Week of September 23rd, 2013

MAKE-AND--TAKE CASTANET WORKSHOP!

We had so much fun making home made castanets today and comparing them to some of the castanets I have in my music collection!

How did we do it? Very simply--with supplies like cardboard, cardstock, buttons, scraps of wood and a little hot glue (used only by the teacher, of course!)

Check out the short tutorial below for more of an explanation, and ask your children if they enjoyed making an instrument today!

Follow up questions to ask from class today:

 1) Did you have music in a new place today? (We met in rooms 16/17 near the downstairs kitchen)

2) What makes the "click" sound in your home made castanet? (Some children had smaller castanets with buttons, and classrooms where buttons/small objects are a choking hazard had a large castanet made with scraps of wood!)

Hi from Miss Chantal!

Check out this quick tutorial/explanation video of how we made our home made castanets today!

Cute little video of "5 Little Monkeys" with the Two's Class! 

(We use our castanets as the "sneaky" alligator mouth!)

Week of September 16th, 2013

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE!

Did you know that this Saturday, September 21st, is the International Day of Peace? You can read all about this inspiring event here: http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/.

Across the world, many celebrations and events take place in honor of International Peace Day, but as you can imagine, they are all themed around global unification, harmony and humanity!

We began our learning process today by asking: what is peace? See the video below where I briefly show an example of a posture of peace to the kids. I also talked with children about an attitude of peace, and we looked at the written word and a few symbols, which included the traditional circle, the peace sign with your hands, and the International Peace Day symbol, which is a dove with a branch! After looking at the pictures, we sang a few fun "peace" tunes, including "Peace Like A River" and "I've got peace in my fingers" (see the video below!).

One of the highlights of Peace Day is that at 12 noon across the world (in respective time zones) a moment of peace will be observed.  People may do this with silence and then follow through with a kind action, a vigil, lighting a candle, or even saying a prayer.  I thought this would be a neat opportunity to practice counting, rhythm and silence, so using our Remo fruit and veggie shakers, we practiced counting to twelve and being very silent after!

Hear the toddler Peace Count here: Toddler Peace Count mp3 

Ask your child some important questions today:

1. What do you think peace is?

 2. How can you be peaceful with your body?

3. Do you remember how to sing the peace songs from music today? (See below!)

4. Let's practice counting to 12, and being very silent afterward!

FROM THE FIVE'S ROOM: "How can you create peace?"

Acadia: "Whisper."

Riley: "Be quiet."

David: "Give someone you love a kiss."

Alex: "Feed the animals."

Week of September 9th, 2013

THE SITAR!

We enjoyed learning today about this wonderful and exotic stringed instrument!  Used most commonly in Indian music, the sitar can have up to 20 strings and requires constant tuning.

                         You can read more about the sitar here!  

One of the neatest things we learned about the sitar today is that they are often made from dried out pumpkin, or "toomba" (this is the part you see above labeled the "kaddu"). The kids practiced pronouncing all of the names today of the sitar parts as well as the name of the instrument themselves. We also enjoyed singing a call and response song (see below), using rainbow streamers, and pretending to fall to the ground and sleep like leaves.

Questions you can ask about music class today:

1. What instrument did you see today that had strings? 

2. What is the instrument made from? 

3. How did you move your body with rainbow streamers?

Check out the cool videos below to hear the amazing sitar musician Ravi Shankar and see his impressive technique.

INFANT CLASS

Check out this cute new movement chant we tried today! The video has the simple lyrics posted so you can easily "play along" at home! :)

IF I ASK YOU TO SING (CALL AND RESPONSE SONG)

Listen to the mp3 so you can sing along!

If I ask you to sing, will you sing? (YES I WILL!)

If I ask you to sing, will you sing? (YES I WILL!)

If I ask you to sing, if I ask you to sing

If I ask you to sing, will you sing? (YES I WILL!)

THE TODDLERS SINGING "IF I ASK YOU TO SING" MP3

WAY UP HIGH IN THE APPLE TREE 
(Toddler Room)

Week of September 2nd, 2013

SKIT-SKAT-DOO-BOP-BWAH-DOO-DOO!

Students had a great time learning about scat today with a little vocal practice (we had fun singing the scale with animal sounds, take a listen here: AnimalWarmups.mp3) and watching some amazing videos of the Queen of Jazz (and scat!), Ella Fitzgerald! Check out the youtube videos I shared with the children today of her alone as well as with Mel Torme.

I think the kids had a great grip on the idea of how to scat, and they found it to be a lot of fun! Check out one of our students giving scat a try here: Scatting Practice.mp3. We even tried a "scat circle" with our older students, who joined hands and took turns scatting a little in "solo" mode.

All students also enjoyed singing songs and experimenting with the keyboard today! Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

(Scatting starts at about 1:30!)

Week of August 19th, 2013

DICE DANCING!

We had a fun and educational time this morning as we explored both music genre and creative movements associated with different types of music!

For older age groups, we started with some discussion about genre. Check out the awesome web that I made with the school age class below--I was so impressed with their knowledge about music genres! From heavy metal to swing dance, the children already had a colorful range of musical knowledge and type. From there, we listened to some examples that I brought to class that included everything from Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" to Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies"!

Next came a fun game where we associated a certain song number with a roll of the dice. Children performed solo as well as in groups, and improvised creative movement to correspond with the music that was associated with the number they rolled on the die. Check out the awesome results below and ask your child what their favorite style of music does. Maybe they will show you some of their fancy dance moves! :D

Week of August 12th, 2013

FLUTES!

We studied flutes today! From the top, we have an alto flute, soprano flute, and piccolo--all of which we observed and listened to today!

The kids enjoyed hearing the different pitches and sounds that the flutes produced, and we played a guessing game with some contemporary music arrangements of Phineas and Ferb, Toy Story, and more! 

We also played a fun listening game where the children corresponded their movements with the sounds from the flute--a "Jaws" theme like tune where we crawled like a shark on the ground, a fun trill that made us wiggle our bodies like crazy, and some short staccato notes for bunny hops! Check out the video below to watch the four year old class moving with the flute to the corresponding sound.

Week of August 5th, 2013

MOVEMENT SONGS AND GUITAR CREATIVITY!

Students enjoyed movement songs, the "Jack and Jill" puppets, and learning about the guitar today!

See a video of the puppets below!

Today we took a look at the inner workings of the guitar and some examples of non-traditional body styles. The kids couldn't believe some of the funky and unique guitars that are out there! Once we had discussed the options and also experimented with and learned about the digital tuner I use each day, I had older students create their own unique guitar design on paper. Ideas were so creative and wonderful and ranged from a bicycle guitar (the pedals strummed the strings), a "sock" guitar that was soft, ninja guitar, watermelon guitar and even a pizza guitar (show below).

What a fun day!