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    Kindergarten:  Kindergarten students will learn about the different sounds that their voices can make:  whispering, talking, singing, and shouting.  After they learn the different sounds their voices can make, then they will work on improving their singing voices by using their head voice and matching pitch.  Kindergarten students will learn the difference between high and low, loud and soft and fast and slow as well.  They will use rhythm sticks and classroom percussion instruments to practice learning to play music.  Students will learn about the instrument families:  strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion.  They will move creatively to music demonstrating and understanding of beat, loud/ soft, and fast/ slow.  Students will also learn the Alma Mater and several patriotic songs that everyone in the school will know and be able to sing together.
     
    First Grade:  First grade will continue to develop the skills introduced in kindergarten.  In addition they will start learning to read rhythms and pitches with classroom percussion instruments and metalophones and xylophones.  They will work with more complex songs when they sing and when they play instruments.  They will continue to experiment with moving creatively to music.
     
    Second Grade:  Second grade students will continue to devlop the skills introduced in kindergarten and first grade.  In addition they will add more complex rhythms and notes when playing vairous mallet instruments.  They will focus on musical vocabulary like tempo, articulation and dynamics.  We will be adding some simple folk dances to our repertoire.
     
    Third Grade:  Third grade students add "road map" signs to their musical knowledge.  Symbols like repeat signs, first and second endings, dynamic markings, D.S. signs and coda signs are all important for telling musicians where they need to be in the music, and how the notes should be performed.  They will also increase their musical understanding by learning how to play recorders.  They will be reading note names in treble clef.  They will be learning more and more complicated rhythms throughout the year.  At the end of the year they will complete a concentrated unit on instrument families ending with an opportunity to try a flute head joint, clarinet mouthpiece and trumpet and baritone/trombone mouthpiece.  Students will then choose what instrument they might want to concentrate on next year in fourth grade!
    Fourth Grade:  Fourth grade students are also working on road map symbols and improving their skills on the recorder. In addition all fourth grade students have the opportunity to join chorus or band for even more concentrated instruction in music!
     
    BAND:  Band students will be receiving small group instruction on a band instrument:  flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, baritone, snare drum, or bells.  They will also get a large group ensemble experience and perform for the community in June.
     
    Chorus:  Chorus students get the opportunity to have a large group ensemble experience for voice.  They will work on partner songs, rounds and singing in parts to help them get ready for the experiences that will be available for them at the middle school starting in fifth grade.
     
    There will be two concert/ showcase opportunities each year.  In December each grade level will present several selections to the community with a holiday theme.  The chours will also perform.  In the spring we will follow a little bit different format.  The fourth grade band students will perform first, followed by the chorus.  Then fourth grade will perform, then add third grade, then add second grade, then add first grade, then add kindergarten, so at the end of the concert every student in the school will be singing together!
     
     
    South Lewis Has Character (sung to melody of Say, Say, Oh Playmate)
    South Lewis Central School,
    We really play it cool!
    Trustworthy citizens,
    Respectful of our friends.
    We play the game fair.
    We always show we care.
    We are responsible,
    and give our best, best, best, best!