September Updates

Hello Orchestra Parents! We wanted to give you an update on what all the grade levels have been working on...

8th Grade: 8th grade just completed an assessment on 3rd position/shifting. All students received a passing grade, with most doing really well!! Mrs. Aikey is so proud of their progress, as many students have shown a great deal of improvement! We are finishing up preparation for the Braves game next week and are starting to rehearse Night Shift and the Mission Impossible theme!

7th Grade: 7th graders will be completing an assessment on #47 (Rondeau) in their Essential Elements book. This quiz covers their knowledge of dotted quarter rhythms. The rubric that will be used to determine their grade has posture and position, bow usage, tone, intonation, bowings (bow direction), and dynamics as grading categories. They have chosen to do their assessment in small groups of 4-5 students playing together. We are excited to use this team-building strategy with them and to hopefully reach more students individually during this process! They are doing a great job and have been working hard on the Braves game music and the theme from Batman!

6th Grade: The 6th grade is off to a great start! They have successfully learned their D string notes and are working on learning their A string notes! Once they finish an assessment early next week on the D Major Scale, they will begin using their bows! Parents, you should NOT see them using bows right now. Please continue to encourage your child to wait until we give them instruction on their bow grip so that they can start with the best technique possible; we want to set them up for success! They should, however, receive music for their first concert and be using their bow by Fall Break.


If you have any questions, feel free to contact us! Make sure you've filled out the form below this blog post if you have not already.

Thank you,

Jennifer Aikey and Selena Sanchez