The music train clap from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.

They ended up in London in 1666 where a dreadful fire was raging.
Room 3 learned to sing London's Burning as a round.



London's Burning! from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.

Tuesday 27 May 2014


 Room 2 in Never-Neverland




Today Room 2 went on the Music Train to Never-Neverland

We listened to music from the musical version of Peter Pan and practised performing the role of Lost Boys.




The Lost Boys from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.



We thought about which instruments we would choose for Tinkerbell music and also what we would choose for Captain Hook music.



We thought Tinkerbell should have high tinkly sounding instruments because she is little and magical.


Tinkerbell Music from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.



We chose low sounds and sharp sounds for Captain Hook because he is big and bad. The boys' music for Captain Hook is exciting and full of action.


Captain Hook Music from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.

Monday 19 May 2014


Room 8's Pan pipe experience!



We started the lesson by putting the right amount of notes into the Room 8 carriage and clapping the rhythm the notes make.

 


Then off we went in the Music Train.




Our journey today took us to South America where a culture group was playing guitars and pan pipes.



We drew faces to show whether the music sounded happy, sad, exciting or peaceful.



We made pan pipes out of straws!




We found out that the short straws make the high sounds and the long straws make the low sounds.


 



Sunday 11 May 2014

The Music Train

This term in music we are learning about the music notes ta and te te. Ta is a 1 beat note that goes at a walking pace whereas te te notes are running notes. Te te notes are joined by a beam. Today Room 1 made their own music notes to go in the Room 1 carriage of the Music Train.

  

 The Music Train has carriages which can only carry four beats. We put four beats in the
room 1 carriage. I wonder whose notes will end up in the room 1 carriage next week!


Now that the train has passengers we are off on a Music Train journey!
This week we travelled to the Wild West of America and listened to 'Ive been Workin' on the Railway".




The Music Train from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.

Wednesday 30 April 2014


Rm 3  Adventure on the Island of ‘Scrape It’

 


After the Pirate children escaped from their sinking ship they were whooshed in a fast ocean current towards the island of ‘Scrape It’. Along the way they had to
scrape off swarms of harmless jelly fish in the water.





They were swept into a sea cave where Magical Mary-Elle the mermaid was making twinkly sounds with her Mermaid Keys.


 Magical Mary-Elle promised to help the pirate children survive if they would complete a musical challenge.

Magical Mary-Elle poured gold coins, music cards and instrument cards into the water The children dived in and got them. They completed the challenge.

Magical Mary-Elle magicked them home and the children woke up in their beds thinking that they had dreamed everything that happened. 

This term we are learning about the difference between a band and an orchestra.
We are learning instrument names and ways to produce long and short sounds on classroom instruments.
We are performing patterns containing short and long sounds.
We listened to Octopus Garden by Beatles.
Does it sound like a band or an orchestra? What instruments can you hear?






Rm 6 Adventure on the Island of ‘Shake It’




The Island of 'Shake It' has dangerous rocks surrounding it. When the pirate children escaped from their sinking ship they had to wriggle and shake their bodies through rocks in the water until eventually they made it to the shore. Once they got out of the water they were amazed to find no beach, just steep cliffs, trees and bushes, rocks and more rocks. 



On shore, the children clambered over big rocks and little rocks looking for the safest place on the island. Their Shake It instruments sounded loud and jolty climbing over big rocks and soft and even walking on the little stones.












Then they noticed a house at the top of a big cliff. But how could they survive the journey up there? The way up was very dangerous and steep.








They made a ladder by tying their life jackets to their tambourines and got their best climbers to tie the ladder to strong branches and tree roots.

 The children successfully climbed up the cliff using their tambourine ladder.


They found that a hairy old man lived in the house on the hill.


The Hairy old man had been living alone on the island since World War 2. He was almost at the end of his war-time supplies of canned food which were getting a bit rusty. His only chance of calling for help was an old morse code radio transmitter.
It had instructions but he didn’t know what the dots and dashes meant. So he was stranded on the Island.


The clever pirate children worked out that a dot means make a short sound and a dash means make a long sound.

The children played the short and long code patterns to the Hairy Old Man on their instruments.


They helped the old man do an SOS pattern, which was eventually picked up by a coast guard, who rescued everybody!







Monday 21 April 2014


ROOM 4

Adventure on the Island of ‘Beat It’




To survive on the Island of ‘Beat It’ the pirate children used their ears to listen for signs that would help them survive. They heard a drum in the distance and walked towards the sound to find the only humans living on the island. 





The drum was played by ‘Big Chief Walla Walla’. 

He told the children he would get his villagers to cook up a big feast. But only if they promised to solve a musical problem for him.

The villagers sizzled some bacon and sausages for the hungry children.
Guiros make scraping sounds. Cabasas make sizzling sounds.


Then the villagers fed the children.



This is Big Chief Walla Walla’s problem: On his island he has found a secret stash full of musical instruments but what are their names?






The pirate children told the chief the name of every instrument in his secret stash!

Then everybody celebrated by playing the chief’s favourite song!  







Beat It from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.


ROOM 5 STAY ALIVE!

Puriri’s adventures continue in the Survival Islands.

In a big storm the ship crashed into jagged rocks and began to sink.






The Room 5 pirate children started running around on the decks panicking but a big Genie came up out of the sea spray and waves. He told them that in order to survive they must put on their life jackets, grab their percussion instruments and swim to the survival island that matched their percussion instrument. He pointed out three different islands that lay near by.

This island is called ‘Beat It.’




These children beat off the baby sharks guarding the island and safely brought themselves and their instruments ashore.



This island is called ‘Shake It’.   



These children held their shaking instruments up high and wriggled and shook themselves, twisting and turning through the network of rocks in front of the island and finally came ashore holding their shaking instruments.



This survival island is called ‘Scrape It’. 



The children who went to this island swam with their scraping instruments through big swarms of jellyfish which they had to scrape off their arms, legs and faces. Luckily they were not Stingers!





We are learning the names of the classroom instruments.

We are learning how each instrument makes its sound.

We are learning to play in time with the music by listening for the beat.

Friday 4 April 2014


RM 1 ON 13 FEB 2014


This Term Puriri have been having music adventures in the Survival Islands.

On the 13 February Rm 1 pirate children boarded a sailing ship, donned their pirate hats and were off ‘Sailing to Adventure on the Deep Blue Sea’.

OK. That was just for fun. Here’s what we really did:

Thursday 3 April 2014

Rm 14 on 27 Feb 2014


This term the year 3's are learning to read music as we play recorders.

Today we began with clapping ta and te te.

Then we worked out which music notes showed the rhythm for Buzzy Bee.



I know the answer to That! 


Then we practised the Hoki Toki to help us remember which is our left hand and right hand.



Hoki Toki from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.


Last of all we played Buzzy Bee on our recorders. 






Rm 14 from Rosalind Mason on Vimeo.

Sunday 2 March 2014

Hi and welcome to my Blog!


In Puriri classes at Grey Lynn School we start our music lessons with the Hello song. Then everybody sings their name!