Norman Rockwell Lesson

Each week in Classical Conversations we have a 30 minute segment of music or art.  We are currently studying American artists.  This week we will study Norman Rockwell and attempt to create art in the same style.  

The students are going to be asked to base their artwork on a funny story.  Some tutors have requested that the students personal presentations also be a funny story to help prepare them for art.  If you just can't think of a funny story for your child to present this week use this idea!  Give them a picture and have them tell you the story about what they think is happening.  Print the picture and let them use that as a prompt for their presentation in class.  Or for older kids have them write their funny story out before class and bring that to show for presentation too!

Here are some possible prompts! 

Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Week 13

I have not added much about our homeschooling journey on this blog before so I will try to add some small pieces about what Classical Conversations is, and why we love the way we are learning in each post.  CC is divided up into three programs, Foundations, which is elementary school, Essentials, which is added in upper elementary school, and the Challenge programs, which are the middle and high school programs.  Our children are in the Foundations program so that is most of what you will hear about on this blog.  I am personally trying to learn ahead of them as much as possible so I will be ready to teach them when we get to Essentials and Challenge. 

The Foundations program is the grammar stage of learning in a Classical curriculum.  The grammar stage contains a lot of memory work.  At this age the kids brains are ready to soak up and retain a lot of information.  We want them to have a good foundation of memorized knowledge to build on.

Math

Our family always has a lot of fun in week 13 when we get to memorize liquid equivalents!  We clean off the counter and cover it with a towel, get out the measuring cups and canning jars and pour water.  This entertained my three year old for hours (which helped me get work done with the girls).  My daughters were ready to use measuring to create something bigger so we made applesauce from scratch following this recipe http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/10/homemade-applesauce/.  My oldest then used it as a writing activity and rewrote and illustrated the recipe on her own.

  

Science

We memorized what the atomic number means this week for science.  I admittedly didn't pay attention in chemistry growing up so please pardon any incorrect way to teach chemistry that might show up in the next few weeks.  I'd love to learn more!

As we said the memory work we enjoyed adding protons and electrons to our atoms.  My oldest then read the science card and outlined a little bit of it.

Since the science project we did at school was a little hard to see (my class did a few extra to help see the point better) we did some extra projects at home this week.  You can see them here:

My oldest must have gotten the point because when she went to double her muffin recipe this morning and she needed 1/2 cup of milk twice I said, "A half plus a half equals a whole," and she replied, "Not always!"

We had some fun with geography review by piecing together and coloring a large map of the United States.  I found the pack at Target at the end of last Summer.

We just listened, reviewed, and discussed History, Latin, English, and Timeline

All In One Place

For awhile I was great about sharing what we were doing in Music Together and at Journey Montessori on here weekly.  I was also sharing homeschooling ideas on a homeschool blog for families in our Classical Conversations group.  At some point I began to sorely neglect all things blogging.  I think it will be easier to keep up with it if I share it all in one place.

The name of the blog will stay the same because music doesn't stop when we walk out of the music classroom.  The homeschool curriculum we have chosen teaches history, science, math, timeline, English grammar, and Latin all to music.  I'm continually amazed at how quickly my children are able to memorize facts, dates, places, and translations simply by singing them.  I'm so glad we gave them a good musical foundation at an early age so they can now use their ability to sing and keep a beat to aid in learning anything.  If you have not given your child a good musical foundation to build on yet its OK!

Music is an amazing gift we are all given.  Some people are born with slightly higher musical ability, but we all have musical ability.  The ability to understand and make music can be shown on a bell curve.  This means that only a few people have an exceptionally high or low ability.  Most of us are perfectly able, we just have to be taught.  I've found the same is true with math and science, I'm not as bad as I though, I just needed to be taught properly!  You are never too old to learn the basic musical concepts of pitch and rhythm, and once you have those concepts down you can use those abilities to aid in learning so many other subjects.  My daughters are using duple meter to learn trotting in their horseback riding lessons right now.

I will tag my future posts with Music Together, Journey Montessori, or Classical Conversations.  These are the three programs I teach with/for.  Below is a brief description of each so you can read more about each program if you would like.

Music Together is an early childhood parent/child music class for children ages birth-5 and the adults who take care of them (Mommy, Daddy, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Nanny's, etc).  Children learn musical concepts through playing with their adults.  They are exposed to a huge variety of meters and tonalities so they can fully develop tonal and rhythmic ability.  A child can reach basic music competence (singing full songs in tune and keeping a steady beat by themselves) as early as age three, but there is no set age.  If adults have not been properly exposed to music they may still be working on reaching basic music competence, this is were I am with math!
I teach with the Music Together of Charlotte group.  I am blessed to work with such a talented group of music teachers!

Journey Montessori is an amazing preschool for three and four year old children in Charlotte.  I have been blessed to be their music teacher since they opened.  I teach one music class a week to the 20 preschool children enrolled there.  We work on basic music skills in the first semester, how to sing properly and how to keep a steady beat in our bodies and on non-pitched percussion instruments, through lots of fun songs from around the world.  In the second semester we begin more complex skills of putting rhythms in our bodies, we explore musical instruments and their families, and learn Peter and the Wolf or Carnival of the Animals songs.  The children accomplished learning how to sing a simple African song in two parts in December!

Classical Converstaions is a private Christian home-school group for children age 4 through high-school.  Students go to school one day a week and a tutor presents the material to be learned at home that week.  Elementary students also enjoy doing science experiments, art projects, playing music and review games together during their school day.  I am a tutor for the abecedarian class in the Fort Mill-Regent Park group.  Abecedarian means new learners, I have 4, 5 and 6 year old students in my class.  Having a good, set curriculum for my children and being able to go to school once a week with other amazing homeschool families is a wonderful experience for our family.  We love our classmates and my husband and I have learned so much ourselves in teaching our children!

Happy Birthday Star Spangled Banner

Last week we sang and played along to the Star Spangled Banner.  This year is the Star Spangled Banner's 200th birthday.  It was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort M'Henry",^[1] a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in the Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London.

If you want some more information about the National Anthem here is a video giving some history.    

This week in class we are singing parts to Ding-a-Ding and adding an ostinato to Hotaru Koi.  If you want to work on part singing with Ding-a-Ding on your own play the CD, begin singing with it, keep singing that first part through the whole song.  When this gets easy pick one of the other parts and sing it the whole time you listen to the song.  There are a lot of repeated parts to try!





Here are our dance songs from last week and this week.

Ostinatos, Call and Response, and Suggested Books

Tomorrow begins the third week of Fall classes.  Here are a few things we have already accomplished this session!  Week one we sang ostinatos (a repeated melody or rhythm) along with the Canoe Song and Train is A Comin.  I encourage you to continue to sing these with your CD and then with other family members this session.
The Canoe Song ostinato is, "Dip, dip, and swing."  After you hear it on the recording just keep on singing it while the recording sings the other part.
The Train is A Comin ostinato is, "Chugga Chugga Chugga Chugga Choo Choo."  You also hear this on the recording.

Last week we did a call and response with Train is A Comin.  I sang, "Train is a comin" and you responded, "Oh yes!"  I encourage you to try this.  Call and see what your child responds with.  It may not be the exact words, but they will quickly learn to respond with the correct pitches.  If this song is not familiar yet try a call and response with something you already sing a lot.  Maybe twinkle twinkle little _____.  Wait for that last sound from your child!

We also looked at a fun book put out by Music Together last week, Ridin in the Car.  Music Together has several wonderful books to go along with songs now.  You can enjoy them on their YouTube channel and purchase them at musictogether.com.  

Over the past two weeks we have also begun to put different beats in our feet.  We have done a lot of tip toeing!  Last week we tip toed to Walking in The Woods.  The week before was the Can Can.  You can enjoy tip toeing, wiggling, and kicking to the Can Can at home by clicking on the link below.

Songs From the Summer Session

I encourage all of you who took the Summer session to continue playing with the Summer collection over the next month.
In class we worked on call and response with Obwisana and Singin' Every Day.  Continue playing with this concept by singing a little bit and waiting for your child to the next part back to you.  Once you know a song really well this is a fun game to play.  If you are not comfortable trying call and response with these songs pick a song you and your child both enjoy and try the game.
We also worked on singing a simple round.  In the Fall session we sang Frere Jacques in a round and this session Hey Ho Nobody Home.  You can sing in a round with another adult or older children, or if that is not a possibility then sing in a round with the CD.  Let the singer on the CD start first and then you come in next.  If you are not sure where to come in look at the song in your Music Together book, it marks where the second person is to come in with a *.
Another concept we work on this past week in class was adding an ostinato to a piece.  An ostinato is repeated part that accompanies a song.  With the chant Here is A Bunny we added ostinatos with the words hop, ha, and sounds for making a circle.  These also correlated to different beats to move to with the music.  Ostinatos are a lot of fun to make up!

I mentioned that my family is currently enjoying a beginning Latin book.  It is called Sing Song Latin.  Learning Latin through song is perfect for us!

Here are some of the extra songs we danced and played instruments to in class this session:

We danced (with the parachute) to the ABC song from the Baby Loves Jazz CD.  I like the songs on this CD.  It's worth checking out

We tiptoed, kicked, and wiggled to the Can Can




We played instruments along with Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy



And we danced along with Kingdom Dance from Tangled

Dynamics and Form

We worked on so many terrific elements of music this week in class!  I am thrilled that so many families are completing (at least) their third consecutive session of Music Together with their child(ren).  The children are used to the routine and classroom environment and are becoming skilled musicians!  This week we improvised by simply replacing your child's name and the body part to tap in Jumpin' Josie.  (In one class we improvised with Jim Along Josie on accident.  Did anyone catch that?)  We also improvised by changing Pease Porridge to some other type of food.  This simple improvisation is also done on your CD.

We explored dynamic contrast this week with Jack in the Box and William Tells Ride.  Using dynamic contrast in your daily routine can be a simple and effective way to capture your child's attention.  Try singing directions softly to your child when you're feeling stressed and see if it makes you both feel better.

William Tells Ride is also a wonderful introduction to basic musical form.  In class we did a different movement for each section (A,B,C,A).  For older students write the letter and have them point to the different letter as they hear each section.  Put the letters around the room and move to the A for the A section, B for the B section and C for the C section.  If you have older children who are learning how to read and notate music assign a note or compose a rhythm pattern to tap along with each section.

Singing and Dancing to the popular song Let It Go was a blast this week!  I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the little ones sing and move to the music.  As your children grow it continues to be important for them to see you model good singing for them!  Even if you do not feel you are a strong singer or dancer, keep modeling it!

We have used the CD to sing one part while we added an ostinato (repeated part) or a round with it.  In the last few weeks of class we will attempt all of the parts without the help of the CD!  Enjoy practicing at home and in the car this week!




Just for fun!