4-H

Beginning in the fourth grade, students are given the opportunity to participate in 4-H. At the first meeting in October, class officers are elected. For the month of November, students are asked to exercise their public speaking skills by giving a speech on a topic of their choice. The top student from each class goes on to represent NCS in the county public speaking competition. In January, students are called on for their creativeness to design posters for 4-H that include an original slogan and design promoting 4-H.

Pre-Band
Third graders at NCS may enroll in the Pre-Band. This group explores what it means to be in an instrumental ensemble through learning to play various instruments such as the recorder, Orff keyboards, tone chimes, and other percussion instruments. The focus of the class is on the fundamentals of reading music notation and understanding concepts of pitch, rhythm, and musical balance. Additionally, students are given an introduction to the instruments of the school band, including flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and percussion.

Beginning Band
The Beginning Band is made up of fourth graders. In this first year of playing on concert band instruments, the focus is on developing basic playing skills on the student’s given instrument and producing a characteristic tone for that instrument. The group is also given an introduction to concepts such as harmony, dynamics, and articulation.

Intermediate Band
This band of second- and third-year players in fifth and sixth grades delves much deeper into understanding the “band sound.”  More difficult band literature is introduced, exploring a full range of articulations, dynamics, and rhythmic devices.  Percussion students begin to advance beyond the standard snare drum / bass drum arrangement into xylophone, timpani, crash cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments.  Clarinets are guided through the process of “crossing the break.”

Spanish
Learning a second language can be easy and fun. At NCS our elementary students learn through a variety of challenging activities. Through the use of music, songs, art, puppets, and games students will be exposed to conversational Spansh, basic vocabulary, counting, colors, food names, body parts, days of the week, months of the year and much, much more.