Hello and welcome to the 2020-21 school year! We are so excited to have you in our classes. We know that this year is going to look different in many ways but we are determined to keep you playing and singing music as much as we can this year!
We would like to give a big Solon welcome to Stephanie Van Orman (Reynolds) who is joining us from Fremont Elementary as our new Director of Bands at CMS! If you see her welcome her to our staff.
The following are updates on what is going on in each of our programs this year!
Musical Theatre and Choir
Welcome to the choir and Musical theatre program at CMS!
This year will look different but we are determined to sing and dance as much as possible this year! We will be taking advantage of our technology and making "music video" style performances until our in person performances can take place!
This year we will also be using Sight Reading Factory for a lot of our at home practice. We will be setting up student log ins and going over how to use the program in class this week! Check out the Helpful tab to learn more about the program and how it works, I will be sharing videos on google classroom as well to help us learn the program together.
If you have questions please reach out through email or ParentSquare, I am normally pretty quick to respond! We are excited to be back in the classroom and singing together!
Thanks!
Miss. Valley
Orchestra
Welcome back, Orchestras!
A few beginning of year items:
Here are time windows for our Instrument Rental Night, Monday 8/31, in the back parking lot/bus turn around of Carson Middle School.
5:00-5:30 CCSD Orchestras
5:30-6:00 CMS Bands
6:00-6:30 CHS Bands
Please also remember to send lab fee ($25) and/or SmartMusic fee ($10) with your child when possible (due 9/4/20). Make checks payable to CCSD Orchestras.
Metronomes and tuners are highly recommended tools for students in Orchestra. Blue Note B's (Rental Night vendor) sells them, but I would also recommend the Tunable phone app. It's fully functional, and I believe it is 100% free. If not, the full version is only a few dollars and well worth the expense. I will allow students to use the Tunable app in class (privilege can be revoked if misused).
Let's have a great year!
Dr. Fox
BAND
Congratulations! We made it through our first week of school!
My name is Mrs. Van Orman (Ms. Reynolds is my previous name), and I am so excited to be teaching Band here at CMS. Now that I've met our students, I can tell I am really lucky to be here. We have fantastic band families!
In our first week, we went over the expectations for Band and our handbook. We also covered how COVID-19 is affecting our band classes. Currently, we are unable to play our instruments inside the building. This means we will sometimes hold rehearsals outside (weather and air quality permitting). We will also be doing some lessons that do not require instruments. This is super different than what anyone is used to, so if you have questions, please start by looking in our handbook. If something is still unclear, I am usually pretty quick to answer emails and Parent Square messages.
Thanks!
Mrs. V
Band Upcoming:
Fees
All band students are expected to pay a $35.00 band fee for the school year. This fee pays for a band t-shirt, a Smart Music subscription, and a few small administrative fees throughout the school year. It would be awesome to have all these in by September 4th!
Instrument Rentals
We are sending home instruments this week! Hooray! Student who are renting from CMS will need to pay the rental fee of $100.00 for the school year. This pays for repairs throughout the year and a professional chemical bath at the end of the year. Please reach out if your family needs a payment plan; we would love to help!
Smart Music!
We are starting to get into our Smart Music accounts! Students are expected to complete 4 exercises a week at home. These assignments count for 30% of a student's grade, so they are very important! Help your child(ren) succeed by giving them a time and space where they can play their instruments at home. This could be in a bedroom or even outside if volume is an issue.
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