In this ongoing general music class, learners will meet once a week to sing, play games, practice hearing, identifying and reading rhythms, learning to sing canons and rounds, and learning about our Musician of the Month. We will focus on different styles of music every month, related to the style of music our Musician of the Month is involved in. In each class I have a picture schedule that I share with the students so they can see what we're doing for the class that day. We will start by performing some kind of vocal or physical warmup, followed by singing. Then we will learn the musical vocabulary of the month's theme and practice through singing, chanting, dancing, simple percussion exercises, and playing games. 

September: Latin American
October: Folk/Americana
November: Spiritual/Protest 
December: Musical Theater
January: Chinese Traditional
February: Western Classical
March: Afro-Caribbean
April: Jazz/Blues
May: Pop/Rock
June: Student Choice

Week of Sept. 6-9: Repeating and reading simple rhythms
Week of Sept. 12-16: Learning a Spanish rhyme with an ostinato
Week of Sept. 19-23: Latin American dance
Week of Sept. 26-30: Singing and moving with Spanish verbs

The Musician of the Month aims to break down euro-centrism in education by incorporating musicians and styles from diverse backgrounds and abilities. I have successfully used this model in my classroom for 5 years. Often, we are moving, tapping, and dancing along to the music. Sometimes it takes the form of simply watching and listening to a short clip at the end of class. 

 I look forward to learning with you!