Mrs. O'Toole

“Annie” was a great success. Congratulations to all involved. St. Juliana’s has such wonderful talent! We also celebrated “Religion Day’, ending the day with Mass. The School choir sang—all 60 of them! Their voices are becoming stronger and stronger.
On the next two Wednesdays, we will be celebrating Mass. On the 23rd, the 5/6th grade choir members will be singing. On the 30th, the 4th grade choristers will be singing.
For the next two weeks, a student teacher will be working in the music classroom. Her name is Alanna Hall. She is going to school at North Park College. Alanna is a natural in the music room. The children and I look forward to her classes.
Currently, the Kindergarteners and the First grade are working on their light singing voices. Kindergarten is getting ready for Parent’s Day Mass.
The First Grade will be working with classroom instruments. We will be
doing a little dancing, too.
Second grade is perfecting their First Communion songs. That’s next week!
Third grade sang robustly with the Fifth graders for the musical. We will continue with music repertoire and instrument playing and instrument identification.
Fourth grade also sang enthusiastically for the show. We will resume our recorder playing.
Sixth grade will continue with their listening and music identification. We will then begin to study Beethoven.
Seventh and Eighth grade are into the fourth quarter of Enrichment classes.
This year is certainly flying by!

We are approaching “midterms” in the Junior High. The music enrichment classes are very busy. The 7th graders are researching project reports on Civil War songs. I am always so amazed at their ingenuity and resourcefulness as they put their projects together. The 8th Graders are finishing their last two assignments. We have been working in the computer lab. One assignment is researching DSOkids.com. This website has a wealth of information from listening to musical instruments to discovering the lives of great composers. The website allows you to compose your own music, play musical games that will enhance certain aspects of the musical genre, see what a professional symphony is all about. Their second assignment involves research into the lives of famous composers from the different musical eras. All these assignments will be due on March 12th.
If you get a chance, go into DSOKids.
It’s certainly informative and a lot of fun!

I have always maintained that when school begins in August, there is no letting up until June. Here we are in February, and I need to revisit prior months! The first items I want to mention are the phenomenal performances of the children in the Cherub Concert and the Christmas Pageant. We worked very hard and it showed! Their singing and acting truly were inspiring.
The next accolade the children deserve is their prayerful presence at the Noon Mass celebrating Catholic Schools week. The choirs sang beautifully, adding to the richness of the Liturgy.
Now we are preparing for Lent. The Ash Wednesday Liturgy is the first service the children will participate in. After that, every Monday in the gym, we will begin our week with Lenten prayer.
May our Lenten journey this year return us to the riches of Our God.

We have had an exciting time in the third grades! I introduced the third graders to the concept of form-sections of a piece. The form we were studying was “ABA“. Even with examples and singing, this can be pretty dry. So, we decided to compose a little ditty using ABA form. The songs actually turned out quite nicely. I will write Mrs. Stolarski’s piece here.
“Mrs. Stolarski has a room. It’s on the second floor.
Mrs. Stolarski has a room. Just knock right on the door.
In the room then you will find, games and puzzles of all kinds.
Mrs. Stolarski has a room. It’s on the second floor!”
We liked the tune so much, we added a dance to it! Actually, it is sort of a minuet! Mrs. Gawne came downstairs and videoed it.
I hope we can get some of dancing and singing on the web log.
Third graders, you are outstanding!!!!!!!!!

One of the most rewarding experiences a teacher can have is witnessing excitement in the classroom about the materials that are being explored. The 8th Grade Music Enrichment class is wrapping up their quarter. They had two projects to do: explore the DSOKids website, and within that site, find a composer that they could research. Projects included the who, what, when, where, why, how questions. The more the students delved into information, the more they discovered. I heard “Look at this great Mozart site!”, “Mrs. O’Toole, here is the composer conducting his music!” “I found a great picture of Rossini!” YouTube was the best place to hear classical music in different genres! We didn’t want the class to end! Kudos, 8th Grade!!!!

The 7th grade and the 5/6 Youth Choir were terrific leading the singing at Mass last Wednesday. 7th grade worked very diligently on incorporating guitars, maracas, claves, drums and tambourines into the music for the Liturgy. It truly was inspiring considering that we had never done anything like this before. The success was complete when the 7th graders asked, "When can we play again?" YEAH!

Excitement abounds in the music classroom!! My 7th grade music enrichment class is going to accompany a new psalm I am teaching the students. We will have two acoustic guitars, some maracas, claves, tambourines and a drum! Our debut is Wednesday at 8:45 Mass. The role to accompany is new to the students. Ensemble work requires concentration, watching the director and listening to what is being produced.I am so proud of them and their enthusiasm! Kudos!

If some of your darlings are coming home asking to go to Venice, it's my fault! We are studying Antonio Vivaldi, a red-haired Italian priest who worked in Venice at the famous Ospedale della Pieta orphanage. The orphanage was for girls only. It was here that he taught them how to play instruments of the orchestra.
Venice is a marvelous city. It is a city built on water. There are no streets--only canals. The mode of transportation is boats. A gondola is a boat that is indigenous to Venice. These wonderful crafts are created by one family-the Tremonti's. Venice has remained the same for hundreds of years. It's custom of Carnavale, where citizens dress up in elaborate costumes, is stilled practiced today. Venice was and is a hub for opera and the arts.

I wanted to share with you a wonderful experience that is continuing to go on in the music classroom.
Last week, Luciano Pavarotti, a very famous operatic tenor, died. On YouTube, there was a tribute to him entitled "ciao". It is a clip of Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma", an extremely difficult aria for the tenor voice. I wanted the 4th grade and up to hear and see this wonderful man perform. I also had a clip, "YouTube" again, of a competition that is like our American Idol--Britain's Got Talent. A cell phone salesman, named Paul Potts, also sang "Nessun Dorma". What an experience. Get on line to see this if you get a chance. The students compared the two performances. Very intelligent conversations followed. We've opened the door to the world of Opera, as seen in the 21st century. Amazing!

Greetings, Everyone!!!
School is in gear and the Music room is a very busy place!
Our new Kindergarteners are a very precious group indeed. They are beginning their chants and their steady beats
First Graders are currently reviewing their chants and are playing games that reinforce certain music principals.
Second Grade is reviewing "So-Mi"and "Ta-Titi" language for rhythm._
Third Graders will be embarking on musical terms.
Fourth Graders are getting ready to play the recorders. Lots of music theory is headed their way.
Fifth grade will be studying the instruments of the orchestra.
Sixth grade will begin music history starting with the four eras of music.
Seventh and Eighth Enrichment will begin classes a week from Wednesday. Seventh Grade will be studying music of the Civil War.
Eighth Grade will begin a Music Appreciation unit.
Of course there is our Liturgical music that we will be singing throughout the year.
Busy, busy!!!!!!!!