This week we had lots of fun leaning and dancing to Jazz music!
We looked at photos and talked about two very influential Jazz artists ( Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday).Duke Ellington started his career in the 1940's and focused on Piano but also wrote music too.
Billie Holiday started her music career singing in the 1930's, at the age of 18.
Questions to ask your children about this weeks music
1. What kind of instruments do you hear in Jazz music? Piano, trumpet, saxophone
2. What were the names of the two people you learned about in music? Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington
This week the children learned about African Storytelling and the Conga Drum.
The Conga drum that the children played and learned about is an important part in African music. The top is made with animal skin and is a long drum so that when it is played, it vibrates through the drum.
The story that we read was about a spider named Anansi and his eight legs. With the older children we talked about why storytelling is important in different cultures. After reading the story and talking about it we sang " The Itsy Bitsy Spider " with a spider puppet, which they loved.
Some questions to ask your children 1. Why did Anansi make a web? so that when his friends food was done, they could tug on the part of the web to tell him the food was done. 2. what is the top of the Conga Drum made out of? Animal skin.
This week the children learned about Langston Hughes, who is a famous American poet. We talked about dreams and different ways we can be kind to each other. They had a lot of fun using scarves to act out the poem "Dream Keeper"
We had fun with cymbals this week! My apologies for a little bit of a scatterbrained January; my impending maternity leave combined with some crazy snow days/school closings has really done a number on music class the past few weeks! However, we enjoyed getting back to a bit of a rhythm for my last class with the children (Miss Holly will continue classes for February) and learning about cymbals this week!
How do cymbals work? We learned that by hitting them together or with a mallet, the metal vibrates, and a sound rings out! Larger cymbals make lower sounds, while smaller cymbals have a higher pitch! And, in the case of our cymbals, our small finger cymbals have the longest decay--meaning that the sound lasts for a long time, even when it is continuing to ring almost inaudibly. We tested this by carefully holding a ringing finger cymbal next to our ears!
The children got a chance to try out the hand cymbals at different volumes, and they practiced "muting" the cymbal by pressing it against their body to immediately quiet the vibration!
We also read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" in younger classes and enjoyed "Jack and Jill", my funny bird puppets!
I found this neat video on making a cymbal "sizzle" below if you'd like to share an extra bit of learning with your children this week!
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD!
1.) How do cymbals create sound? Through vibration!
2.) How can you mute a cymbal? By touching it, which silences it. We did this by putting the cymbal against our body!
Happy Thai Pongal! In a few short days in North India (specifically, Tamil and Sri Lanka, as well as other places near India) there will be a four-day long harvest celebration called "Tha Pongal!"
Thai Pongal is a Hindu festival that focuses on gratitude for bounty, a celebration of harvest, and hope for a plentiful new year.
We listened to some Thai Pongal drum music while also looking at pictures of the traditional celebratory dish, freshly harvested rice boiled in milk in clay pots. It is purposefully "boiled over" to represent its bounty and plentiful nature! Sometimes sweet, sometimes savory, this rice dish is a staple during the festival.
Another tradition are the bright and beautiful "kolams" made of everything from colored rice and flour to chalk powder! Every morning throughout the celebration, women use the colored powders to make lovely geometric designs that are thought to bring prosperity and good luck on the floors and front doorsteps of homes. When they are destroyed from rain, wind or footsteps, new designs are made!
To celebrate our version of Thai Pongal, we enjoyed making shapes and drawings in little piles of colored salts on paper plates! Ask your child about drawing in the salt and making beautiful "kolams."
Infants also sang/read the book "I'm a Little Teapot" and had fun with bouncing songs!
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILD
1) What boils over in the pot during Thai Pongal? Rice and Milk!
2) Do you remember drawing in the colored sand and making designs? Do you remember what they are called? Kolam!
