As part of our curriculum revision in 2011, the Music Department has adopted the use of iPads in our Music Room!  All students in grades Kindergarten through 5th grade will periodically use the iPads to supplement our learning in the "Big Six" skill areas: singing, moving with music, reading and writing music, playing instruments, listening to music and creating music.

Feel free to stop by and check them out!

How Singing Improves Your Health
by SixWise.com <http://www.sixwise. com/>

If you ever have the desire to break out into song -- in the shower, in the
car, maybe at your neighbor's infamous karaoke night -- you should embrace
it whole-heartedly. This ancient art not only feels good, it can enhance
your well-being, reduce your feelings of pain and even prolong your life.

Using your voice to sing, rather than simply carry out a conversation,
offers unique benefits. "When we sing instead of speak, we have intonation,
melody line, and crescendo, which gives us a broader vocabulary to express
ourselves," says Suzanne Hanser, chair of the music therapy department at
Berklee College of Music. "Because singing is visceral (relating to, or
affecting, our bodies), it can't help but effect change."

*Singing Reduces Stress and Pain*

Studies have linked singing with a lower heart rate, decreased blood
pressure, and reduced stress, according to Patricia Preston-Roberts, a
board-certified music therapist in New York City. She uses song to help
patients who suffer from a variety of psychological and physiological
conditions.

"Some people who have been traumatized often want to leave the physical
body, and using the voice helps ground them to their bodies,"
Preston-Roberts says. "Singing also seems to block a lot of the neural
pathways that pain travels through."

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So go for it!!!  Keep singin', loud and long! :)

Here is handout describing the music program at Morton and Longfellow Elementary Schools.