Week 2 Update - November 16th Lesson

Wow another week gone by with Christmas just around the corner. Thank you all for coming to the second lesson. I think the children really enjoyed the farm theme. Next week, we are doing a theme on Windows. We will revisit the Insy Winsy Spider, introduce the popular song - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as well as a traditional folk song.

Before the end of the term, these are some of the themes I have in mind:
Week 3 - Windows
Week 4 - Transport
Week 5 - TBA - maybe a magic theme
Week 6 - Christmas

This lesson, we explored the use of drumming which is an excellent activity to utilise both hemispheres of the brain as you are drawing on creativity and logic. I was really impressed with how the children managed to keep a steady beat. It is very easy to speed up and using techniques such as drum stick to shoulder each time can help keep the beat steady. The joy of working with younger children is that they still have that innate ability to tune into the beat of a song as they are used to the rhythmic heartbeat of their maternal mother from being in the womb. This can diminish as they get older so that is why I believe it is so vital to have early music exposure.

We explored the Soprano Glockenspiel which is a tuned percussion instrument for the song Old Macdonald had a Farm. The structure of this song is strophic which means that the melody of the song is the same but the words slightly change. For example, the animal name and sound changing but the EIEIO being repetitive. You may of noticed I gradually reduced the singing EIEIO to just the notes as I was trying to get the children to recognise the pitch of each note.

Here are some suggestions to build on from this week:

Music 
The song mat that I have given includes a concrete to abstract way to introduce musical notation to children. It enables your child to approach this song at their level. For example, reading the letters - EIEIO, reading short and long dashes (emphasis - duration), reading notes, reading notes as levels of pitch on a score.
Sing the song with your child and point to each letter, clap it out with an emphasis on short claps and long claps.
Incorporate  different types of body percussion on EIEIO. For example:

• EI - 2 claps
• EI - 2 belly slaps 
• O -  1 patschen (thigh slap)
• With body percussion, notes are indicative by actions from top to bottom, such as a click of the fingers representing a higher pitch to that of a foot stamp.

If you have any instruments - play these on the EIEIEO. For example a maraca, castanet or piano. Or combine both such as a castanet for short notes and tambourine for long. There are many informal instruments around the house that you could use such as a table, keys, rice in a bottle which will produce a similar sound to untuned percussion instruments. For a tuned effect, try using different amounts of water in glasses. Colour water with food colouring to represent lower and higher pitches.



Art and Craft - Cottonball Sheep
Draw a sheep on a piece of cardboard or paper.
Glue cottonballs and decorate as desired.

My son created this sheep and used felt for ears, googly eyes, button for nose and popsticks for legs. He finished his art with a background of grass, the sun and the sky. Pencils or pastels look fantastic on a black background!

Other Activities
Play a memory game with different farm animals. You don't necessarily have to have the figurines, draw some on paper. Take one or two away at a time. Explore this further by taking away animals with particular features, four legs, short tails, no tails, small, large, and so on. You could even turn this into a bingo game!

Make animals out of playdough or plasticine. This is a great activity to develop fine motor skills as well as exploring 3D art.

I hope you try out some of these activities and I look forward to seeing you all next week.

Remember to check the updated song page!

Miss Susannah

Week 1 Update - 9th November Lesson

Thank you all for coming to the first music lesson. It was a lot of fun and the children really enjoyed it. What I enjoyed most was the level of involvement by all the caregivers, it was wonderful to observe how children responded when you participated as well. It was also a great help to me so thank you and keep it up!

You might have been thinking that there was a lot to take in for the children in the first lesson. I usually like to explore songs over a number of lessons so next week we will revisit the Bugs and Beetles song with an emphasis on beat and rhythm. The most common two processes to teach a song are in parts as in the Caterpillar Song or through exposure as experienced with the Bugs and Beetles song. This is a very useful strategy as you as the listener are responsible for processing the lyrics, timing, beat and, pitch which requires a higher level of problem solving. Think about when you here a song on the radio, it is amazing how your brain organises this information to learn the most significant and important parts first such as the hook of the song, chorus and gradually picking up the rest.

I really liked how the children got into the theme of bugs so here are a number of suggestions of how to build on this at home.

Music

Break the first line of the Caterpillar song into syllables. Explore different ways to do this such as slow, fast, soft, loud, staccato (short and sweet) and legato (smooth and connected).
Cat-er-pill-ar munch-ing leaves

Numeracy

Make a caterpillar using cardboard strips that form into links. Number or dot these 1-5 or 1-10 depending on your child's understanding of number concepts. You could also explore patterns such as blue/red, pink/purple/yellow or even recognising the letters in your child's name. Decorate these with some googly eyes and pipe cleaners for antennas and feet. This site below has a detailed description of this activity:
Paper Chain Caterpillar

My son and I created this Caterpillar. The emphasis was on ordering the letters of his name with the first in red representing a capital letter.

Art

Using diluted food colouring, paper towels or coffee filter paper; fold paper towel in half, then again and dip each corner in a different food colour. When dry, scrunch or fold up center and decorate with pipe cleaners for antennas and glue sequins if you like. This site below has a detailed description of this activity with fantastic pictures:
Paper Towel Butterflies

These butterflies were made with red, blue, green and yellow food colouring.

Cooking

Use a variety of food to create beetle and bugs. I would love to hear what you come up with!

The internet has a abundance of ideas that can help you explore the concept of minibeasts further if your child is interested.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you all next week with my brand new set of drums (see below). Very exciting! And remember, we have only just had our first lesson, responding to my cues to listen, being more confident in singing (me as well), and turn taking is something that develops overtime. At this age, I try and set boundaries but leave the choice to follow these up to the child, as the main aim of the music program is to learn through play and engagement. Remember to check out the songs page.

My new set of hand drums!

Miss Susannah