Grade 3 recording project

Dear Grade 3 Family,

We have completed our recording project and students were engaged and worked hard to provide a recording of a song of their choice. Students worked hard, practiced their chosen songs with their group and demonstrated good work ethic, a good sense of rhythm and dedication to being able to sing their lyrics clearly.

I am attaching the recordings below for you to listen to at home and share with your proud children.

We have began working on our next unit, where we will be creating a lip dub music video to a Jewish song.

Grade 3A will be working on the song “One in a million” By Mordechai Shapiro.

Grade 3B will be working on the song “Friends” by Mordechai Shapiro.

You can find videos for both songs on Youtube!

Have a. wonderful February break!

Moreh David Kogut

Ella, Jared

Ethan, Isadora

Hannah, Evie

Leile, Evie

Lev, Jacob

Markus, Mason, Ari

Aliza, Naomi, Sari

Eva, Amelia

Alona

Lev, Josh

Jake, Jonah

Ilana

Ollie, Zach

Grade 3 Music Update

Hello Grade 3 Families,

Here is an update of what we have been up to in Grade 3 Music so far this year.

We began our year with some simple fun with music, by learning two new songs, in order to sing all together with the rest of the school at our first assembly. We learned the Beatles’ “ObLaDi ObLaDa” as well as the Hebrew song “Acheinu”. We spoke about the meaning of the songs, which relate to family and people we care about. We sang the songs together with the entire school at our first Rosh Chodesh assembly, which we have each month. These assemblies are a great opportunity to demonstrate our “RUACH” and togetherness.

Since the end of the Jewish Holidays, now that we have had more consistency in school we have begun our newest project, which gives the students more independence and control over their learning. We are now doing a karaoke project! Each student has grouped together with one or two others, where they have chosen a song to learn and to record. Each group gave me three song choices and I selected the most appropriate one for each group. They have been practicing in class and will soon record their song with the real background music from a professional microphone and real recording set-up. These songs will be posted right here on the blog when they are complete.

On top of that, we have been learning a new song from Birkat Hamazon. Students sing the first part of Birkat Hamazon daily after eating lunch. There are many more parts to Birkat Hamazon, including several other fun and catchy songs. Grade 3, along with Grade 4 & 5 have been learning to sing the final paragraph “Migdol Yeshu’ot Malkot…” as well as some fun hand motions that go along with it. When we have completed learning, we will all gather together and sing it as a school at our next Rosh Chodesh assembly.

When this unit is finished, we will begin learning some songs for Chanukah and understand their meanings and how they relate to the miracles of the holiday.

Thanks for reading,

Moreh David Kogut

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 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

Hallel Song of the Month – Tevet

Dear OJCS Family,

This month, the Hebrew month of Tevet, we are learning our third song of the Hallel prayer service. This song begins with the chant of the verse “Pitchu li…” in the traditional Hallel nussach (melody) and continues with a song at the words “Odecha, ki anitani…”. Grades 2-5 are learning this song in class and we will all come together to sing as a school at our next Rosh Chodesh assembly for the month of Shevat, on Thursday, Jan 30th. The words in Hebrew and English transliteration are below.

Enjoy!

Moreh David Kogut

פִּתְחוּ לִי שַׁעֲרֵי צֶדֶק

אָבֹא בָם, אוֹדֶה יָהּ. זֶה הַשַּׁעַר לַיְיָ

צַדִּיקִים יָבֹאוּ בוֹ

אוֹדְךָ כִּי עֲנִיתָנִי וַתְּהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה

אֶבֶן מָאֲסוּ הַבּוֹנִים הָיְתָה לְרֹאשׁ פִּנָּה

מֵאֵת יהוה הָיְתָה זֹּאת הִיא נִפְלָאֹת בְּעֵינֵינוּ

זֶה הַיוֹם עָשָׂה יְיָ, נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ

pitchu li sha’arei tzedek, avo vam, odeh yah.

Zeh hasha’ar ladonai tzaddikim yavo’u vo.

Odecha ki anitani vattehi li lishu’ah.

even ma’asu habbonim hayetah lerosh pinnah.

Me’et adonai hayetah zot hi nifla’ot be’eineinu.

Zeh hayom asah adonai, nagilah venismechah vo.

Hallel songs

Hello OJCS families!

We have been learning songs for the holiday prayer service of Hallel in our music classes. Each month, OJCS holds an all school assembly in honour of the new Jewish month on the monthly holiday of Rosh Chodesh. It is traditional to say the Hallel service in our morning prayers on Rosh Chodesh. At our assemblies, we sing one song from Hallel, as a school all together.

Here are recordings and the words to the two songs that we have learned so far this year.

Betzeit Yisrael

H’ Zecharanu Yevarech

Words for both songs:

Betzeit Yisrael and H’ Zecharanu

Grade 3 Music

Grade 3 music has been off to an exciting start this year. It is apparent that these students have grown and matured since last year and are able to connect with songs and their meanings, and learn longer songs, as their abilities to read song lyrics has improved as well.

This music class is specifically a Jewish music class, where we learn Hebrew songs and prayers, but we also take time to appreciate other secular songs that deliver a positive and uplifting meaning that we can connect to as Jews and as good citizens of the world.

We began the year by learning the song “High Hopes” by panic at the disco, which every other class learned in their music classes as well, so we could sing it all together at the first all school assembly. This went very well and students not only understood the message but also sang with enthusiasm with the rest of the school.

We then turned our attention to songs relating to the Jewish holidays. We learned songs like “Avinu Malkeinu” for Rosh Hashanah and yom kippur, as well as “Ki Mitzion” and “Vekarev Pezureinu” for sukkot and Simchat Torah.

Another mission of Grade 3 music is to explore the songs for the holiday prayer service of Hallel. As this service is traditionally said in the morning prayer service at Rosh Chodesh, we sing one song from Hallel each month, when we have our all school Rosh Chodesh assembly. So far, we have learned to sing “Betzeit Yisrael” and we are now working on “H’ Zecharanu yevarech”, so we can all sing it at the next assembly for the Hebrew month of Kislev.

Moving forward, we are working on a new project where students will select a song from a few that I have provided, and learn to sing it in a small group, which we will record and share with families upon its completion.

Betzeit Yisrael

One goal of OJCS music this year is for our students to learn some of the songs from the Hallel service that we say on Holidays. We began by learning the song “Betzeit Israel”, which is also traditionally sung at the Peach Seder. you can listen to the song at the bottom of this post and the words are below in Hebrew and in English transliteration.

Betzeit Yisrael Mimitzraim Beit Ya’akov Me’am Loez	בְּצֵאת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָֽיִם בֵּית יַעֲקֹב מֵעַם לֹעֵז
Haytah Yehuda lekodsho Yisrael mamshelotav	הָיְתָה יְהוּדָה לְקָדְשׁוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל מַמְשְׁלוֹתָיו
Hayam Ra’am Vayanos Hayarden tisov le’achor	הַיָּם רָאָה וַיָּנֹס הַיַּרְדֵּן יִסֹּב לְאָחוֹר
Heharim rakdoo che’elim geva’ot kivneh tzon	הֶהָרִים רָקְדוּ כְאֵילִים גְּבָעוֹת כִּבְנֵי־צֹאן
Mah lecha hayam	מַה־לְּךָ הַיָּם
Ki Tanoos	כִּי תָנוּס
hayarden	הַיַּרְדֵּן
Tisov le’achor	תִּסֹּב לְאָחוֹר
He’harim	הֶהָרִים
Tirkedoo che’elim	תִּרְקְדוּ כְאֵילִים
Geva’ot	גְּבָעוֹת
Kivneh tzon	כִּבְנֵי־צֹאן
Milifenei adon	מִלִּפְנֵי אָדוֹן
Chooli Aretz	חֽוּלִי אָֽרֶץ
Milifnei	מִלִּפְנֵי
Eloha yaakov	אֱלֽוֹהַּ יַעֲקֹב
Hahofechi Hatzoor	הַהֹפְכִי הַצּוּר
Agam mayim	אֲגַם־מָֽיִם
Chalameesh	חַלָּמִישׁ
Lemaynoh mayim	לְמַעְיְנוֹ־מָֽיִם