This document provides an overview of the vocal and general music classes taught by Mrs. Logan-Keady at Our Lady of the Wayside School. It describes the curriculum and activities for each grade level from pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. Students are learning skills like rhythm, pitch, singing, and playing Orff instruments. They are studying and performing songs, poems, and dances from different cultures and time periods. The Christmas concert schedule is also outlined.

1. Vocal/General Music Classes, Mrs. Logan-Keady, Instructor
Grades 3rd
, 4th
and 5th
Playing upon the Orff barred instruments, these students are improvising melodies according to the syllabic
rhythms of their original rhymes. The theme for 5th
Grade is “The Dime Rhyme” ; 4th
Grade: “What’d Ya’ Have
for Lunch?” ; 3rd
Grade: “Ickle Bickle Blue Bockle”, a name game that initially used their own first names but
now each 3rd
Grade homeroom has created a rhyme using the last names of the teachers of OLW School. To
view the homerooms’ original rhymes (their “B Sections”) you can visit my classroom pages on our school’s
website. To hear the poem that serves as the “A Section”, you can ask your student to teach it to you at home
or in the car. The rhythms of both the A and B sections were pre-practiced via the learning sequences of
movement; Orff body percussion (snaps, claps, patsching, swirling, stomping, dancing, etc.); and percussion
instruments.
To play as an ensemble and to improvise, the 5th
grade is using the C Pentatonic Scale and then learning to
reapply the pentatonic pattern so they can also play in the G and F Pentatonic Scales (Transposing). They are
reviewing and learning new styles of Bordun as accompaniment: Crossover Bordun, Challenge Crossover
Bordun, and Levels Bordun. The 4th
Grade uses the C and G Pentatonic and the Borduns are Chord, Broken and
Crossover. The 3rd
Grade uses C Pentatonic and the Borduns are Chord and Broken. We are reviewing the
names of instruments within our Orff Classroom Instrumentarium and the scientific reasons for their sounds.
Across Grades Pre-K through 5th
: Orff and Kodaly Song, Chant, and/or Dance Learning Games and/or Sound
Carpet Creations: Ohio River Play Party “The River is Up!”: 5th
Grade / “Charley, Charley Stole the Barley”:
Grades 4 and 5 / “We Are Playing in the Forest”: Grades 3 and 4 - Wolf Version; Grade 2 - Monkey Version /
“Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear”. 2nd
Grade / “Doggy, Doggy Where’s Your Bone?” and “No Bears Out Tonight”,
Grades 1 and 2 / “Garden Key”, Grade 1 / Many - Kindergarten and Pre-K Mixed
Grade 2: “Cobbler, Cobbler Mend My Shoe” has been a study poem for “*chain performances” of body
percussion and small group dramatizations which are then transferred onto hand held percussion instruments
as well as the Orff barred melodic instruments. 2nd
graders have improvised melodies on the phrases of this
rhyme – in instrument rows and as solos.
2nd
Graders are reviewing the inner feeling, understanding and playing of beat through a variety of means
including playing the C Chord Bordun on barred instruments. They are learning how to hold the mallets and to
follow a conductor. We hear and use helicopter word analogies for the playing and the care of the barred
instruments. We play “7-1, 1-7,” an **audiation / movement/ freezing statue game. We continue to develop
the “head singing voice”, moving away from “the chest voice”, through a variety of Kodaly-based so-mi-la
songs that include “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear” and “We Are Playing in the Forest” as well as vocal glides via
finger puppets, a slinky, and action visuals. It is never too early to prepare our singing voices for our first-time
participation in the OLW Christmas Concert this coming December! (*Chain performances – performing a
rhythmic or melodic phrase from one student to the next student without stopping the beat. **Audiation- -
Inner hearing/thinking)
Grade 1: Our Songs, Chants , Movement and Listening / Learning Games are “Bee, Bee, Bumble Bee”, “Apple
Tree”, “Autumn Leaves”, “See the Old Witch”, “Ghost on the Post”, “Bounce High, Bounce Low”, “Butterfly,

2. Flutter By“ and “Garden Key”. Our Kodaly-Inspired lessons prepare “So-Mi” and “Ta-Ti-Ti” (Quart, Two-
Eighths) and “rest” (1 Beat of silence) for their aural and visual recognition. For now, 1st
Grade concepts are
soft and loud, high and low, and the reinforcement of steady beat. Using puppets, pictures, classical music
recordings, and hand-held instruments, we are reviewing fast and slow; up and down; the differences
between whisper, speaking and singing voices.
Grade K: Students are playing “Talking Drum” – through listening and movement they show the tempi of
medium, slow, and fast as well as the difference between sound and silence. The timbre of “talking
instrument” changes across the weeks so that students experience various timbres. As a class, we are
preparing to sing duets and solos through “Hello There” and “Here Blue, You Good Dog You” as well as vocal
glides. Classical music by Camille Saint-Saens, Pinto and Leroy Anderson, and our songs “ The Old Gray Cat”,
“Autumn Leaves”, and “Butterfly, Flutter By” and soon “Whoo, Whoo, Whoo!” inspire our responsive
movements for up, and down and slow and fast while we pretend we are fish, cats, mice, butterflies, trees,
ghosts, and owls. Students are using maracas and finger cymbals as part of their responses. We also listen for
those concepts via the piano, the metallophone and the singing voice. Kindergarteners are learning the
difference between “beat” and “not a beat”. They practice a “vocabulary” of styles to play rhythm sticks to a
beat. Around the circle, students take solo turns to show the class how to play the beat throughout a march by
John Phillip Sousa. We are learning music classroom safety rules and how to handle instruments: silent
position, ready position and playing position. We use puppets, pictures and a slinky to learn about whisper
voice, speaking voice and singing voice.
6th
, 8th
and Pre-K All Day: An overview of 6th
and 8th
Grade Music has been available on the “Mrs. Logan-
Keady Classroom Pages” of our school website. The Pre-K All Day music class is new this year. Pre-K classes
are comprised of “Kindermusik” lessons and some components of “Music for Moppets”; I am certified in both
of these early childhood music approaches. Resources from John Feierabend are also incorporated. These
grade levels, 6th
, 8th
and Pre-K, will be featured in an upcoming newsletter.
The OLW Christmas Concert Students in the Vocal/General Music Classes of Grades 2, 4, 6 and 8 are required
to participate in the annual Christmas Concert. Consistent student attendance to Vocal/General Music classes
is required in order to be musically prepared for the concert. Preliminary information for Grades 6th
and 8th
is
found in “Mrs. Logan-Keady Classroom Pages” on the school website. Concert date is on the school calendar;
a.m. and p.m. performance times will be provided. The concert duration will be approximately 1 hour and 20
minutes. Band students are also involved and that information will come from Mr. Pancratz at a future time.
We have a wonderful Vocal/General Music Program here at Our Lady of the Wayside School. By the
reading of this newsletter, your curiosity may have been piqued! If so, feel free to Google the following terms
for tons of information: “Orff-Schulwerk”; “Kodaly”; “Kindermusik”; and “John Feierabend” / For detailed
information on Middle School, see my blog at http://kathleenlogankeady.wordpress.com/
If further information is desired, feel free to contact me via e-mail: klogankeady@olwschool.org
Mrs. Logan-Keady, M.M. in Music Education and Illinois State Teacher Certification
All-School Literacy Program: The titles of books and additional poetry as selected to integrate with the music
classes are posted in the Fine Arts hallway. / Pre-K through 5th
classes are once per week for 40 minutes.