Week of August 28th, 2014


Tuesday was National Dog Day!

If you missed your weekly email and music class updates, my apologies! Due to family illness, classes were rescheduled to Thursday this week. We still had a blast singing dog related songs, exploring the drum, and playing a fun game! Check out the pictures below and watch the video to learn the lyrics and tune to "My Dog Rags". Don't forget to review the "Questions to ask your child", and check out an explanation of what music class looks like at the infant level! Please note that due to previously schedule activities, the four year olds and school agers did not have music today. Also, there are some changes coming for the music schedule, beginning next week!

MUSIC SCHEDULE CHANGES
Beginning the week of September 8th, 2014

MONDAY: Threes Group @ 9 a.m.
Toddlers @ 11:10 a.m.

TUESDAY:  Fours Group at @9 a.m.
Infants @ 9:30 a.m.
Twos Group @11:30 a.m.















DOGGY, DOGGY, WHERE'S YOUR BONE?
Today we played a fun "hide and seek" based game where children took turns pretending to be a dog looking for their bone (that another classmate was secretly hiding) while singing a simple song: "Doggy, doggy, where's your bone? Someone took it from your home! Who took the bone?" The kids absolutely LOVED playing this game. Ask your child about it!

WHAT'S GOING ON IN INFANT CLASS?
If you have a young infant, you may be asking--what's going on for my child in music class? The answer is--a lot! Each week in infant music class, children are exploring a new instrument, both by hearing it being played, touching it, and seeing it! With all of our new babies, my focus has been on spending individual moments with each child--gazing in to their eyes, singing to them with varying pitch, and helping them to track the sound of my voice as well as the objects I am holding. Through repetitive motions, rocking, swaying and touching to the beat we are not only making emotional connections but plenty of cognitive ones as well, as the language centers of the brain are stimulated along with many sensory elements, both visual and auditory. If you are looking for songs to sing at home with your baby, please search the blog for terms like, "infant songs", "infant music" and "rocking songs". You'll find years worth of entries with videos and music (as well as outsourced web links) to inspire you!

MY DOG RAGS



I have a dog.
His name is Rags.
He eats so much that his tummy sags,
His ears flip flop 
and his tail wig wags.
And when he walks, he goes zig zag!

He goes flip flop, wig wag, zig zag.
He goes flip flop, wig wag, zig zag.
He goes flip flop, wig wag, zig zag.
I love Rags and he loves me!

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD TODAY:


1.) (Toddlers and up) Where was the doggy's bone hiding today?
2.) What is your favorite kind of dog?
3) What do dog's eat?

Week of August 18th, 2014


FLUTE TIME!

From piccolos to soprano to alto flutes, today was all about this beautiful woodwind instrrument--which happens to be my master instrument! I brought all three examples for children to check out today and they enjoyed comparing small, medium and large and their respective tones. The school age class also enjoyed guessing how much money the instruments cost. See if your school age child can remember the costs!

The kids also liked moving to the flute's music and touching all of the keys as we passed around each flute, and using the "stir xylophone" pictured below.

Check out the extender questions to engage your child about today's woodwind lesson! =)





















QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD

1) How many flutes did you see today? (Three--a piccolo, a soprano flute, and an alto flute).

2.) Which flute sounded the highest? (It was the piccoolo! The smaller the instrument, the higher the sound.)

3.) Do you remember how much the flutes cost? (The piccolo cost about $120, the soprano flute was about $500, and the alto flute was about $2000.)

Week of August 11th, 2014


SILLY SONGS!!!

The kids enjoyed singing silly songs and making funny faces in music today! 

Our song list included:

-Do your ears hang low?
-Micheal Finnigen
-Little Bunny Foo Foo (we used a puppet and neat star chime today while singing this song)
-Silly Sally

and more! Check out the post below to see the Youtube video for "Daddy's Whiskers", another fun and silly song we sang today. We also sang "Rain, Rain, Go Away" with a rainstick and used the children's names.

The school agers also enjoyed writing their own funny limerick to the tune of the song posted below--ask your school age child about it!

























QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD

1. In the silly "Daddy's Whiskers" song, what do the cows do with dad's pokey beard hairs?
Eat them for hay, haha!

2. Can you make a silly face?

3. How many chances did the Fairy Princess give Little Bunny Foo Foo before she turned him into goondust?
Three!