Week of July 26th, 2010

Zithers and Psaltries

INFANT THROUGH SCHOOL AGE

This week in music class we explored the sounds of the zither, or psaltery. Zithers and Psalteries come in many shapes and sizes. Today, we explored two of them. The strings (which are stretched evenly over the soundboard and acoustic hole) are all tightened to different pitches. Most of these wooden instruments are trapezoidal, but some are also circular, triangular or wing shaped. Our zithers are both trapezoidal and wing shaped.

To make sound, you can use a pick or fingers and strum one or more strings gently across the soundboard. Some music can even be read by sliding the paper right underneath!

COAST GUARD KID'S PARADE:
It's our last school age practice for the parade!

Reminder! Grand Haven Coast Guard Kids Parade is Saturday! Please meet us at Joyful Noise at 9:30 a.m. if you would like to decorate a bike or prepare for the parade! We will be going to the county parking lot at 10:00 to ride bikes and march with songflutes along the parade route. Friends may pass out candy if they like, and afterward we will be serving cookies and punch at the center!

View the Joyful Noise Events page HERE.

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MOM AND DAD CONNECT: Want to learn more about our lessons this week?

Watch a neat zither video on Youtube!

Week of July 19th, 2010

DISNEY WEEK!

INFANT THROUGH SCHOOL AGE

We had so much fun singing some of our favorite Disney songs this week! Some are classics and others from new school favorites, like Toy Story! Activities with the songs varied: some were sang with movement, and others had props. While singing "Winnie The Pooh" we played a game called "Pass the Pooh". A laminated picture was passed around the circle while we sang the song and whoever was holding Winnie when the music stopped went to the inside of our circle. We continued until all of our friends were "out"!

Feel like singing along? I've posted some of the songs we sang below! :)

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DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE ZIP HERE. (Includes 5 Disney songs with chords and also "Pooh" printable for "Pass the Pooh Game).


EXTRAS: Ofcourse we are STILL practicing for Coast Guard this week, and ordering tshirts as well! Thanks for visiting us online! :)

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MOM AND DAD CONNECT: Want to learn more about our lessons this week?

More Disney Lyrics

Week of July 12th, 2010

BOOMWHACKER WEEK!!!

INFANT THROUGH SCHOOL AGE
What a blast it was playing with the boomwhackers this week! The boomwhacker is a simple concept: a plastic tube, cut to different lengths to produce specific pitches! The Joyful Noise set is diaotonic--the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C. The students also know these notes as Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti and Do! We lined the tubes up to make a scale that resembled what a pipe organ looks like. The children--everyone from infants to school agers--had a great time "whacking" them against tables, carpet, and even hands and legs to produce a neat sound. Older children played pitch games and we also played a fun game in the school age room called "human desk bells". One or two students walked down a line of sitting students holding boomwhackers and tapped the top of their head to "play" their friends, who then in turn hit the boomwhacker!

We had a blast and will look forward to experimenting with this fun instrument again soon in the future! :)


Additional School Age Classes
You guessed it--our week also included choral and cadence practice for the upcoming Coast Guard Kid's parade and also rhythm reviews on paper and with our Remo veggie shakers.

Have a blessed weekend!

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MOM AND DAD CONNECT: Want to learn more about our lessons this week?

Interested in buying boomwhackers for use at home?
Boomwhackers on Amazon.com

Week of July 5th, 2010

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend!


INFANT THROUGH THREES AND FOURS
This week, all students enjoyed exploring the xylophones. We took a look at different sized xylos, from eight bars to many more. The "tap-a-tune", an early childhood instrument, was fun to explore, along with small personal xylophones and larger, handmade instruments!

We practiced playing our instruments together and stopping during rests, and also explored the up and down sounds of a "slide" encompassing all of the bars.





Musical Water Glasses
What a blast! We created our very own color coded instrument by filling water glasses to match pitches. The kids had fun playing the major scale with spoons and even used color coded papers to play songs! Check out this neat video:



-More cadence practice was in store for us this week as we prepare for the Grand Haven Coast Guard Kid's Parade! We are also working on some other songs with the guitar, and our vocal exercises. Practice makes perfect!

-A-MAZE-ing Music! We also had fun today completing a special maze that had a hidden message in it. Please ask your child what the hidden word in the maze was! :)

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MOM AND DAD CONNECT: Want to learn more about our lessons this week?

Read more about the xylophone!!
Check out this link on The Xylophone on Sound Junction



Want to make your own musical glasses? Check this link out!
VIDEO: How to make musical water glasses

Week of June 28th, 2010

INFANT THROUGH THREES AND FOURS
It's so much fun to sing and dance with scarves! This week we used vibrantly colored scarves in music class. We tried using them in familiar songs like "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and also "The Hokey Pokey". The kids had a great time tossing them in the air, twirling with them, and singing movement songs like this easy jingle set to the tune of "This Old Man":

Scarf Dancing

Put your scarf over your head,

Touch your scarf to your nose

Spin your scarf round and round

Bring your scarf down to your toes!



We also had a blast playing "The Baby Bird Game" in the threes and fours class this week. It is a fun musical game where we sing a song about baby birds in the nest. They are sleeping until a mommy or daddy bird (i.e., classmate) comes and taps them gently on the head to wake them. Then, all the birds fly around for a bit to some guitar music, and settle back in the nest to do it all over again!



SCHOOL AGE



GROUP WORK

You may have noticed a little slip of paper that came home in cubbies with eight measures, each labeled and with a different rhythm. This week, the kids listened to me play one measure at a time and guessed, based on what they heard, what rhythm I had played. We then split up into groups, and secretly chose a rhythm. Each group listened to the other play the one measure rhythm on songflutes, and then deduced what number had been chosen. The kids did a great job both playing and listening!

CADENCE AND CHORAL PRACTICE: We are having a Fourth of July march inside the school on Friday, July 2nd. The kids will be singing for all of their fellow Joyful Noise Kids, and traveling to each classroom in the afternoon to perform the various cadences that we have learned, along with our "My Flag" song. These are both items we will be performing in the Grand Haven Coast Guard Kid's parade, for those who are participating. Don't forget about our tshirt order! Notices are in cubbies with order forms, and you can also check out the display in the hallway next to the office door. The tshirts look awesome!!!:)

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MOM AND DAD CONNECT: Want to learn more about our lessons this week?

Interested in buying some "dancing scarves" for your child to use at home? Check out this link on Amazon

Check out this neat marching band video on Youtube with your music student!