Week of July 25th, 2016

Bells in the Water Table! 

(And parachute fun)

This week in music class, we had a lot of fun warming up with the parachute and some movement songs, and learning about bells in the water!

Did you know that water is a great conductor of sound? This is because the molecules of water are dense--more dense than, say, air--and therefore, the molecules/particles vibrate together well to carry sound. Steel is an example of a material with even more density--and therefore, great capability to conduct sound!

The children learned that by striking the metal floating bowls (our bells for today), a sound would be produced that traveled through the water. We used a few different sized bowls and also a small metal pitcher for this experiment!

It was neat to hear the church-bells-like sound that was produced by the floating bells, and it's ALWAYS fun to play in the water! =)

PS--Miss Holly Steward helped to instruct class today, and she did a great job!

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD

1. What did you hit the metal bowl with to make sound? A mallet!

2. What color was the water in music class? Blue!

Week of June 29th, 2015

Floating Bells!

Floating bells might sound fancy, but here’s a secret: you can make them in the kitchen!

This week in music class we had a blast playing with metal mixing bowls as they floated in the water of our sensory table. I added a little blue food coloring to make it extra fun! The kids enjoyed tapping the edges of the bowls with metal spoons and listening to the unique pitches of three different size metal mixing bowls as they floated in water, which amplified the sound that they made in a unique way. We also discovered that small amounts of liquid inside the bowls would change the pitch and quality of the sound! After the children took a turn with a spoon, they used crayons and paper to draw a reflection of what they saw and experienced.

Our school age crew used the bells to play some of the rhythms they have been learning in music class on the staff, including a new value—a pair of eights notes! 

Eighth notes in pairs are often called “ti-ti” or “tucka” and they look like this:

We used food phrases such as “Chi-cken nug-gets” to remember how to play them:

Check out the cute pictures below and don’t forget to ask your child about music class this week using the extender questions below!

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD:

1) How many bowls were inside the water table? Three

2) What did you use to tap the bowls with? A spoon

3) What color was the water in music class? Blue!