Music

Teachers:

For e-mail addresses, please see the Staff page.

Music: Mrs. Sylvia Grier

Music: Ms. Milka Tokic

Instrumental Music: Mr. Jim Vaughn

Click here for information about the Instrumental Music Program.

Music News

November & December 2009

This is the wonderful season of the year when all of us here at Wayside look forward to celebrating the holidays in classroom activities and performance!

Our Kindergartners are busily preparing their annual Thanksgiving Celebration on Nov. 22 with the assistance of Mrs. Milka Tokic, our enrichment music teacher. In class, they will continue to learn skills from the new music curriculum, focusing on steady beat with instruments/movement, learning why people create music, art, and dance, as well as exploring various tone colors in voices and instruments.

First Graders will be introduced to the story and music of “The Nutcracker” and also sing traditional songs, dancing, and expanding their use of instruments to include Orff pieces. The will continue to explore “Contrasts in Music” for long/short, soft/loud, and fast/slow recognition, as well as begin to successfully sing/play sol-mi patterns in preparation for the MCPS assessments in January.

In Second Grade we have a very busy November, taking our field trip to Strathmore Hall to hear the National Philharmonic (Nov. 17) and then following directly that same week with our traditional play “The Eagle and the Turley” planned for Friday, Nov. 20 at 10:00 AM. Our musical mastery during these two months will also include learning to play a bordun on the Orff instruments, broadening sight-reading skills to include “re” and “do”, and enjoying several dance activities from world culture music.

Third Graders will be introduced to sixteenth notes in the weeks ahead, as well as enjoying holiday songs from America and around the world. Our preparation for the MCPS assessments during these weeks will focus on expressive qualities of music – articulation, dynamics, and tempo. And our January recorder unit is just around the corner!

Fourth and Fifth Graders are weekly practicing for the Jan. 14th concert entitled “A Wild and Wacky Winter”. The performance will be presented to the entire school and community (PM) – an event everyone looks forward to in the winter months ahead. In our classroom activities, we will be creating original pentatonic pieces (4th) and performing them and learning about theme and variations (5th), while also enjoying songs and dances of the season.

November and December is a time for gratitude and mine certainly extends to all the Wayside families for your continued enthusiasm and support of the music program at school. In music and all of the Arts we are building lifelong appreciation and also a common bond between cultures that can only make our world a more peaceful and joyful place!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!

Mr. Vaughn's Instrumental Music Page

Click on the above link to find information about Mr. Vaughn's schedule at Wayside.

All 4th and 5th grade students in Montgomery County Public Schools are eligible to participate in the instrumental music program. Students may choose from several band or orchestra instruments and then receive a weekly 30 minute lesson in small homogenous groups. Participation in this program prepares students to join the bands, orchestras, jazz bands, pep bands, and other music groups at their middle schools.

There are no pre-requisites for being in instrumental music! It is, of course, an advantage if your child already reads music or plays an instrument such as the piano. However, the program is designed to accommodate both complete beginners and students with some prior music experience.

MCPS Choral and General Music Department