Ice Cream Party

Congratulations to all the students who qualified to attend the Jammin' In July Ice Cream Party Thursday!

Jason, Shakki, Allison, Caitlin, Emily and Alissa
(Not Pictured: Ireland, Ivana, Kenna and Nora)



Building and enjoying their ice cream creations...



















Playing games and music...

Group Lessons- Piano Olympics (Opening Ceremony)

Piano Olympics is officially here! Our theme for this year is Piano Olympics. I hold Piano Olympics in my studio every four years. Students gathered for our "Opening Ceremony" over the last couple days and learned what they will be doing for Piano Olympics this year. They each received a workbook that lists the events they can choose, has an Arizona Torch run map so they can visually see how close they are go getting to each medal level and activities they will be doing periodically.

At our group lesson we did a couple activities in the workbook first. The students learned about Olympic symbol- the color and meaning of the 5 olympic rings. They were then given the chance to create their own Olympic symbol keeping Piano Olympics and music in mind. After that, each student came up and wrote down their own Olympic oath.







After we completed a couple activities in their Piano Olympic workbook, we played a couple music Olympic games. Rhythmic Badminton was by far the highlight! To play Rhythmic Badminton students had to hit a ballooon with a fly swatter back and forth to their opponent. Now that in itself sounds easy, but when you add that they need to do this on the 1st beat of each measure when the music is playing makes this task so much harder. So while I played (and sometimes had the piano play for me so I can take some pics) students had to count carefully to make sure they didn't hit the balloon on the wrong beat.







LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Halloween Festival 2009

On Friday, October 23rd, students from all over the west valley gathered together dressed as vampires, pirates, skeletons, basketball stars, movie and video game characters and more to perform their Halloween pieces for family and friends! Even a few mom’s this year joined in on the fun. A fun pass along game was played through the night, with goodies galore to enjoy! A spooktacular night for all!

Hosting the Halloween Festival... The Queen of Hearts


Allison is our winner for the guess how many candy in the jar game. Congrats and enjoy the candy!





Our best winkers, their families are the winners of the pass along game.













More performers...



































Fun and Goodies...

Jammin' In July

Don't forget- July is On Your Own Month!
Let’s have fun, make and accomplish musical goals and celebrate!

All students who accumulate a minimum of 20 points will earn
an invitation to an ice cream party! The more points you earn the more ice cream and toppings!


20 points- 2 scoops of ice cream + 1 topping
25 points- 3 scoops of ice cream + 1 topping
30 points- 3 scoops of ice cream + 2 toppings
35 points- 3 scoops of ice cream + 3 toppings
40 points- 4 scoops of ice cream + 4 toppings


*Play a MusicLearningCommunity.com Game- 2 points for each individual game
(Play games that are in your current level. I prefer you play games you
haven’t done yet if possible. This is a time to challenge yourself!
You must reach the target score to receive the 2 points.)

*Learn new pieces On Your Own- 3 points each piece
(Learning new pieces on your own isn’t simply sight-reading.
You want the pieces to be to a point where you can pass them off.)

*Complete a Project from one of your classes- 5 points each
Project Examples:

Imagination is Key- Create a Sound Story, Practice 3 improvisation activities learned in class, Create a story to go along with a written piece you are learning.

Red, White and Blue Rocks- Play your Pentascales around the Circle of Fifth’s or Compose a Patriotic Anthem at home, memorize a patriotic anthem or piece.

Accompanying Basics- Accompany someone either singing or playing along with another instrument, try conducting and have someone follow you.

Keyboard Kids- Polish all the pieces in your book and share 3 with your teacher when you return.

Come up with your own musical project and share it with your teacher! (Give me a head’s up what you are planning on doing before you do it)

Make sure you print out the sheet to keep track of everything on the summer newsletter.

Summer Workshop Fun

This has been a fun filled month full of learning and making music! I thought I would share some pictures from some of the workshops that were held this summer. (I apologize as I didn't always remember to take pictures at each class.)


The first class was our Accompanying Basics class. Students learned how to accompany, whether it was a choir, with other instruments or someone performing a solo with accompanied background. They learned about appropriate stage presence and had also learned the basic techniques of how to conduct in addition how to follow a conductor.





Red, White and Blue Rocks! In this class students learned about two patriotic composers- John Philp Sousa and Francis Scott Key. We had a little bit of Star Spangled fun, made studio flags and each student composed their own Studio Anthem.









Imagination is Key. The first day of this class students learned all about the piano. How it was made, who invented it (Christofori), I even opened up my piano to show them the inside and how it all worked. They reviewed the things they learned on their first day by playing Piano Baseball and concluded by making an origami piano project.



The next couple days students focused on improvisation and imagination. We did several improvisation activities, created sound stories, learned how to apply Story, Color, Character and Imagery in their music.





Piano Team Preview class was a weekly class where students learned four different ensemble pieces over 3 weeks and on the last week recorded a CD to take home. This is a great class to get a feel for what Piano Team during the year is like.




Last but certainly not least is Keyboard Kids. This is a great group of kids getting a jump start in their piano lessons. In this class students learn the music basics and go home knowing how to play several pieces. We have a lot of fun playing musical games, making music and friends.

ASMTA Conference

I had the opportunity to present at the Arizona State Music Teachers Association Conference on June 5th. My presentation topic was "Practical Technology Tools for the Music Studio" and focused on the practical tools used in the music studio and what teachers can do with them in addition to setting up a music lab. It was a successful presentaion and I enjoyed the experience. Here are some pictures of me giving my presentation. (Thanks Angie!)

Here is my conference badge and a picture of me waiting for my presentation to begin...





Me presenting...

Homeschool in the Woods Composer Activity Kit

I just found out about this really cool downloadable kit from Homeschool in the Woodes. It's a composer kit that introduces 42 different composers. It looks like a great and fun resource. What a fun summer project this would be for students!
http://learning-by-living.blogspot.com/2009/05/homeschool-in-woods-contest.html

Lowe Piano Studio blog is giving one away...
http://lowepianostudio.blogspot.com/2009/06/giveaway-composers-activity-pak.html