Music This Fall and Winter: Learning How to Be Together
This fall and winter in Music, every class has been working with the same guiding idea: we grow when we do things together. From Preschool through Uppers, students have been exploring what it feels like to sing, play, listen, and move as a group. On our very first day, we read Pete Seeger’s introduction to Rise Up Singing, where he wonders whether singing can once again become part of everyday life, woven into the same fabric as work, play, and community. His question stayed with us. Can music help us feel more connected to each other in our classrooms and across the whole school? We decided to spend the year experimenting with that idea.
Music with our youngest students happens right in their classroom spaces, which keeps the energy playful and rooted in curiosity. Preschoolers and Woods Primes have been singing, moving, and exploring sounds through simple games, gestures, and imagination. Singing together helps them practice listening and turn-taking, but it also supports a sense of belonging. When we learn a new All School song and the whole group figures out the motions together, you can feel their pride in being part of something bigger.
In the Mups and Middles, students have been moving from rhythm games and body percussion into instrumental work. Mups started the year strengthening their sense of beat and coordination through clapping patterns and movement activities, then shifted into beginning ukulele. Middles picked up where they left off last year, learning more about chord changes, strumming, and playing together as a small ensemble. As students learn to play in sync with one another, they discover how much music depends on cooperation and presence. These moments of shared effort help them see that being part of a musical group is as much about listening as it is about making sound.
The Uppers began keyboards this year, learning basic technique and building comfort with melody and harmony. Alongside this hands-on work, they continued to explore the long and complicated history of American music, looking at how different cultures shaped the sounds we know today. These conversations often led to thoughtful reflections about identity, influence, and what it means to create something that carries a story.
Across every grade, one of the most joyful threads has been learning songs for All School. Because every class, from the tiniest Preschoolers to our oldest Uppers, practices the same shared repertoire, our community gatherings feel more cohesive and full. Students come in ready to sing, excited to recognize melodies and join in with confidence. It is one of the clearest ways we see our motto in action: be present, be kind, be open, be together. When we sing as a whole school, those words become real.
This first stretch of the year has reminded us again and again that music is not something separate from daily life. It is a way of showing up for one another. It is a way of practicing community. And little by little, as we keep learning new songs and singing them over and over, we are making our lives “all of a piece,” just as Pete Seeger hoped we might.
