So many different instruments, and they’re all mine!
Sharing and taking turns doesn’t always come so easily. One of the best ways your child can learn to share is in a supportive place like our classroom. As you explore the different instruments together, your toddler sees that when something is given up, he/she will get to try another.
Learning to share is difficult, especially on a day when everything is “mine!” Yet you will see improvement. And if you feel like your toddler has more trouble than anyone else, look around you…we’ve all been there, and we all understand! The children have all been doing great. The sharing seems to get better every week.
The children in our room go ha, ha, ha…all through the class.
By moving our bodies, arms, and fingers up and down, listening to music with up and down melodies, and exploring our voices as they glide up and down, we not only hear the words, we can feel what these words mean, both in music and motion.
Doing this, we’re learning in a multi-sensory way. People learn best in so many different ways. Experiencing and experimenting with our senses and how we learn best by using them means your child can discover the way he/she learns best.
We will be learning the Easter signs in the next few weeks. Please help out by dropping me an e-mail of any Easter signs (religious or secular) you would like to know. If anyone would like Passover signs, please let me know those as well.
I will be adding some Family Fun ideas for Easter on the blog soon. And again if someone has some Passover fun they’d like to share, I’d be glad to post it.
As your preschooler’s language skills continue to improve, he/she begins to see great humor in the different ways words can be used. This is an important step in the growth of your child’s sense of humor, which is based on real life experiences and develops slowly over time. In the last year we’ve enjoyed watching our oldest daughter’s sense of humor develop its’ own personality! She’s not just laughing at what’s funny but making us laugh while adding her own spice to it.
As your child’s understanding of words evolves, he/she learns about using words in intelligent, creative, and funny ways. Songs like A Sailor Went to Sea helps them to see the creative use of words but in a way that’s in enjoyable to them.
This week think of ways you and your preschooler can play with words.
Don’t forget to bring in your homemade binoculars this week. I know the book says not to bring them in but I’m sure they would like to show off their hard work.
I really enjoyed the kids using the Karaoke machine in class. I wish I had videotaped it.
We will be learning the Easter signs in the next few weeks. Please help out by dropping me an e-mail of any Easter signs (religious or secular) you would like to know. If anyone would like Passover signs, please let me know those as well.
I will be adding some Family Fun ideas for Easter on the blog soon. And again if someone has some Passover fun they’d like to share, I’d be glad to post it.
We were fine musicians this week as we saw pictures of the instrument families, listened to instruments from different families, played instruments, and moved in different ways—matching the music played by instruments from various families. Instruments come in families and that’s our music focus for Lessons 7 and 8.
There are many ways to classify or group instruments together. In Make Way for Music, we’ll find out about the string family (violin, guitar), the percussion family (drum, xylophone), the brass family (trumpet, trombone), the woodwind family (flute, clarinet), and keyboard instruments (piano, organ).
Take Kindermusik home with these ideas:
Sharpen those ears and go on an instrument listening hunt. Let your ears find as many instruments as you can in TV shows, videos, or on the radio.
Take advantage of inexpensive concerts throughout the year—high school, community band, or college band rehearsals or concerts.
Gather together all the instruments that you have at home for a Family Jam with your favorite Kindermusik CD.
Just a reminder, if any of you have an instrument at home that you could bring in and share with us next week, that would be great. If you would like to demonstrate the instrument for us, that would be great, too. (But if it’s been years and you’d rather not, we can just show it!)
We will be learning the Easter signs in the next few weeks. Please help out by dropping me an e-mail of any Easter signs (religious or secular) you would like to know. If anyone would like Passover signs, please let me know those as well.
I will be adding some Family Fun ideas for Easter on the blog soon. And again if someone has some Passover fun they’d like to share, I’d be glad to post it.
I loved the activity and excitement the children had during this week’s class. I loved their ideas during Walk and Stop! (Yes, even slithering like a snake.) It’s fun to enter their world for a bit.
We had fun this week twisting, turning, rolling, swishing, and ‘crying’ during The Wheels on the Bus. Here’s what Anne Lief Barlin and Nurit Kalev, authors of Hello Toes, had to say about the Away We Go! Curriculum. With its focus on transportation, Away We Go! Includes many opportunities for going around and around like a wheel turning. In addition to being enjoyable, all the turning and twirling in Away We Go! Is helping children develop:
Balance
Coordination
Directional awareness (especially if you emphasize turning one way, stopping, then turning the other way)
Spatial awareness
I will be posting a video of a boy on a horse. I thought the children would enjoy seeing it after all the “giddy-upping” we’ve been doing in class.
Isn’t singing fun! As I enjoyed your families this week, I was reminded how naturally children and music fit together. Listening to your “whoo-whooo” train sounds with “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and singing like cuckoos and chickadees to “Birds’ Chorus” were my two highlights of this week’s lesson.
“Singing is related to the ability to control speech fluctuations, and speech activities appear to help develop tuneful singing skills. Playing with rhythmic speech (poems, rhymes, etc.) as well as simple tonal melodies help children develop both singing and speech skills.” Quote taken from: McDonald, Dorothy T., and Gene M. Simons. Musical Growth and Development: Birth through Six. New York: Schirmer Books, 1988.
Your voice can be a strong parenting tool. Here are a few ideas to take home:
Need to get your children’s attention? Try whispering. The sudden contrast between your speaking voice and whispering voice will interest their ears. If they respond with a whisper, enjoy a whisper conversation!
Sing your way from playtime to wash-up. Change the words of a familiar song to make an otherwise dreaded time into a pleasant experience! (Example: Tune-“Row, Row, Row Your Boat”; “Wash, wash, wash your hands; Make them squeaky clean! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily; life is but a dream!”)
I’m also posting a video of a chickadee feeding its’ young. I hope the children enjoy it.
This time with a new song, “Oh, Watch the Stars,” we used a concept called analytical listening. So many things are happening in this activity. Your preschooler has to understand and follow directions, make decisions while listening, and wait to share thoughts until the song is over. While listening to the new lyrics your child has to explain to him/herself what the song is about as well as form opinions about the song and the voice of the singer.
I am so impressed with the level of this challenge for your preschooler. It is a joy to see and hear each one of them discover these great abilities!
I really enjoyed the imaginary play during our boating songs. I love all the comments, ideas, stories, and expressions. The kids did a great job on their homemade boats!!! Don’t forget to try to find some books on boats to read this week at home.
I’m including a video on this blog of a little boy explaining and demonstrating the Lego fireboat he made. I thought the children would enjoy it.
Our new book, If I Had a Big Blue Boat, not only helps us explore the sights and sounds of the sea, it helps our language and thinking skills. By reading together, your child will learn and understand new words. Research proves it.
In telling about things that happen in his/her own day, your preschooler uses new words and begins to develop the concept of beginning, middle, and end, which is good for expressing oneself more clearly. And the adventures in the story lend some ideas for creative, imaginative play at home. You might be surprised how far his/her imagination can take all of you.
Don’t forgot to make a boat this week. Make sure you write down their instructions first. Please bring both to class.
I can’t wait to hear about all your family’s boating adventures—it’s sure to be a wild ride!
“Sing, sing a song…”— nothing is more beautiful than families singing together! The music focus for Lessons 5 and 6 is all about our voices. In class we played with our voices—whispering, speaking, singing, and making other neat sounds!
Our voices do so much for us every day—communicating information or emotion, making sounds of surprise or delight, and much more! As “our first instrument,” the human voice has amazing possibilities in speech and singing. One of your child’s first responses to a musical experience were vocal sounds—babblings, cooing, and the like. With time, experience, and practice comes a control over those sounds—resulting in matching pitch, singing alone or with others, and singing with or without accompaniment.
Families that sing together have fun together!
How many songs does your family know? Make a long drive shorter with a Family Singing Marathon. Someone keep record of the number of songs and minutes for the next time.
Tired of waiting in the check-out or drive through line? Sing a song.
Pass a song. Make up family rules so every member of the family gets a turn to sing part of a familiar song.
Your toddler spends a lot of time working the big muscles he/she needs for walking and running. Equally important are the smaller muscles in those little fingers, the fine motor skills.
We use these muscles when we’re “walking” fingers, shaking eggs, rolling hands, wiggling thumbs, playing the sandblocks, even giving tickles! These activities help your toddler learn to use hands and fingers, which will lead to skills like stringing beads, turning the pages of a book, cutting with scissors, and gripping pencils.