Oboes & Ostinatos

Some of the children's funky snowmen.

On Thursday & Friday we read the story All You Need For A Snowman by Alice Schertle. Then we listened to the song Frosty the Snowman, performed by the acapella group Hoja. Even though Hoja does not use instruments, the children could still hear ‘drum’ sounds, which the singers make using only their mouths. (Listen to a clip: Audio/Ho Ho HOJA/Frosty the Snowman) After listening to the song, we pretended to build our own snowman.

Our letter of the week is ‘O’, so we learned about the oboe in music. We listened to the oboe section of Ravel’s Bolero (Listen here), which also happens to be one of the most well-known examples of an ostinato. An ostinato is a phrase of music or rhythm that repeats over and over. Then we used scarves to dance to Bolero.

In art, the children used chalk, cotton balls, wool & pipe cleaners to create snowmen.