Celtic Dance Party!

CELTIC DANCE PARTY!

Check out the pics below from our Celtic Piccolo Dance Party! 

Today we learned about the piccolo and got to handle one as well as hear it being played! As some of you may know, flute and piccolo are my master instruments and I've played since a very young age in orchestra. We also looked at pictures of other Celtic instruments and had a fun "freeze dancing" session wherein whomever froze the stillest got to wear the shamrock necklace for the next round! When the kids were tuckered out, they sat at the table to color shamrocks, rainbows over pots of gold, and Celtic traditional Bodhran drums. Your child of 2 years or older also came home with a fun party favor whistle today! Check out this video of one of the fun Celtic "reels" we danced to earlier:

My goofy Shamrock glasses! :)

Week of March 14th, 2011

INFANT THROUGH

SCHOOL AGE

Today we learned about Celtic music and the traditional handdrum, the "Bodhran". The tool resembling a two sided mallot that you see to the left is called a "topper". Using a series of wrists

twists, brush like effects and taps along the outside of the frame, a traditional Celtic beat is kept. I wish that we had been able to use an actual Bodhran for class today but I wasn't able to locate one. We did, however, have alot of fun coloring a picture of this special drum and we also watched this video of a very talented bodhran player!

The infants enjoyed hearing songs with the drum and guitar today!

We also explored the idea of 3/4 time signatures, which are most common in Celtic or Irish music. Often in music class, our favorite songs are in a time signature of 4/4, or four beats to a measure. This is the most standard time signature and very common. To practice, I used a hand drum and the children chanted "ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three" with an emphasis on beat one.

An easy Irish example of a 3/4 time signature is "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean". After we practiced singing in a 3/4 time signature we sang it together.

Here is the School Age class singing "My Bonnie"!

And last but not least, the two's had such a blast with this simple "buzzing bee" fingerplay. Watch and follow along with the word bubbles and actions for guarunteed giggles! =)

MOM AND DAD CONNECT

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Read more about the Bodhran!