Music Atelier - Week 2

Teacher Lisa, Amaya, An, Jesse B, Jude, Matea, Sebastian and Zion

This week I encouraged the children to create lyrics for our fun "jam sessions." Jude was excited to sing a song about volcanoes for the group. Zion sang us a song about his mom and the hugs and love she gives him, and Jesse decided he liked making sound effects with music to express himself. Some friends decided they were more into playing accompaniment to their friend's songs, but I have a feeling some friends were a little shy when it came to singing. To include everyone, we made a list of everyone's ideas for lyrics and sang all the words in an epic rap-style song!

We took a look at a treble and bass clef and I encouraged each friend to write a note to create a beat and melody. We explored what their notes would sound like with percussion, voice, guitar and harmonica. We also explored using some musical terms to communicate to our "band," our vision's for particular songs, before playing them together. Each child took a turn describing the tempo, volume and emotion to friends before beginning their chosen musical piece. One example of this is Matea's description of the song she wrote herself. She told her friends, "It's fast tempo, happy and loud," then  she invited them to join in to play her "Happy Song." Sebastian offered his ideas for playing, "Twinkle, Twinkle Traffic Light," loud and with a fast tempo.

Music Atelier (Week 3) April 15st-19th

Music Atelier (Week 3 )April 15st-19th

Students: Sabine, Rowan, Rya. Colton, Elly, Camille

During this term students will explore the world around them through the lens of music. How far can our imaginations reach? We will look at everyday items and unveil the music within them. We will delve into the world of percussion to expand our awareness of what different objects sound like, and how sound/music is created. Friends will explore new ways to move to music, creative ways to involve music in our learning, and new and exciting ways to create music with the materials around us everyday.

Towards the beginning of the week, while sitting in a circle together, I went through all of the available instruments for our atelier--giving a description of each, providing a brief instruction on it's use, and giving each student a moment to try it out & experience the sounds created by each instrument. 

We played a guessing game, where every student was blind-folded with a silk or cape and asked to guess which instrument was being played at a given time. Rowan thought wearing a cape as a blindfold was quite funny--she laughed for a good long time.

 
At the end of the week, we made a plan to create shakers; using recycled crayon boxes, tape, and wet tempra paint. Chef David was kind enough to see that we had some grain (spelt) to put inside of our shakers to help in creating the sound we wanted.

Music Atelier (Week 2 )April 8st-12th

Music Atelier (Week 2 )April 8st-12th

Students: Jesse, Lucas, Henry N., Isaac R., Jacob

During this term students will explore the world around them through the lens of music. How far can our imaginations reach? We will look at everyday items and unveil the music within them. We will delve into the world of percussion to expand our awareness of what different objects sound like, and how sound/music is created. Friends will explore new ways to move to music, creative ways to involve music in our learning, and new and exciting ways to create music with the materials around us everyday.

At the beginning of every music atelier class session, we take attendance and I ask a leading question to stimulate social develpment. Some examples of this are: What did you do over the weekend? What is your favorite thing to do while at school? When then do stretches and vocal warm-ups to prepare ourselves for a full-body music experience.

From the beginning of the week, we were very interested in drums and drumming techniques. We discussed our big idea for spring term, "Imagination,"and how we can make anything into a drum. We looked around our classroom and thought about what materials and objects could be used as a drum. We researched the indeginous drumming practices of West Africa, as well as the drumming practices of the Native Americans.

We decided as a group to create drums. We brainstormed ways to accomplish our goals, and settled on the use of recycled yogurt containers and paint to create our drums. We spent Thursday afternoon creating our drums, and ended the week having a jam session with our new and old instruments.

Music Atelier: Spring - Week 1

Students: Malvina, Zooey, Brooklyn, Sofia, Cora, and Sabastian.

During this term students will explore the world around them through the lens of music. How far can our imaginations reach? We will look at everyday items and unveil the music within them. We will delve into the world of percussion to expand our awareness of what different objects sound like, and how sound/music is created. Friends will explore new ways to move to music, creative ways to involve music in our learning, and new and exciting ways to create music with the materials around us everyday.

To begin spring term, we went around our circle and introduced ourselves; we shared our names and our favorite activity to do while at school or out in the world with our families. I introduced the idea of imagination, and we spent some time discussing what imagination means to us as well as ways that we have used our imagination in the past. Zooey and Sophia shared that they have used their imagination when dancing to imitate animals and other living things. As a group, we decided to listen to world music and engage in animal mime and interpretive dance—stopping every so often to check-in with everyone and share what our bodies were imitating at the time.

We played games together, learning how our bodies move and change as we engage our imagination and creatitvity. While we were brainstorming what games we knew, Malvina of Rm. 8 suggested we play the game "Fishy, Fishy, Shark"; her reasoning was, "Well, during the game we imagine that we are fishes when we are walking around, and then when we pick someone, we both imagine that they are a shark trying to eat us."

As the week went along, we shared our past experiences in other music atelier classes throughout the year and before. I shared my love of creating instuments and offered the idea of creating our own instruments to the group. They were very excited to brainstorm possibilities, and we ended up making plan to create didgeridoos, a wind instrument developed by indigenous Australians of northern Australia. We spent Thursday and Friday making these fun instruments and experimenting with different ways of using them to create music together.

Music: Change - Week 3

With Thomas, Rowan, Jacob, Alex, Avalaine, Flynn, Cora, and Camille

We started the week with a hello chant to greet everyone in our group. To gauge our interests in music we chatted for a little bit about music. Avalaine mentioned, "I know an elephant song." Alex added, "Elephants are at the zoo." Jacob started singing the alphabet song and everyone joined in. We decided the ABC song would be a good place to start so we sang it a lot of different ways. So very soft you could barely hear it, really loud, fast, and many times with instruments. We discovered the song books in the music atelier box and Avalaine suggested that we read a book, but Alex said, "Let's sing." "Let's just read. We can read it, sing it, and act it out." was Jacob's suggestion so we decided to do this with The Farmer in the Dell.
Tuesday brought a great deal of excitement for playing instruments. We explored keeping a beat on the drum, as well as changing how we played it (hands, thumbs, feet, etc...). We got out the bells and shakey eggs as well, and sang songs while playing them, Jacob rings the bells. Jacob rings the bells. Oh yeah. Jacob rings. Jacob rings the bells. (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell from yesterday). We came back to the books, and took a vote about which song to sing today. Shake Your Sillies Out was decided on, and after reading it, singing it, and finally moving to it, we changed the words to do different things. Instead of shake our sillies out we would crawl our crazies out and dance our dizzies out.
We jumped right into the books to start off Wednesday, and Down by the Bay was top choice. We spent a little bit of time laying down reading the story and looking at the details in the pictures. Some of them were quite funny, we talked about what would be funnier to see down by the bay, the whale with a polka-dot tail or the llamas eating their pajamas. After singing the song through a couple of times with the story some friends were ready to join in and sing along, almost everyone contributed to the rhyming words like "bay" and "say." We finally added instruments and danced while singing.
After our hello song on Thursday we played a humming game. I hummed a song and the children would guess what the melody was. Many picked up on it by singing along while others would name the song. Old McDonald and Twinkle Twinkle were pretty easy. For The Itsy Bitsy Spider Jacob guessed, "I think it sounds like a hummingbird song." "A hummingbird song" was hypothesized for a few of the more difficult to guess tunes. We played more instruments while singing the songs we'd just spent time guessing.
We finished the week by revisiting the books, taking the time to sing and act out each one. We had some time left after The Farmer in the Dell, Shake My Sillies Out, and Down by the Bay, so we learned a new song. Hey Lolly Lolly Lolly except we made up new lyrics about what we like to do at school.
Hey Lolly Lolly Lolly.
Hey Lolly, Lolly, Lo.
Hey Lolly, Lolly, Lolly.
Hey Lolly , Lolly, Lo.

I know a girl whose name is Camille.
Hey Lolly, Lolly, Lo.
She likes to sing Twinkle, Twinkle.
Hey Lolly, Lolly, Lo.

You can always expand upon your child's musical knowledge and awareness at home. Singing in different tones, and dynamics will introduce your child to new ways to experience the song, as well as new ideas for what their own voice could do. Changing the words to favorite songs will foster creativity, language growth, and for some rhyming songs, problem solving. You can also introduce variety of genre/style of music your child is exposed to on a daily basis to expand their understanding of what music can be.

Music: Winter-Week 2

With Ben, Neva, Maki, Isaac R., Henry D., and Brooklyn

Neva rocking the harmonica!

We started the week with a hello chant that goes a little something like this, "Hello Maki. How are you? Who is sitting next to you?" Friends came ready with a lot of thoughts about music. Maki told us, "I play drum set on Rock Band," and Brooklyn told him, "I was doing a shakey egg." Neva brought up a familiar song, "I can fly, just in the car. It's a song in the car." After we discussed change briefly we decided it was time to explore some instruments. We practiced using shakey eggs to create a variety of sounds; we shook them fast, slow, loud, quiet, on the floor, on eachother, and even with our feet! We showed off our shaking skills to Laurie Berkner's song I Know a Chicken where we added shaking the eggs up and down, and in a circle.

We had a big interest in singing songs on Tuesday, so we started by learning a multi-lingual hello song. What started with Hello my friends, changed to become Hola amigos,  Bonjour mon amis,
Anyong haseyo, and Jambo watoto. Friends were super interested in changing the language so I introduced a super simple song where we move different parts of our bodies.

My hands go up, up, up. 

My hands go down, down, down. 

My hands go out, out, out. 

My hands go round and round.

Las manos arriba, arriba, arriba.

Las manos abajo, abajo, abajo.

Las manos a lado, a lado, a lado.

Las manos  alrededor.

If you speak Spanish, you may realize that it's not an exact translation. My Spanish is a little rusty, but we were excited to do the moves using our heads, arms, feet, thumbs, and even tongues (which Neva noticed meant "you get a lot of spit on your face"). After moving pretty much every body part up, down, out, and around we decided to try our hands at the instruments. We took some time just exploring the variety of instruments, choosing and changing what instrument we would use. Neva and Maki wanted to share "our favorite songs" so we got to singing with friends joining in with voice or instrument when they were comfortable. Neva wanted to sing I Can Fly. Maki chose the Alphabet song, Henry decided on Pumped Up Kicks, and Isaac wanted Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Time to drum.

Wednesday started with a drum circle; everyone exploring playing the drum with hands, fingertips, thumbs, and fingernails. We took another try at our multi-lingual hello song and drummed along. Room 8 friends were already familiar with the humming game, so we challenged each other to guess the song we were humming. I must say we have some very musically aware friends in this group, because every song was recognized. After recognizing The Farmer in the Dell we got out the book and went through it a couple of times; first only reading it and looking at the details in the pictures, then singing it, and finally standing up and doing it together. Everyone got a turn being "the farmer" but our versions strayed from the book a bit, typically involving a dog choosing a dog choosing some cheese. We ended the day exploring the shape song sung to the same tune, and drawing shapes on chalkboards.

By Thursday friends have become so familiar with the hello song that they put in requests for specific languages to be sung first. Swahili was one of the favorites and I think the word, "watoto" is the reason. After spending some time talking about songs to sing and playing the bells we decided it was time to learn a new song. After reciting the nursery rhyme Peter Peter pumpkin eater, which Henry instantly recognized, we learned a new version of Peter Peter's actions. The song goes a little like this.
Peter Peter pumpkin eater. - swing arms, dance
Had a friend he liked to greet. - shake hands
Treated her with kind respect. - gently touch shoulders, make eye contact
And in the morning hugged her neck. - a neck hug of course
After doing the song many times with many new partners we tried changing it to other nursery rhymes. Mary Mary quite contrary actually worked really well!

    

We culminated on Friday by revisiting our favorite activities from the week. After the hello song we got down to work creating each person's ideal song. Ben loved marching around playing instruments and singing the ABC song. Maki wanted to recreate The Farmer in the Dell, which reminded us of the shape song. We ended playing our instruments in so many ways. Changing the tempo, tone, dynamics, and melody

Music - Winter, Week 1

With Isaac L., Zooey, Jesse, Elly, Malvina, and Rya

We decided to start the week with a few hello songs that we're already familiar with. Some of the ways to sing/chant hello is Hello ________. How are you? Who is sitting next to you?, Hello to _________. So glad to see you. , and Hello ____. Hello _____. Hello _______. We're happy you are here. After greeting everyone in a variety of ways, and making a list of the songs we know we got down to business talking about change. Malvina right away knew that, "Change is money," which Zooey made the connection, "My mom works for money and she buys things at the store. Change means a baby in the belly though." Rya pointed out that a car changes, and we talked about how/what changes on a car- color, wheels, oil, add sparkles. This brought us to what changes in music. Malvina said that we could, "change it to a different kind of music." Zooey said, "do a dance." and Rya shouted, "LOUDER!" We choose to change up an old favorite, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We sang it fast, slow, loud, and learned new versions.

Twinkle Twinkle Dinosaur. 
Let me hear your great big roar.
When you walk you stomp, stomp, stomp.
When you eat you chomp, chomp, chomp.
Twinkle Twinkle Dinosaur. 
Let me hear your great big roar.

Twinkle Twinkle Butterfly. 
We can see you in the sky.
When you fly you flap your wings.
And it makes us want to sing.
Twinkle Twinkle Butterfly. 
We can see you in the sky.

We started Tuesday off learning a new hello song that changed languages. It's super simple and exciting to pronounce the new words.
English - Hello. Hello. Hello my friends. Hello. Hello. Hello my friends.
Spanish - Hola. Hola. Hola amigos. Hola. Hola. Hola amigos.
French - Bonjour. Bonjour. Bonjour mon amis. Bonjour. Bonjour. Bonjour mon amis.
Korean - Anyong. Anyong. Anyong haseyo. Anyong. Anyong. Anyong haseyo.
Swahili -Jambo. Jambo. Jambo watoto. Jambo. Jambo. Jambo watoto (watoto - child friend).
 We then got out the instruments and explored the many ways to play them. We challenged eachother to find new ways to use the instruments to change the sound. Some friends used the same instrument playing it in a variety of ways, while others used instruments together, shaking a bell between two spoons, or drumming with a maraca. We decided to focus more on the sounds we can make using some shakey eggs and shaking it to the song I Know a Chicken by Laurie Berkner. We shook them fast, slow, side to side, up and down, in a circle, and to the beat. We concluded with showing off all of the ways we could use the eggs. Zooey shook it on her foot, Rya shook it on his head,  and Malvina shook it slowly side to side.

Wednesday we introduced the musical names for some of the changes we've been making to the music. Ask your child about some of the terms below -
Pitch- High or low  Tone- Syncopated or peaceful/calm Tempo- Fast or slow Dynamics Loud or quiet
We went through many of the songs on the list we made Monday and took turns deciding on ways to change the song to create something new. Jesse changed the song Yellow Submarine to have new words - we created a song about princesses wearing sparkles. We added instruments, then decided to loose the tune and keep the instruments as we "march and dance." We marched in a circle playing our instruments fast, slow, loud, and quiet; it was especially hard to play our instruments slow and still be loud. We finished with an alphabet circle where we marched around the circle singing the ABC's in many ways and playing our instruments.

We brought back our multi-lingual hello song on Thursday, and many friends were interested in learning other songs that have "funny Spain words." Our next changing song was super simple and had a few movements to go along with it even.Good morning - stretch arms out Good afternoon- make a circle sun above our heads Good night - pretend to sleep (Repeat fast then slow). We did the same thing in Spanish, Buenos días. Buenas tardes. Buenas noches. and German, Guten morgen. Guten tag. Gute nacht. We spent the rest of the day rediscovering the joy of changing the tones, tempo, and dynamics of much loved songs!

Friday was a day filled with The Farmer in the Dell. We started with the two multi-lingual songs we had learned earlier in the week. Afterwards we played a humming game where we hummed a tune and friends would try to guess the song. We decided to actually sing The Farmer in the Dell and acted it out each friend choosing something else; we had a lot of cats and dogs. We then learned a new song to that tune with shapes. 

After learning the song we got out some chalk, chalkboards, and drew to the song.
A circle's like a ball. A circle's like a ball. A line that just goes round and round. A circle's like a ball.
A triangle has three sides. " " Up the mountain, down and back. A triangle has three sides.
Rectangles look like doors. " " Two sides short and two sides long. Rectangles look like doors.
A square has four sides. " " All of the sides exactly the same. A square has four sides. 

We went back to the humming game, but got stopped up at Twinkle Twinkle, because it has the same tune as the alphabet song and Ba Ba Blacksheep. We ended with multiple interpretations with voice, instrument, and words what the song was really meant to be. When asked what we know about music or change at the end of the week, friends were filled with thoughts. Malvina said, "I know that if changing music you can change it into loud or different words." and Elly said, "But you can make music into whatever you want. Slow or fast. Loud or quite. Rough or calm." Issac added, "I know that in music if they can't breathe they have a rest." Rya ended the conversation with when he stated with confidence, "Music looks like a drum. It changes like sparkles."

Music: Winter Week 6

American Folk Songs
With Sofia, Zion, Colton, Koda, Lucy

In music we have been exploring traditional American Folk songs, games and instruments. This session's Big Idea is Tradition. To understand tradition at this age, we have been talking about where we learn songs, from who, and if these are songs your friends know.

Song Book

You Sing a Song, I'll Sing a Song
We're Going on a Bear Hunt
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
Dulce Dulce 
Did You Feed My Cow?

Swing Your Partner

There's a Whole in my Bucket

Instruments

Washboards, Spoons, Pots/Pans, Jugs, Harmonicas, Xylophone and Bells

This session we are looking towards using household objects and manipulating them to create a variety of sounds. We listened closely to the creak of the door, the woosh from the faucet and the boom from a hand banging a table. We also talked about instruments with multiple notes vs one.


Where do you learn songs? Would you like to pass on any songs/stories to your classmates?
 

"Well I used to take music classes. But now I learn from my parents" Lucy

"Mommy sings to me" Koda

"ABCs! I learned that a long time ago" Sofia

"I learn music in our Toyota Siena. There's music in there" Colton

How can you and your child extend this at home?

Share stories and songs from your childhood. Look around your home for any objects that can become instruments. Ella Jenkins has an extensive collection of music this group loved! http://www.ellajenkins.com/

                                                           Exploring notes and scale

                                                       Jamming to some picking music

                            Watching ourselves as we sing. Paying close to the shape of our mouths.

                                       

Music: Winter Week 5

American Folk Songs
With Sabine, Max, Henry, Dylan, Carson, Jesse, Brooklyn

In music we have been exploring traditional American Folk songs, games and instruments. This session's Big Idea is Tradition. To understand tradition at this age, we have been talking about where we learn songs, from who, and if these are songs your friends know.

Song Book

Jump Down, Turn Around  
We're Going on a Bear Hunt
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
Dulce Dulce 
Did You Feed My Cow?

Swing Your Parnter

There's a Whole in my Bucket

Instruments

Washboards, Spoons, Pots/Pans, Jugs, Harmonicas and Bells

This session we are looking towards using household objects and manipulating them to create a variety of sounds. We listened closely to the creak of the door, the woosh from the faucet and the boom from a hand banging a table.


Where do you learn songs? Would you like to pass on any songs/stories to your classmates?

"I learned my milkshake song," Sabine - She then passes it on the class. 

"I want to share a yoga move with my friends," Max

How can you and your child extend this at home?

Share stories and songs from your childhood. Look around your home for any objects that can become instruments. Ella Jenkins has an extensive collection of music this group loved! http://www.ellajenkins.com/

We drew while listening to music. 

                                         We went on a bear hunt and had to row across the river

                               We learned how to distinguish low/high notes using bells and an xylophone

Looking for bears in a dark cave.

Music: Winter Week 4

American Folk Music

with Rowan, Cora, Sam, Thomas, and Camille

In music we have been exploring traditional American Folk songs, games and instruments. This session's Big Idea is Tradition. To understand tradition at this age, we have been talking about where we learn songs, from who, and if these are songs your friends know.

Song Book

Jump Down, Turn Around  
This Little Light of Mine
We are the Dinosaurs
We're Going on a Bear Hunt
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
Dulce Dulce 
Did You Feed My Cow?

This Old Man 

Where is Thumbkin?


Instruments

Washboards, Spoons, Pots/Pans, Jugs, Harmonicas and Bells

This session we are looking towards using household objects and manipulating them to create a variety of sounds.
Sam, Rowan and Cora experimented with the pots and pans from the dramatic play area. We also made our own instruments using empty bell jars, beads, shells, spoons and water.


Where do you learn songs?

"From my daddy. The Milkshake song" Cora
"From you. Teacher Adrianne." Sam
"Here" Rowan 



How can you and your child extend this at home?

Share stories and songs from your childhood. Look around your home for any objects that can become instruments. Ella Jenkins has an extensive collection of music this group loved! http://www.ellajenkins.com/

Music: Winter Week 3

Music: Winter Week 3

American Folk Music

with Avaline, Zane, Alex, Jude, Jacob, and Anya

Welcome to the winter session. In music we have been exploring traditional American Folk songs, games and instruments. This session's Big Idea is Tradition. To understand tradition at this age, we have been talking about Where we learn songs, from who, and if these are songs your friends know.

Song Book

Jump Down, Turn Around  
This Little Light of Mine
There's a Hole in My Bucket
Swing Your Partner 
Miss Mary Mack
Dulce Dulce 
Did You Feed My Cow?

This Old Man 

Where is Thumbkin?


Instruments

Washboards, Spoons, Pots/Pans, Jugs, Harmonicas and Bells

This session we are looking towards using household objects and manipulating them to create a variety of sounds.

Tell me about songs or stories passed down to you

"I learn songs at the beach, Songs about the beach" Avaline

"I don't know. But I'm from Portland" Alex
                                                     "My Mom" Jacob



How can you and your child extend this at home?

Share stories and songs from your childhood. Look around your home for any objects that can become instruments. Ella Jenkins has an extensive collection of music this group loved! http://www.ellajenkins.com/ 

Music: Winter Week 2

American Folk Music

with Sabine, Zooey, Lucas, Maki, Cora

Welcome to the winter session. In music we have been exploring traditional American Folk songs, games and instruments. This session's Big Idea is Tradition. To understand the term tradition, students have been playing a rendition of whisper down the lane to illustrate how songs, stories and ideas can be passed to each other.

Song Book

Jump Down, Turn Around 
This Little Light of Mine
There's a Hole in My Bucket
Swing Your Partner
Miss Mary Mack
Dulce Dulce
Did You Feed My Cow?



Instruments

Washboards, Spoons, Pots/Pans, Jugs, Harmonicas and Bells

This session we are looking towards using household objects and manipulating them to create a variety of sounds.

Tell me about songs or stories passed down to you

"We sing Blue Moon. My dad plays on the piano and teaches me songs." Sabine
"Yeah my daddy plays the piano for us" Cora
"I like The Beatles. We can play it at home too." Lucas



How can you and your child extend this at home?

Share stories and songs from your childhood. Look around your home for any objects that can become instruments. Ella Jenkins has an extensive collection of music this group loved! http://www.ellajenkins.com/

Music: Winter Week 1

American Folk Music

with Lulu, Rya, Ben, Matea and Isaac R


Welcome to the winter session. In music we have been exploring traditional American Folk songs, games and instruments. This session's Big Idea is Tradition. To understand the term tradition, students have been playing a rendition of whisper down the lane. To illustrate how songs, stories and ideas can be passed to each other.

Song Book

Jump Down, Turn Around 
This Little Light of Mine
There's a Hole in My Bucket
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
This Old Man 
Tisket a Tasket

Instruments

Washboards, Spoons, Pots/Pans, Jugs, Harmonicas and Bells

This session we are looking towards using household objects and manipulating them to create a variety of sounds. Ben, Lulu and Matea enjoyed filling up the jugs with water and using a straw to make bubble noises. Rya enjoyed skipping to She'll be Coming Round the Mountain with bells on.

Tell me about songs or stories passed down to you

"My mom taught me patty cake patty cake bakers man" Lulu
"My mom taught me that too!" Ben
"Jingle Bell Rock. It's a really long word. We sing it a lot." Matea


How can you and your child extend this at home?

Share stories and songs from your childhood. Look around your home for any objects that can become instruments. 

Music: Fall Week 8

Exploring Value through Music
With Rowan, Jude, Cora, Thomas and Avalaine

Week 8 started off with a Bing! Bang! Boom! Rowan, Jude, Cora, Avalaine and Thomas spent week 8 in music.

On Monday we began by keeping the beat with rhythm sticks, exploring new instruments including the harmonica, and discussing what music is. We played Guess that Instrument where we rely on our sense of hearing to identify sounds. We then turned to this session’s big idea, VALUE and the things most important to us.

Cora: “My mommy” Jude: “My mommy, she picks me up at night time” Rowan: "My friends here" Avalaine: "My mommy because she loves me" Thomas: "Mommy" We learned that the Beatles really value love and even write songs about it! So we listened to All You Need is Love.

We listened and watched a live Beatles performace. This group was really interested in playing instruments and dancing along to the Beatles.

On Wednesday, we continued our week long traditions of our welcome song, keeping the beat with rhythm sticks, guess that instrument, general jamming and discussing value. The group was so inspired by music making, that we recorded our own beats and wrote a song about Mommys. Something we all really value.

Music: Fall Week 7

Exploring Value through Music
With Sam, Camille, Alex, Jacob and Zane

You've probably noticed that your child is starting to keep a steady beat. By keeping the beat with our rhythm sticks we are exploring tempo, pitch and volume.  You can help your child practice this skill by encouraging listening for beats — and determining if they're steady or not — in everyday objects. For example, point out the noise a kitchen clock makes and ask your child if it is a steady beat; then ask if a sound like a car horn or a dog barking has a steady beat. Practice clapping or tapping the beats to favorite songs and encourage your child to copy you.

We have had many opportunities to cooperate in singing games, action songs, and movement which  are the early childhood active learning precursors to thinking, problem-solving, and memory.

We played Guess that Sound, A Tisket- A Tasket and learned the African movement chant Che Che Koolay.  

 Your children were also introduced to a variety of instruments including a tambourine ("A moon"-Sam), drums, shakers and harmonicas.This sessions big idea is Value. We discussed the things important to us and listened to the Beatles "All you Need is Love" .