Specialty Highlight September 2026: Music
Hello Garden Families,
The school year has been going very well in Music. While all of the grades are at different places in their age, skill, and development, the goal of Music at our Waldorf-inspired school is to promote the love of making music in every heart.
First Grade
In Waldorf tradition, First Graders mainly learn pentatonic songs, meaning that the songs have only whole steps. This is appropriate for their development as pentatonic songs have a gentle and open quality without a strong resolution. A song in a major or minor scale may “tell” children “what to think” whereas a pentatonic scale song “asks” a child “what do you think?” It is the same concept of having rounded edges on their papers. The students are learning music through listening, singing, movement, and play. One thing very much enjoyed during our “Composer of the Month” day in August was when the children heard a portion of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Movement IV- Allegro, which sounds very regal. With play silks as their capes and boomwackers as their staff, each became a King or Queen and walked down the royal aisle, with their classmates bowing as they went. To prepare for playing the pentatonic flute, the class has been practicing songs about left and right, finger name and finger number songs, hand coordination games, clapping games, and more.
Second and Third Grade
The Second and Third Graders have been learning many songs. With each song, we do an activity, whether it be a beanbag passing on the beat game, clapping games, work with rhythm sticks, or playing the song on recorders. The class recently performed a choreographed “dance” with play silks to “Shenandoah,” where some of the students were the “sunshine” and the others were the “river.”
Looking ahead: In Waldorf tradition, Third Grade students begin to read music. It is exciting to begin the journey of musical notation with them. Teaching kids to read music is a passion, and the joy felt when seeing children gain this understanding is unmatched! Learning to read music exercises visual processing, auditory processing, pattern recognition, and increases cognitive flexibility in general!
Fourth and Fifth Grade
The Fourth and Fifth Graders have now had two classes with their ukuleles. The curriculum, Rainbow Ukulele Level 1, which you have likely seen come home by now, is a pleasure to teach. Please be sure to help your child bring their ukuleles and books to school every Monday and Wednesday. The ukulele curriculum starts the students off by learning tablature, and then continues them forward into chords and reading musical notation. It is a very exciting adventure that we are all on together. Before ukulele, the class worked on the treble clef staff notes, “FACE in the SPACE” and “Every Good Boy Does Fine for the Line.” We also reviewed the most common time signatures: 3/4 and 4/4, as well as doing many drum passing exercises with rhythm notation. The class knows quarter notes, half notes, dotted half notes, whole notes, and eighth notes so far, and can drum them correctly as they read the music. This takes hand-eye coordination and concentration. One thing the students will be learning soon is how to read key signatures, which is always so much fun to explore.
The class took turns accompanying their classmates on the xylophone while the others sang, and did this with multiple songs that were learned. The accompaniment got gradually more challenging as we went, and the class should be proud of how well they picked it up; all students seemed to enjoy it.
Middle School
Our Middle School class has learned so much since we started school. They have learned the major, minor, and chromatic scales, octave, and arpeggio in solfège. This is a daily exercise that students now have memorized, with the exception of the chromatic scale, in which they still refer to their paper, but are so close to having that memorized as well. Many other solfège exercises have also been practiced. The Middle School is learning the beneficial skill of sight reading music. When students see music, they are learning to audiate with their new solfège skills and sing the line as written without ever hearing it aloud before. ‘Audiate’ was a new word for the class. Audiation is like visualization, but for your ears. We are able to visualize a pink elephant in our brain, and we can audiate a tune in our brain when looking at the musical notation for it on paper.
As for our choir work, the middle schoolers can be proud. They did a fabulous job learning “I am the Earth” by Glyn Lehmann, which is such a gorgeous piece with such meaningful and powerful words that I will list at the end. Such songs can be empowering for our young students who are truly capable of anything they put their minds to, including helping the earth and environment become healthier. The class hopes to perform this song at some point. It is a two-part song with a beautiful piano accompaniment. Other songs that they are working on right now include “Firefly” and “River Song” by Andy Beck, as well as “Galop” by Ken Berg, which is a song completely in solfège and a personal favorite from my middle school choir days.
For guitar, the Middle Schoolers just finished learning their first song, “Scarborough Fair,” which includes Am, Em, G, and D chords. The strum pattern for this song was simply“down” as students are focusing very much on getting the hand placement correct for the chords. Some can sing this song while playing, and others can accompany the singing while they play. They are doing a beautiful job.
I am the Earth
I am the river flowing
I am the desert dry
I am the four winds blowing
I am the sunset sky
I am the forest breathing
I am the ocean wide
I am the storm clouds gathering
I am the mountain high
I am the Earth
We are the children growing
You are the place we live
We are the seed you're sowing
We are the life you give
We are the future rising
We will be your voice
We will watch and learn from you
We will make the choice
I am the Earth
(You're in our hands)
I am the Earth
(We're in your care)
I am the Earth
(Together we stand)
I am the Earth
(This moment in time we share)
We share the future
Stand side by side
One Earth, One people
We'll turn the tide
And in the future
They'll say with pride
One Earth, One people
We turned the tide
Side by side
Sincerely,
Ki Teagan
