2015-2016 Required Materials

The books you will need to purchase for the 2015-16 School Year are:

Classically Catholic Memory Gamma Year, Teacher's edition (for our science memory work)

 

English from the Roots Up, Volumes I and II (we use both books in our three year cycle... once you own both you are all set!

 

Lost Tools of Writing Level 1 Student book - for students sixth grade and up

Students sixth grade and up should also read the following books over the summer:

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkein

Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes

Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Families with children under five need to purchase Making Music Praying Twice:

Making Music Praying Twice

Spring is Coming (in Music Class)

At Colm Cille Club we have been working on singing solfege at every age level.  Each student from age three to seven has a "name" song, which we sing and use the "body scale" to illustrate.  Older students have been learning the basics of chant notation, which starts... well, at the very beginning, with Do!

I thought you might enjoy this video about the origins of solfege:

Following right along with our history studies, in music we are adding to our repertoire of Gregorian Chant, but also delving into some polyphony.  One of the most basic forms of polyphonic singing is the round, and in the coming weeks we will be working on two rounds in class.  The earliest written notation of a round dates from the thirteenth century.  The song is called "Summer is Icumen in."  In modern English, this means "Spring is coming!"  (Oh, please, let it be so!)  You can see a picture of the manuscript below, and listen to a recording of the song.

 

Here is a pretty nice recording of the first round we will be learning in class, "When Jesus Wept."  It is also on the Making Music Praying Twice Lent CD, which many of you own.