Clara Schumann
This week in music class we enjoyed learning about the German female composer, Clara Schumann! The children discovered that this talented musician was born almost 200 years ago in Germany, and that her father was a piano teacher. We discussed her talents (which included composing music on piano, writing music arrangements for orchestras, and even playing violin!). The children even learned that she wrote 29 pieces of music--and they were complete complex arrangements. We especially enjoyed listening to Nocturne in F major (Op.6). As you may know, female composers are quite rare from that era!
While we listened to her music, we passed around photos of Clara. The kids even practiced her "thinking pose" (shown above) with their own bodies (see their thinking pose below!).
Twos and up also had a blast playing the "Doggy Doggy Where's Your Bone" game. I have included photos as well as an audio clip of the song we sang to accompany this fun game, which gives kids an opportunity to pretend to be a doggy who has mysteriously lost its bone. Another student (or two, in some classes) are hiding the bone, and the doggy has to try and find out which classmate it is! The kids loved this and asked to play again and again.
For toddlers, I passed the bone around and sang the song but worked on name recognition instead. "Who is holding the bone right now?" We practicedon saying each friend's name. They also loved the "Little Fred" fingerplay. I've included a video below in case you'd like to try it at home yourself! =)
Thanks for reading the blog this week and don't forget to give the extender questions a try. It cements your child's knowledge of music class this week and is a great conversation starter!
"Little Fred"
Audio Clip of "Doggy Doggy Where's Your Bone?"
(Click here for mp3 stream!)
QUESTIONS FOR YOUR CHILD
1.) Do you remember what instruments Clara Schumann played? Piano, violin
2.) Do you remember how many songs Clara Schumann wrote? 29
3.) Did you pretend to be a dog in music class? Which friend had your bone?