Week of January 30th, 2011

Due to a lack of pop bottles recieved for our "garden trumpets", we postponed our scheduled music craft until another time when more children can participate!

Instead, today we had a blast playing "Musical Hoops" in the fellowship hall! The object of the game was to run around like crazy during the music, and hop into a hoop with another friend while it stopped!

Also, we'd like to thank Mr. Rob for taking time out of his schedule to stop by and show us how the pipe organ works. The kids absolutely loved this. Check out the video montage below for some great pics and a sample of Mr. Rob playing "Fugue in D Minor"!

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Week of January 23rd, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Chinese New Year, that is!
Did you know that yesterday, January 23rd, was the Chinese New Year? It is the Year of the Dragon this year. We had tons of fun viewing some celebration videos, learning facts about China and also having a traditional "lion's dance" in music class!

I showed the children pictures of the parade, traditional female dress and head dress, dragons, lion costumes, and the instrument "Gong". We also discussed the difference in American and Chinese culture when it comes to dragons. In western civilazations (American, Celtic, etc.) dragons are often viewed as evil, or representing one's own "demons". However, in eastern culture, specifically China, the dragon is viewed as good luck, or representing other positive qualities.

Can you guess which of our friends are behind the lion masks?

My lion mask was the western image of a lion, but the true lion costume is a beautiful and impressive interpretation that resembles the same style as many Chinese dragons. Check out the Youtube videos at the bottom of the blog to see what the children watched today in class!


We played rhythm instruments during our very own "lion dance" and made a simple beat very similiar to the traditional one using castanets and tambourines. The rhythm was "tah-tah-tucka-tah" or quarter, quarter, two eights, quarter. Look for the video that shows how well the four year olds played this rhythm!

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HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR FROM JOYFUL NOISE!

Check out our very own lion dance!

TRADITIONAL LION DANCE

This is the video we watched in class on Tuesday. See how these two men work together in the lion costume to perform some pretty amazing moves!

Week of January 16th, 2012

Do you love the bass guitar? So did our students today! Infants all the way through school agers enjoyed hearing about the bass, exploring its long body style and thick metal strings, and listening to its low and melodious vibrations. Here are the highlights of what we learned and fun things we did:

• The bass guitar has four strings
• The electric bass is amplified by plugging it into an amplified speaker
• Bass vibrations are very strong, low and slow. I demonstrated this to the children by having them place their hand (shown below in the two's room) on the neck of the guitar while I played it. They felt the strong vibrations go through their hand and into their arms!
• I demonstrated three different styles of playing bass for the children: picking, playing with fingers, and slap bass
• We touched the bass and explored the thick strings, comparing them to the classical acoustic guitar.
  

We also had a blast with the parachute below. Check out the fun videos and be sure NOT to miss the adorable two year olds singing one of their favorites, "Jesus Loves Me" with sign language.

Have a beautiful weekend and stay safe and warm!

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Week of January 9th, 2012

What fun we had with tambourines, fingerpuppets and half note rhythms today! The infants and toddlers enjoyed both fun animal fingerplays and using tambourines to play rhythms and songs.

Check out the video below for a fun fingerplay song you can sing to your infant!

"Choo Choo"

The children colored a "half note dog" after reviewing the differences between the quarter note and half note!

QUARTER NOTE: "Tah" -- 1 beat - - has a head and tail and is ALL colored in :

HALF NOTE: "Toooo" -- 2 beats - - has a head and a tail and is NOT colored in:

This is the silly way I have the kids "rest" their tambourines to be quiet--we wear it as a hat!!!

MORE FUN VIDEOS FROM CLASS:

See how well the twos did with a combined quarter and half note rhythm on tambourines!

The threes also did a great job distinguishing quarter notes from halves:

The four year olds demonstrate "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with half notes. Notice in the sheet music below how the words "lamb" and "snow" are denoted by a half note! We used our tambourines on these word with a "shake" for the half note value.

Week of January 2nd

Today we rediscovered the symbol and properties of quarter notes (they are black, colored in all the way, have heads and tails, and are represented by one beat and saying "tah"). It was a lot of fun to work the rhythms with silly chants, physical activities and songs using our rhythms sticks!

From infants to school agers, everyone had fun using the rhythm sticks today! Check out the video and pictures below and see some of the fun things we did!

PS-- do you need a refresher course on quarter rhythms? Check out this link!
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