Features
Music class in the time of a pandemic By Music Teachers Alyssa Gangarosa, Caitlin Grubbe, and Phyllis Sommer
Despite pandemic restrictions, music learning continues to flourish at Trinity School. The music curriculum provides a foundational skill set that is intentionally aligned from Early Learners through the Sixth Grade. Each year, these skills are expanded upon through grade-level objectives that foster students’ musical growth, deepening their musical understanding. Please enjoy a look at how we’ve continued to make music together at Trinity this year. With singing as the bedrock of our music curriculum, it was important for us to safely continue student development in this area while adhering to health and safety guidelines. Requiring our students to social distance and sing in masks for shorter amounts of time, we have been able to maintain student growth in melodic skills. With the need for masked singing, it has been especially important this year to spend more time on vocal health.
Fourth Grader Camille [left] uses dowel rods as rhythm sticks and Fourth Grader Moriah [right] uses a cut-up pool noodle as a güiro to perform in a four-part Orff arrangement. Each student also used egg shakers as maracas and plates and bells as tambourines to complete all four parts.
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Focusing on rhythmically spoken chants in the early weeks of school gave students time to adjust to vocal production through a mask. Pairing these chants with puppets, games, or movement made the necessary adjustment unnoticeable to the students but has made an immense difference vocally. Now, students are singing with ease in a healthy way. “Although we have to wear masks, I feel like my singing voice has been improving every single music class,” says Third Grader Ann Marie. Students take pride in building a love of singing by cultivating community through singing games and learning folk songs to carry with them through their adult lives to share with future generations. From simple songs to singing in harmony, students across all grade levels gain confidence in their voice, the instrument they will never be without. “Music makes me feel so happy,” says First Grader Madison. “I love to sing!” Another important aspect of our curriculum is instrument playing. With restrictions on the sharing of class materials and the need for Specials teachers to travel to base classrooms this year, we created individual music kits for student use. Using everyday items, each kit has instruments modeled after what is typically used in the music rooms, such as pool noodles as güiros, egg shakers as maracas, plates