About Your Music Teacher

Dear OJCS Families,

I am honoured to be back, teaching music at OJCS once again this year. I am privileged to have met many of you and I hope to meet all families this year. I wanted to introduce myself and let you know about me and what I have done to lead up to my role in OJCS.

I was born and raised in the Montreal Jewish community and a graduate of Hebrew Academy high school. I graduated Dawson College from the Social studies program, completed my psychology degree from Concordia University and completed my Master’s of Jewish education and administration from Azrieli at Yeshiva University. I also attended Yeshivat Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem. I am a Chazan and have lead services in many Orthodox and Conservative synagogues in Montreal, Seattle and Ottawa.

This will be my 17th year teaching at a Jewish day school. I worked at the Seattle Hebrew Academy for 12 years as a music and Jewish studies teacher. I also taught at the Torah Day school of Ottawa for three years, before joining the OJCS team as a music teacher in the lower school and the Rabbinics teacher in the middle school. I am also a Bar and Bat mitzvah teacher and have been training students for over 25 years.

My goal for music at OJCS is primarily to have fun! I offer the students a more energetic class full of fun, laughter and music. I teach Jewish songs throughout the year and engage different classes with different types of music related projects, including instruments, song recordings and music video production. Each month, the school organizes an all school assembly for Rosh Chodesh, where all students come together to sing along to our songs of the month, among many other fun and unifying activities that we participate in together.

Please always feel free to reach out to me about your children or about the music program. I love hearing from you! I will always respond to emails. d.kogut@theojcs.ca.

Thank you and have a wonderful year!

 

Moreh David Kogut

Grade 2-5 Music

Hello OJCS families,

Welcome back to school! I am excited to have the privilege to be teaching music to your children once again. I will be in touch throughout the year by posting updates on this blog. I will send emails to each class with a link to this blog and I ask that you subscribe to the grade level that your children are in, so you can continue to see my updates. I will post regularly, so that you can follow what we will be doing in class and encourage your children to practice at home for any songs or lessons that we learn in class.

To begin the year, I have decided to teach two songs to every class from Grade 2-5. Our goal is to learn to sing these songs, so we may all join together as a school and sing together, bringing the unity and RUACH (spirit) that will create pride in our school and our studies. The first song, is a classic by the Beatles, called Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da. This song represents life, endurance and positivity.

The second song is a Jewish song called “Acheinu”. this is a very well known Jewish song that represents unity in the Jewish people. I am including links to both of these songs below, so students can listen and get to know the songs better this week.

I’m wishing all families a successful start to your school year. Please don’t hesitate to be in touch with me at any time. I will reply to all emails at d.kogut@theojcs.ca.

 

Acheinu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZaiZ1E95u0

Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRtAO-nffz0

 

Grade 3 Music videos

Dear Grade 3 family,

As our year comes to a close in Grade 3 music, we have completed our final project in creating a music video for both classes. Each class has chosen a song, learned it, split up parts for individuals or small groups to sing and recorded it. We then created a music video to go along with it. you can watch each video on the links provided below. Please note that these are private links and should not be shared in public spaces, to protect the privacy of families.

Thank you for your support throughout the year and have a wonderful summer!

Moreh David Kogut

Grade 3A: Ani Yehudi by Mordechai Shapiro

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VvwSGyX0iXNlYGvlyXE2C68Bp1MXp37f/view?usp=share_link

Grade 3B: Machar by Mordechai Shapiro

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19hIdUTMidhO_WuqHvTbV37PqfTSYS_dq/view?usp=share_link

 

Grade 4A Music Video

Hello Grade 4A families,

The previous unit in the Grade 4A class was about creating a music video. We learned a new song, recorded it and filmed us singing, so we could create a complete video. We chose the song “Ani Ma’amin” by Tai, as it incorporates both Hebrew and English in the song and has a deep meaning of connecting to Israel.

Here is a link to watch the video online. It is in a private drive and not accessible to the public. Please do not share it publicly.

Thank you,

Moreh David Kogut

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PlhHLtOwRB6cMKmS3zuFq4X-QnuPxvjB/view?usp=sharing

Edit: I posted an incorrect link originally. It is now fixed and can be viewed properly.

Grade 4A Ukuleles

Hello Grade 4 families,

The Grade 4B class just finished their unit on learning to play the ukulele. They will now be choosing a song to record and to then create a music video before the end of the year.

The 4A class will now be learning to play the ukulele. Tomorrow, Monday, May 5th, I will be giving each student a ukulele to use for the duration of the school year. They can bring their instrument home to practice, but must have it in school every Monday for our music class. Each ukulele is numbered and each student must return that same ukulele at the end of the school year. They will also get a carrying case, a strap, a pick and a tuner. All need to be returned with their instrument.

I will be teaching them to play basic chords, and work on strumming and rhythm. We will learn several songs and each student will have a small evaluation at the end of the unit, in which they will need to play one small song in rhythm with the correct chords.

Please allow them to practice at home and encourage them to do that regularly. Simply practicing in our class will not be enough for them to develop muscle memory in their fingers and daily practice, if only 5 minutes, is very encouraged.

Good luck and enjoy!

Moreh David Kogut

Grade 4 Music class update

Hello Grade 4 families!

For the past couple of months, both Grade 4 classes have been working on separate projects. Grade 4A has been learning the song “Ani Ma’amin” by Tai, which we are recording ourselves, with each student having a small solo. We will then be creating a music video for it in the coming weeks. The hope is to be finished with our video by the Passover break.

Grade 4B has been learning to play the ukulele. We have learned about the instrument, how to tune it, how to hold it, how to read chord charts and we have learned several basic chords, that allow us to play a few songs. We learned how to play the song “H’ Melech” by Benny and Gad Elbaz, then before Purim, we learned to play “Mishenichnas Adar” and we are now learning to play “Dayeinu” as a lead up to the Passover holiday. We will also end our ukulele unit before the Passover break. As a conclusion to our unit, each student will be asked to play one of the above mentioned songs, by strumming along in proper rhythm and by demonstrating mastery of the chords for that song, meaning smooth transitions, clear chords and proper timing. While some students are already able to do this, other students will require more practice outside of class, in order to succeed. They should all have chord sheets for the songs as well as charts that tell them how to play each chord. Please remind them to practice, as it would be wonderful to see each student succeed.

After the Passover break, the classes will switch units and Grade 4A will begin learning the ukulele, while Grade 4B will learn, record and film a video for a Jewish song.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

Moreh David Kogut

Middle School Music Elective (Semester 1)

Hello Musical families!

Last semester, I worked with several Middle School students from the Grade 6 classes for our music elective. We learned and recorded a couple of songs that the girls chose. WE worked hard on timing and being able to sing smoothly and on key. We had a talented group and were able to add layers to the song, including multiple voices and harmonies. The songs are included below. Enjoy and kol hakavod on the hard work!

Moreh David Kogut

Unwritten

October Rain

Grade 1 Purim Music

Hello Grade 1 families! Purim is around the corner and we have been preparing for the holiday in our Jewish music class. Everyone made “Mishnichnas Adar” masks and will be taking them home this week. We have also been learning some festive music for the Holiday and had a chance to record ourselves singing in class. I have included recordings below from both the “A” and “B” classes. Enjoy and a chag Purim Sameach to everyone!

Moreh David Kogut

Chag Purim – Grade 1A

Mishenichnas Adar 1A

Chag Purim 1B

Mishenichnas Adar 1B

Bonus Song: Baruch Hagever 1A

It’s Shabbat!

Hello Kindergarten and Grade 1 families!

We have been having a great time in our Jewish music class! this month, we are learning about songs for Shabbat. We have been singing songs like “Shalom Aleichem”, “Gilli good Shabbat”, “Bim Bam” and a new song that I taught, called “It’s Shabbat”, which was originally performed by the Maccabeats and is to the tune of Baby Shark. This song takes us through many steps of Shabbat in order from before lighting candles, until Havdalah, after Shabbat has ended. When teaching the song, I showed them pictures of each step to help them visualize and understand. We also completed a cut-and-glue worksheet, which helped them to demonstrate that they know the order of some of our Shabbat traditions.

Here are the words to this song. Again, it is to the tune of Baby Shark and student should all be able to sing it at home.

Moreh David Kogut

 

It’s Shabbat – Maccabeats

 

It’s Shabbat do do do do do do

Tzedakah – do do do do do do

Light candles do do do do do do

Shabbat songs la la la la la

Make kiddush do do do do do do do

Eat challah do do do do do

Yummy food do do do do do

Go to Shul do do do do do do

Family time do do do do do

Take a nap do do do do do

Havdalah do do do do do do

It’s the end



Grade 3 song recordings

Hello Grade 3 family!

Before the break, we had been working on creating song recordings in our Jewish music class. Each student got into a small group of their choice and chose to sing and record one of two songs. “Sunshine” by Matisyahu or “Hava Nagilla” by Gad Elbaz. We practiced all together in class and the students were able to come and sing in their small groups with the musical track in the background. I have included the recordings below. Enjoy!

 

Moreh David Kogut