Hi!  My name is Gillian Arnott, and I am very excited to be beginning my sixth year of teaching music in Stafford Public Schools!  I would like to start by telling you a little bit about myself.  I grew up in Storrs, CT, and completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut.  Music has always been a huge part of my life.  I have been playing violin since I was seven years old, and still play in the Willimantic Orchestra.  I was in chorus and all the extra chorus groups I could join all through middle school and high school.  There was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to teach music!  Besides teaching, I enjoy scrapbooking in my spare time.

In pre-k, we are exploring music through singing, movement, and playing instruments.  We continue to warm up our voices at the beginning of music class in many ways, such as following bubbles, pretending to be elevators that go up and down, creating a roller coaster, and using our "moo voices" up and down with a stuffed cow.  We learned the beat keeping poem "Five Little Pumpkins", and kept the beat on notched rhythm sticks.  We are learning that we all have different voices, and have played the game "Frog in the Meadow" to start learning how to recognize each others voices.

In Kindergarten, we also warm up our voices at the beginning of each music class.  We are working on keeping the beat with instruments, and are beginning to learn how to keep the beat with a "heartbeat" chart.   We are beginning to learn the difference between high and low sounds.  We will play many games and instruments over the next couple of months to enforce this concept.

In first grade, we are still working on matching pitch.  At the beginning of each class, I sing a question, such as "Do you have a pet?", or "What's your favorite food?".  Students sing their answers back, with everyone trying to sound the same.  Everybody who sings alone has their name on the "I Sang By Myself" wall.  Almost everybody is on this wall!  Great Job!  We learned a beat keeping poem about loose teeth.  We have become fantastic rhythm readers!  We are beginning to move to longer rhythm patterns, and are beginning to discuss barlines.  One of our new favorite singing games is "I Was Going to Kentucky".

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Depending on the day of the week, I can be found at different schools!  My schedule is as follows: