Week of September 8th, 2014

HAND DRUMS, JAMAICA AND CALYPSO!

Today and Monday in music class, we learned a little about the beautiful island of Jamaica (from native hairstyles to flag colors), and the wonderful Calpyso music that is played there! Using the hand drums, we explore their parts (drum heads made from animal skin, hollowed shells and vibrating sound) as we sang "Mango Walk".  Check out the basic melody here (though our version was slightly different!) The children practiced hitting the drum with their hands while I sang certain syllables, and we also explored a few different drums including congas and bongos!

I also played the children an example of Calypso music with Frank Leto's "We are Fine Musicians".

Don't forget to sneak a quick peek at the adorable video of one of our infants below enjoying "The Windmill Song" in class today! =)

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD

1) What colors are in the Jamaican flag? Black, green and yellow!

2) What number did Mother Deeda tell the child to eat in "Mango Walk"? All the number elevens!

3) Did you play a hand drum today?

Week of April 11th, 2011

INFANT THROUGH SCHOOL AGE It was a rhythmatic day today in music class as we explored hand drums, rhythms and even African storytelling! As some of you might remember from the email announcement or music calendar, we are having a hand drum assembly this week at Joyful Noise for our music students. Eric Durkee, a talented hand drummer from the Grand Haven area, will be demonstrating his drumming skills for the children on Friday, April 15th, at 4:00 p.m.

IMPORTANT: Our assembly location has changed due to a large funeral that will be taking place at First Presbyterian Church on Friday. We will be moving the assembly location to the J.N. Rec Room!

Our lessons today about different drums and styles tie in directly with the exposure we will be getting to hand drums at the end of the week:

VOCABULARY: We learned about three basic drums, the "djembe", mini-congas and bongos! I also illustrated for the children the way that you can generally achieve three different tones or sounds with a hand drum head. We had a blast freeze dancing and playing movement games to the drum beat!

SCHOOL AGE MUSIC AND LITERACY: The school age class took the drumming concepts even farther with a lesson that incorporated African drum storytelling. We watched some African drummers and a short film on African storytelling (both listed as resources below) and then we experimented with all of the hand drums available at JN. Each child constructed a story with whatever drum they chose, and we then illustrated and recorded those stories on paper. Afterwards, we joined in a "storytelling circle" so that students could share both the audio and written or oral version of their story. The kids did an absolutely phenomenal job with this! MMMMM

A RAINY DAY TUNE

DOWNLOAD THE MP3 HERE:

"There's Nothin' Wrong With A Rainy Day"

There's nothin' wrong with a rainy day

Everything needs water, and that's ok!

There's nothin' wrong with a rainy day!

It's not a bad day...it's just wet!

(whistle tune)

MOM AND DAD CONNECT

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Check out these neat Youtube videos on basic djembe technique and African storytelling!