Week of February 26th, 2018

Esperanza Spalding and Jazz Tappers!!

Today, students enjoyed learning about this child prodigy and jazz phenomenon--Ezperanza Spalding!! Believe it or not, this Portland, Oregon native began her music career at just six years of age, playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon on violin. WOW!

These days, she is blowing audiences away with her awesome jazz bass playing, awesome vocals and great songwriting skills. Check out a few of the videos below!

In addition to learning about Esperanza's musicianship, we also listened to some Duke Ellington and enjoyed "tapping" around on the tile floors with our home-made "tappers" (elastic bands with washers attached for each foot.) We tried tapping to the beat, tip-toe tapping and sweeping our feet against the floor to make rhythmic sounds as we danced!'

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD

1.) Do you know how many strings the bass guitar has?

2.) Can you say Esperanza?

Week of February 12th, 2018

ELLA FITZGERALD AND SCAT!

Brrrrriiiinnng-diggy-diggy-doop-bop-bwee-bop!

Those are some of the fun sounds our mouth can make while jazz scatting! We learned from the best this morning in music class as we watched this wonderful clip of Ella Fitzgerald doing her impromptu thing on One Note Samba--an incredible performance showing her agility, range and creativity when it comes to using her voice like a jazz instrument!

The kids absolutely loved listening and watching her. We also read "Skit Skat Raggety Cat" and looked at the book's pictures describing Ella Fitzgerald's ascension into her title as the "Queen of Jazz" and the "First Lady of Song!"

We practiced a little scat ourselves with fun nonsense words, and also tried using our voices like different instruments--trumpet, guitar, drums, etc.

We also practiced our Langston Hughes poem (My People) and reviewed the movements.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD:

1) Can you copy my scat? (Make up your own fun scat sound and see if your child can repeat it!)

2) Do you remember that Ella Fitzgerald sang? (Watch the above video with your child to bring back their memory of watching it in class!)

Week of February 15th, 2016

JAZZ!

We listened to some awesome JAZZ this week!

Edward Ellington--better known as "Duke"--took us to town on the "A Train". Check out the video below! We also looked at photos of jazz greats like the Duke himself, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald.

We explored what types of instruments are used in jazz, talked about swing counting ("A-one and a-two and a-three and a-four!") and colored some jazz worksheets with different instruments. Ask your child about what they saw on the coloring page (see the questions below for a hint!)

We are also continuing to practice our Langston Hughes poem and also loving Itsy Bitsy Spider with our Anansi puppet (the spider with long streamer legs from last week).

QUESTIONS

1) What instrument did Duke Ellington play? The piano

2) What did Billie Holiday always wear in her hair? A flower

3) What instruments did you hear in the jazz music? The piano, trumpet, trombone, drums, and more!

Week of February 1st, 2016

Bouquet

Gather quickly (grabbing air)
Out of darkness (swimming motion)
All the songs you know (hug self)
And throw them at the sun (fling arms upwards)
Before they melt
Like snow (Melt to the ground)


         -Langston Hughes

This week we learned about the poet Langston Hughes, and what poetry means. We will practice this poem throughout the month as we explore black history in music, along with the amazing cultural heritage of jazz and also African storytelling. The kids were entertained as I made up some impromptu rhymes using their name, and we also explored what "free verse" meant. To learn Langston's wonderful poem, we used the body movements above with scarves and I was truly impressed with how quickly the kids memorized the stanzas (especially the four-year-old class!). Make sure to ask your child about it!

We also had fun with another poem set to motion with scarves:

THE PANCAKE POEM

Mix a pancake  (stirring motion with scarf)

Stir a pancake

Pop it in the pan (Downward motion with scarf, make sizzle sound)

Fry a pancake

Toss a pancake (Throw scarf up in the air)

Catch it if you can! (Catch the scarf in the air!)

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD

1) Do you know what a poem is?

2) In "Bouquet" by Langston Hughes, the poem says to gather the songs you know and throw them at the sun, before they melt like what? SNOW!

3) Did you catch your scarf after you threw it in the air?