Week of March 23rd, 2015

Learning About Kaki King and Reading Tiny Little Fly

This week in music class, we began by reading Tiny Little Fly (written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Kevin Waldron). It is a fun story about a quick little fly who is buzzing around three animals from the savannah. She is a speedy thing and can't be caught! Throughout the book, we found the phrase "My oh my! A tiny little fly!" repeating. I thought it would be fun to use that repeating theme as an opportunity to do a little singing. Click the mp3 below to hear how we sang it!

MY OH MY Mp3 clip from the three's class

 

Tiny Little Fly on Amazon

 
 

Then we moved on to one of the female artists featured this month for Women's History Month, Kaki King! Kaki is a 36 year old guitarist from Atlanta who is sponsored by Ovation guitars and known for her percussive, classical stylings on the guitar (see the video below!). The kids really enjoyed seeing how she uses different techniques to create unique sounds. Before watching the videos I brought to class, I demonstrated several of these guitar techniques for the kids: hammer-ons, tapping, and finger picking. I also pointed out to the children to keep a special eye out for Kaki's special nails--like many classical players, she wears her nails very short on her fretboard hand, and her nails long and sharp on her strumming hand for picking capability. 

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD

1) What animals did the little fly run find in the book Tiny Little Fly from music class? An elephant, a hippo and a tiger!

2) Do you remember what instrument the woman Kaki King plays? The guitar!

3) Can you tell me something special about her nails? They are long on one hand, and short on the other hand!
 

Week of January 16th, 2012

Do you love the bass guitar? So did our students today! Infants all the way through school agers enjoyed hearing about the bass, exploring its long body style and thick metal strings, and listening to its low and melodious vibrations. Here are the highlights of what we learned and fun things we did:

• The bass guitar has four strings
• The electric bass is amplified by plugging it into an amplified speaker
• Bass vibrations are very strong, low and slow. I demonstrated this to the children by having them place their hand (shown below in the two's room) on the neck of the guitar while I played it. They felt the strong vibrations go through their hand and into their arms!
• I demonstrated three different styles of playing bass for the children: picking, playing with fingers, and slap bass
• We touched the bass and explored the thick strings, comparing them to the classical acoustic guitar.
  

We also had a blast with the parachute below. Check out the fun videos and be sure NOT to miss the adorable two year olds singing one of their favorites, "Jesus Loves Me" with sign language.

Have a beautiful weekend and stay safe and warm!

________________________________________