2023 5th Grade Band Info & Registration Letter

 

Dear Lewis 5th Grade Students and Families,

The 2023-24 Lewis Band Online Registration form is now open. Below is the link to get registered and specific information about the Lewis band program. Once registered, I will send out a confirmation email at the end of each work day. If you have any questions I will be a Lewis Thursday evening for back to school night, or send me an email.

ONLINE REGISTRATION FORM LINK:

https://bit.ly/lewisband2023

Band Information

I’ve been spending part of this week’s music class talking to students about band and demonstrating instrument options. I want to share with you what we’ve talked about and hopefully give you a road map to the when’s, where’s and what’s of the Lewis band program.

Band is open to all 5th graders. This is a beginning band and so, no experience is necessary. All classes will be after school, except for Percussion, which will be during lunch recess on Tuesdays. All classes will meet in the Music Room (that’s room 14).

I divide the band year into two sessions. The first session October 2nd – December 15th students meet once a week in group lessons of the same instrument. The second session January 2nd – May 23rd is also once a week but for full band, all instruments, but students with their families choose to come either on Wednesday or Thursday. While there are these two sessions, signing up for band is a full year commitment.

Band is completely free. There are no charges for the classes, books, instruments and supplies.

Students can choose from 5 different instruments:

• Flute

• Clarinet

• Trumpet/Cornet

• Trombone

• Percussion (this is mixed percussion not drum set)

Session One

October 2, 2023 – December 15, 2023

• Mondays 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Flute

• Tuesday 12:00pm – 4:00pm – Percussion

• Wednesday 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Clarinet

• Thursday 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Trumpet

• Friday 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Trombone

Session Two

January 2, 2024 – May 23, 2024

Students will choose to come one day:

• Wednesday 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Full Band (All Instruments)

• Thursday 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Full Band (All Instruments)

ONLINE REGISTRATION FORM LINK:

https://bit.ly/lewisband2023

Best,

Tony Jamesbarry

Lewis Elementary

Music/Technology Specialist

 

Back To School Night Letter

Hello Lewis Parents and Students,

My name is Tony Jamesbarry, a.k.a “Mr. J”, and this is my 24th year teaching music at Lewis Elementary. I’m just as excited to start this year as was in my very first year. I love what I do and I love creating opportunities for young musicians to be creative and experience the sheer joy of playing music. I am a Level 3 certified Orff Teacher. What does that mean for your child? It means that we do a lot of singing, creating, dancing and and playing music. You can find out more about the Orff approach at:
https://aosa.org/about/what-is-orff-schulwerk/

And if you want to read more about what we focus on at the different grade levels here at Lewis, my website gives a more detailed outline of your child’s year.
https://tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/music-curriculum/

In fact most of my communication home will be posted on my website. I try to write bi-weekly about general classroom happenings and performance groups. I’ve also set up specific pages for Band, Boomin’ Beats and Recorder Club.

I know many of you are wondering when these after school groups will get started and how to sign up. Below are the direct links to each of those groups’ webpages. There you’ll find all the info you need plus a link to the online registration when it comes time to sign up. Below are some specifics for each group:

Band is open to all 5th graders. No experience necessary. Instruments available to rent from PPS. Sign ups are open now! Classes begin the week of October 3rd. Sign-up at:
tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/band

Boomin’ Beats is open to all 4th and 5th graders. There is a 40 member limit. Online registration will open in December and rehearsals start the week of January 3rd.
https://tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/boomin-beats/

Recorder Club is open to all Lewis 3rd graders & 4th graders this year. I’ve not yet confirmed a starting date yet, but I’m thinking it will start the week after Spring Break and run until the end of May.
https://tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/recorder-club/

If you ever have questions, or just want to stop by and say hello, my door is aways open. Or you can reach me through email at ajamesba@pps.net.

Sincerely,

Tony Jamesbarry

Band Letter 09/17/2022

Dear Lewis 5th Grade Students and Families,

Well, after nearly a three year break due to COVID restrictions, the Lewis Band is back!

I’ve been spending part of this week’s music class talking to students about band and demonstrating instrument options. I want to share with you what we’ve talked about and hopefully give you a road map to the when’s, where’s and what’s of the Lewis band program. A separate email will be sent out this weekend with instructions and a link to use to sign up.

Band is open to all 5th graders. This is a beginning band and so, no experience is necessary. All classes will be after school in the Music room (that’s room 14). I divide the band year into two sessions. The first session (October – December) students meet once a week in group lessons of same instruments. The second session (January – May) is twice a week for full band classes. While there are two sessions, signing up for band is a full year commitment.

Band is completely free. There are no charges for the classes, books, instruments and supplies.

Students can choose from 5 different instruments:

• Flute
• Clarinet
• Trumpet/Cornet
• Trombone
• Percussion (this is mixed percussion not drum set)

Session One
October 3rd – December 16

• Mondays 3pm – 4pm – Flute
• Tuesday 3pm – 3:30 – Percussion
• Wednesday 3pm – 4pm – Clarinet
• Thursday 3pm – 4pm – Trumpet
• Friday 3pm – 4pm – Trombone

Session Two
January 3rd – May 18th

• Monday 3pm – 4pm – Full Band (All Instruments)
• Wednesday 3pm – 4pm – Full Band (All Instruments)

Elementary band is a great way to see if you like playing in a school band. It’s a great way to test out an instrument and hear other instruments before signing up for middle school band next year. I am really looking forward to starting band this year and really hope you can join in on the fun!

Next step – Look for an email later this weekend with a link to the online sign-ups.

Music & Tech Notes – April 7

Music and Tech Notes

This week I will begin to post activities/lessons for students in grades K-5 in both Music and Technology. In fact I have already done so for a couple for after school groups. I do have a schedule that I will share down below, but I have to say that making and posting lessons is taking me a bit longer than I expected. I’m sure it will get easier with time. So, while I do have schedule, don’t be surprised if the assignment isn’t up first thing in the morning. Right now my goal is to have it up by noon on each assigned day. I hope you are all well and can enjoy this nice weather we are having this week. Feel free to share (email) any musical activities you are doing as a family. I’d love to hear about them. Unit next week ~ Mr. Jamesbarry

• Monday – Recorder Club & 5th Grade Band Lessons
• Wednesday – K-5 General Music Lessons
• Friday – K-5 Tech Lessons

Letter to Families – 3/30/2020

Hello Lewis Students and Families,

Today (Monday) we, the Lewis staff, held a virtual staff meeting. While we had to do things differently, it sure felt good to see and hear from some of the voices from Lewis School. Of course the voices we all most wanted to hear were those of Lewis students. You! We miss you all so much.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what we can do both musically and technology wise with our current “stay at home” reality. Much of what we do in the music room, as you know, is interactive,- singing, dancing, games, and instrument playing. Unfortunately, much of that is very hard to do online in a group setting. I’ve tried playing with some of my musical friends using Google Meet, Zoom and FaceTime. While those tools are great for chatting, there are noticeable audio delays that make it nearly impossible, and quite comical, to play music simultaneously online.

So moving forward, I’m going to focus on the parts of our musical curriculum that I think will work online and at home for students. This is just a starting point, and I may be able to add or change what we are doing, based on feedback from families as we go through the next four weeks.

For K-2 students I will be posting two songs a week to encourage students to do a little singing. Mr. Colvin has been kind enough to record some of his favorites and I will be adding some of mine. I’m hoping to deliver these songs to you through SeeSaw.

This is also a great time to develop our rhythm and pitch reading skills for all grade levels. I will have some grade level appropriate websites to help us with this task.

For 3-5 students we will continue working on the songs from the LinkUp concert. This material is accessible online, and I will try to record some video lessons pertaining to playing the recorder parts. If you are Band and Recorder club, I will also be providing weekly video lessons to keep us moving forward. I will be uploading lessons using my Google Classroom site.

As for technology, I’m working on getting all students access to online coding resources and will have more information very soon.

I’m working on my blog site too to update links and resources. You can find my blog at: https://tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/

I know these last two weeks have been “odd” to say the least; and that school ending abruptly for many of us has left a big hole in our lives. Such dramatic change like this is shocking and it’s ok to feel a lot of different emotions. For me in these times, making, playing, and listening to music is such a comfort. My hope is that it will be for you too. I will try and make it so.

Be well,

Mr. Jamesbarry

Music Notes – February 3, 2020

Hi All – Sorry I had to cancel after school band on Monday, but I am looking forward to working with Band students on Wednesday. Band students, please prepare three pieces for the Wednesday. “Serenity”, “Frog Song” and “Russian Folk Dance”.

Recorder Club we’ll be meeting this week on our regularly scheduled days. We will be working on the the first three songs in our packet, along with learning a new note, “E”. Please come prepared to lead the class on a four beat patter and melody of your choice.

Boomin’ Beats we’ll meet on Friday. I thought we got in some good work on our xylophone piece last week. This week we will continue to polish that piece. We’ll also spend more time working on our drum piece.

Registration Update

Sorry to say, but the 3rd Grade Recorder Club is no longer able to take more players. If you have questions or want to be placed on a waiting list please send me an email – ajamesba@pps.net

The Boomin’ Beats still has a few slots open. If you are interested, please register here – Boomin’ Beats

Registration Open

Hi All,

Registration is now open for both 3rd Grade Recorder Club and 4th/5th Grade Boomin’ Beats. Click on the links below to take you to the information pages and links to register.

3rd Grade Recorder Club

Boomin’ Beats (4th & 5th Graders)

Open House Letter 2019

Hello Lewis Parents and Students,

My name is Tony Jamesbarry, a.k.a “Mr. J”, and this is my 21st year teaching music at Lewis Elementary. I’m just as excited to start this year as was in my very first year. I love what I do and I love creating opportunities for young musicians to be creative and experience the sheer joy of playing music.  I am a Level 3 certified Orff Teacher. What does that mean for your child? It means that we do a lot of singing, creating, dancing and and playing music. You can find out more about the Orff approach at:

https://aosa.org/about/what-is-orff-schulwerk/

And if you want to read more about what we focus on at the different grade levels here at Lewis, my website gives a more detailed outline of your child’s year.
https://tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/music-curriculum/

In fact most of my communication home will be posted on my website. I try to post weekly about general classroom happenings. I’ve also set up specific pages for Band, Boomin’ Beats and Recorder Club.

I know many of you are wondering when these after school groups will get started and how to sign up. Below are the direct links to each of those groups’ webpages. There you’ll find all the info you need plus a link to the online registration when it comes time to sign up. Below are some specifics for each group:

Band is open to all 5th graders. No experience necessary. Instruments available to rent from PPS. Sign ups are open now! Classes begin the week of October 7th. Sign-up at:

tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/band

Recorder Club is open to all Lewis 3rd graders and starts the week of January 6th.

Sign-ups will be in December. Information at:

https://tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/recorder-club/

Boomin’ Beats is open to all 4th and 5th graders. There is a 40 member limit. Online registration will open in December and rehearsals start the week of January 6th.

https://tonyjamesbarry.wordpress.com/boomin-beats/

If you ever have questions, or just want to stop by and say hello, my door is aways open. Or you can reach me through email at ajamesba@pps.net.

Sincerely,

Tony Jamesbarry

Spring Concert Information

The Lewis Spring Concert is Thursday, May 31st@ 6:30 PM and a repeat performance on Friday, June 1st @ 1:30 PM. The order of the performanc is as follows: 5th Grade Band, 3rd Grade Recorder Club, The Booming Beats

For the evening concert, students are encouraged to dress up. Skirt, Dress Shirt, Slacks, (Bow) Tie, Blazer, or Dress would all be splendid.
No shorts please.

For the Evening performance students should arrive at 6PM in the music room to warm up. I will need one or two volunteers to help with transitioning students on Thursday night. If you think you can help out, please contact me.

For Recorder & Band this will be the last event of the school year.
The Boomin’ Beats will also be performing Friday June 1st at the PTA Picnic at 6PM.

For the most part our reheasal schedules will remain the same for the next 2 weeks with the exception of two extra rehearsals for the Boomin Beats this Wednesday and next.

Practice Schedule For Each Performing Group

Recorder Club:
Thursday May 24     8:00 AM – 8:40 AM
Thursday May 31     8:00 AM – 8:40 AM

5th Grade Band
Tuesday May 22      3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Thursday May 24    3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Tuesday May 29      3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Thursday May 31    3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (On Stage)

Boomin’ Beats
Wednesday May 23      3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Friday May 25                  3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Wednesday May 30     3:00 PM- 4:00 PM
Thursday May 31          12:20 PM – 12:45 PM (Lunch Recess Practice If Needed)
Friday June 1                   6:00 PM PTA Picnic (No After School Rehearsal)