Michigan Theme Kick-Off
INFANT THROUGH SCHOOL AGE
This week marked our first in a unit of early childhood songs all centered around the theme of Michigan, our location, natural features and state information! The kids have really enjoyed learning fascinating Michigan tidbits and performing fun songs like "Michigan is America's High Five". For a full pdf download of the songs we've been working on, please see last week's blog entry!
THE CLARINET
All classes also learned about the clarinet this week! This woodwind instrument has 5 pieces: the bell, the upper and lower joint, the barrel, the mouthpiece and the ligature, which holds the mouthpiece in place.
The clarinet requires that air be blown through the mouthpiece, which contains a wooden reed, in order to make sound. The instrument is held perpindicular to the body and produces a mellow, woody tone.
This week we watched a short video of putting together a clarinet and heard what it sounds like. We also took home Clarinet coloring sheets!
SCHOOL AGE HIGHLIGHTThe afternoon school age class had a songwriting workshop today. We will definitely be doing more of these; it was a HUGE success! Our creative and talented children came up with the neatest song about horses ALL ON THEIR OWN. All words and rhymes are the ones they came up with; I simply set the music to it!
Here is a download with an explanation of how the song came to be--take a listen!
Horse Song.mp3
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MOM AND DAD CONNECT: Want to learn more about our lessons this week?