What Did You Do At School?

Music: October 13 & 14

This was the week that the 3, 4, and 5 year olds learned what a script is.

 

 
And they learned about mirroring --

 
"You do what I do."

 
They also started learning the script...

 
"His name is Jesus."

Yes, this is the week we began working on the Christmas program. So -- you haven't been imagining things. Those are Christmas songs you've been hearing your child sing around the house.

The first song they learned was "Here We Go to Bethlehem."

 
They learned both the song and the actions... "... Riding now to Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Bethlehem. Riding now to Bethlehem, all through the day..."

And still had a little time left over for some...

 
"Head,

 
Shoulders,

 
Knees and Toes."

And their Fruit of the Spirit song of the month:

 
"Be careful little ears what you hear...

 
For the Father up above is looking down in love."

(The Fruit of the Spirit that we focus on in October is self-control.)

 

Music: October 6 & 7

I thought I'd go back through October and give you weekly "snapshots" of the music classes.

The first week of October was all about a steady beat.

 
Ta Ta Ta Ta

Our hearts keep a steady beat --

 
and the kids loved having their music teacher listen to each of their hearts...

 
 
And what would a discussion on steady beats be without some marching practice?

 
And a parade...

 
to the great John Philip Sousa march...

 
Stars & Stripes Forever.

 
After all that marching it was time to switch gears and talk about October's Fruit of the Spirit, Self-Control -- along with an introduction to a new song...

 
"Be careful little eyes what you see..."

 
"Be careful little feet where you roam..."

And then a prayer

 
before leaving music to put all that self-control into practice.

Music: October 27 & 28

Wanna have some fun?

Play this for your child who's been to music this week:

 

And see if they start tiptoeing around the house singing:

"Here we are to trick or treat, trick or treat, trick or treat; Here we are to trick or treat, Oh, Happy Halloween!"

This is how music started this week...

 
with a new rhythm that turned into the words "Here we are to trick or treat" and was put to the tune of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg.

The children had a blast pretending to put on their costumes, carry their trick or treat bags, and sneak around the room,

 

knocking on their teachers' "doors",

 
and gathering imaginary candy --

 

 
all the while singing the song and moving to the pace of the music, starting out quietly and then getting more boisterous as the music got louder and faster.

 

After all that Halloween fun, the older classes switched gears...

 
and spent a little time working on a song for the Christmas program.

More on that in another post, though. Stay tuned.

Music: September 29 & 30

Last week the children learned about some of our special music friends...

 
Ta (a quarter note)...

 
and ti (said "tee" -- an eighth note).

They learned the rhythm Ta Ta ti-ti Ta...

 
and concentrated greatly as they tried to duplicate the beat with their rhythm instruments.

Some had rhythm sticks...

 

 
others had egg shakers...

 
and still others had sand blocks...

 
And they applied their new rhythm knowledge while they sang the song "This Old Man", which has the Ta Ta ti-ti Ta rhythm in the phrase "Knick, Knack, Paddywhack".

And, of course, the "this old man came rolling home" part is fun, too!

 

 

 

Music: September 22 & 23

The second week of music was about listening.

The music teacher said she had forgotten her ears at home, but she could not trick the 3 year olds...

 
they found them right there on the sides of her head -- just where they should be.

Then they used their ears to identify various environmental sounds...

 
as played from the iPod -- birds, pigs, thunder storm, toothbrushing, and things like that. Learning to listen to and identify environmental sounds is a fun game for young children and it helps to prepare them for hearing the difference between letter sounds when they are learning to read.

Then they talked about how sounds can be the same...

 
or different...

 
And they practiced by listening to little ditties played on the piano.

  

"Are they the same or different?"

The class continued with playing rhythm instruments that make different sounds and ended with "I've got the kindness, kindness, kindness, kindness, down in my heart" song and a prayer. 

Music: September 15 & 16

The first week of music started out with a familiar song...

 
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

And then they learned that Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star has the same melody as...

 
The Alphabet Song!

They sang the songs high...

 
and they sang them low...

 
They sang a getting to know you song...

 
where each child stood in turn...

 
and had a chance to have the song sung using their name...

 
which made each child feel very special and important...

 
and taught them a little about rhythm, too.

The last song was a variation of "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart." Instead of singing "joy", they sang "kindness" -- which is the Fruit of the Spirit that we talk about with the kids in September.

Three children got to shake the fruit shakers while the rest of the boys and girls got to use the most wonderful instrument of all that they carry with them wherever they go...

 
their hands (for clapping along with the rhythm).

And at the very end of class...

 
they folded those special instruments into praying hands and said a little prayer of thanks for the day and the chance to learn.

Music Class

Here are some pictures taken during our first week of music classes.

These first two pictures are actually after music class. A big deal at the beginning of the year is getting the children to move from location to location as a group. 2A starts out the year having the children hold onto a knotted rope when they go to and from music. Each child holds onto his special knot and this keeps them occupied and in a line (and from scattering all over the place!) when they are walking in the hall.

And there they go!

A favorite activity of the 3 and 4 year old classes is moving to the freeze song. When the music stops, they freeze. It is important for children of this age to learn to stop and start "on command."

As they get older, freezing in a somewhat crazy position is especially fun!