Fall Songs With Preschoolers

I love teaching preschool music.  The musical activities 3-5 year old kids can accomplish never cease to amaze me.  We have been working on some basic, but very important concepts this Fall.

Audiation

Audiation is the ability to hear music, melody and rhythm, in your head.  We have been singing Bingo to work on audiation.  Each time you sing a verse in Bingo you take away one letter, clap on that one while thinking it in your head, and then sing the remaining letters.  The kids are doing great with this!  We have used this schoolastic book along with the song.

Dynamics and Tempo

In the Hall of the Mountain King is a fun song to work on dynamics and tempo with.  It starts quiet and slow then speeds up and gets louder through out the song.  We start each music class by listening to a song then talking about it.  That might sound boring, but we act out the song with small movements while we listen and work on steady beat and it's a great experience.  Little kids can come up with some great answers about what they hear.  If you haven't ever asked your kids about what all they hear when they listen to music you should.  It's a fun conversation.  We used the song as a play along at the end of class.  The students have to play the instruments quietly when the song is quiet and get to get louder and faster with it!  Here is a video to enjoy with the song, and a cartoon about the music.

  

We read the book Gobble Gobble Crash to talk about dynamics.  The silly turkeys are loud and soft in the book.

Watching for Cues and Songs With Parts

We worked on a Fall chant that has four different parts.  I divided the class into four groups and each group had a part.  After they learned to do their part they had to watch me to cue them, and only perform their part when they were cued!  They got so good at it that each group got to pick out a non-pitch percussion instrument (shakers, maracas, cymbals, drums) to accompany their part this week.

Steady Beat

We work on keeping a steady beat in our bodies and with instruments all the time.  We are also working on keeping a steady beat as a group with an egg shaker passing game.  The game will be part of the song I've Been Workin' on the Railroad.  

Ukulele

I've been bringing my ukulele to class each week and accompanying at least one song on it.  It is a fun, simple instrument to learn.  I created a free online class so you can learn to play some preschool songs at home!  You can get to the class here.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 9

New Grammar

Each week we are adding another small piece to our blob maps.  Blob maps are called that because the continents look like a blob, not the exact shape.  My hope for the students at the Journeyman level is to get the blob shape continents in the correct places based on latitude and longitude.  This is a great map to let them look at while they draw freehand.

Go back to weeks 1-4 for videos of how to blob.

Geography - Eastern Asia.  There are some great songs on CCC for geography for cycle one.  I play all of the weeks in a row and the kids see how fast they can find the places.

Math - This week we are skip counting by 15's.  There is a pattern in the ones place 5,0,5,0,5,0, etc.  That pattern helps me multiply by 15!

History - Confucius.  If you type Confucius into Pinterest you find all of the things he said.  

You can download a FREE powerpoint with sayings by Confucius here.  Then choose to write about one or illustrate one.

Latin - Keep memorizing those declensions!  I printed out two of each chart for my kids.  One chart I cut into pieces and they have to match it to the full page while saying them for review.

English - There are so many fun ways to work on prepositions!  Go to the park and act them out, make a preposition picture book, just act them out with a chair.  I think we will try a box and ball this week.

Science - Parts of a plant

We began this activity in class as a way to review new grammar, and to study flowers for science (it was raining to so week 9's nature walk got switched with week 10).  You can find how to do the full activity here.  

If you go ahead in new grammar you can get great information for inside the book.  The CC Science cards, or the science snippets on the app or tutorials also have great information for weeks 9-11 that can help you finish this project.

Music

I adapted the Recorder Karate curriculum for D tin whistle for my class.  It works really well, the only difference from soprano recorder is a few fingerings.  I also created an online class to help the students out.  You can get to it here.

We reviewed what a staff is, note names, and how to draw a treble clef.  Then we added a 4/4 time signature and filled measures with different combinations of notes that add up to four beats together.

After that we did a quiz for fun to see how well the kids could identify B, A, and G patterns with their ears! You can get the worksheet here.

Music Together Classes Fiddle Collection - October

We are 6 weeks through our nine week fall session of Music Together and I love watching the kids, and the adults, accomplish new musical goals.

We have been working on singing Apples and Cherries as a round.  We began by each group singing one flavor of ice cream as a repeated vocal ostinato.  When we put all of the groups together it created harmony!  Singing in a round does the same thing.  It gives your children wonderful harmony to hear in a simple song.

We sang a drone on D and A along with the song Bella Boya.  Bella Boya is a complex little mixed meter song.  I am very pleased at how all of the classes  have learned to sing the song, different parts, and play the clapping game while you sing.  It is great for little kids to see adults and bigger kids working together to create music.  

This is also a song that is fun to play on the soprano ukulele.  My kids enjoyed learning how.  You can learn how by clicking here and joining the Play Soprano Ukulele with the Fiddle collection group.

For our free dances we danced along with the different parts to Lauren's Waltz, the play along from the Fiddle Collection.  We also did the Monster Mash!

For the play along we explored dynamics and tempo changes with In the Hall of the Mountain King.  We also played instruments to Ghost Busters.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Weeks 6 and 7

Some weeks there is just not enough time to add anything extra.  The great part about CC Foundations is that if you are memorizing your CC work, and doing your math and English that is enough!

This is our second time to go through Cycle 1.  The first time through we were brand new to CC and still getting a feel for homeschooling, and what we were suppose to be doing.  It is a whole new world the second time through.  The kids are considering working toward memory masters (memorizing all 7 subject for all 24 weeks).

How we are preparing for Memory Masters:
(We stole all of these ideas from other smart mommies!)

*We are listening to all of the weeks already.  I found all of the audio I wanted on CC Connected and made my playlist by subject for all 24 weeks.  We will listen to 24 weeks of one of the subjects each day.  My kids favorite songs are the geography songs.

*Each of my kids has a note card box for review cards.  My third grader has to copy the review cards and make her own, my second grader is using the premade cards.  Cards they need to work on go in the front of a divider and cards that are mastered go behind it.

*We are tracing our maps a lot!  I love the CC geography trivium tables.  It's well worth your $10!  You can trace on them with dry erase markers and they are easy to put in your backpack on the go.  We also tape tracing paper over the maps for review.

I'm sure there are more wonderful ways to study for memory masters, but this is what we have come up with so far and I am pleased with it.

Fall Music Together Week 3

It's always a joy to get to make music with the children and parents in my classes.  Last week and this week we sang a song called Can You Do This?  The song is in Lydian which might make it sound a little different To you.  If you want to play around with the Lydian mode at home you can play from F to F on a piano or keyboard using all white keys.

In one class I had the chance to point out how kids feel the rhythm in their whole bodies, and we can help them match the beat of the song by showing the beat in our whole body as well.  adults often stop feeling and expressing music in their whole body.  If you watch a toddler they feel the music from their head to their toes.  Sometimes the trick is just figuring out how they are experiencing the music and how to help them learn the best for the stage of life they are in.



Last week we sang Apples and Cheries with Ice Cream flavored.  Each part of the room got one flavor to sing over and over again.  If you haven't tried this along with the CD yet you should.  Pick one flavor (one phrase) and see if you can stay on that part during the whole song.  We are building up to singing the song in a round.

This week we moved to Los Fandangos.  There is a clapping part that goes along with the song.  Listen for it on your CD and look for it in the songbook.

This collection also has a lot of call and response songs.  Use these to your advantage during the week.  They can be fun in the car.  Songs like Can You Do This are great for directing you kids to do things.  I can wash my hands, you can wash your hands, I can dry them off, you can dry them off.  I can hold your hand, you can hold my hand, I can keep you safe, you can keep me safe.

The only song from outside the Fiddle collection was the play along.  It was This Little Light of Mine by the Chris Barber Jazz Band.   Here is the link to get it.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 5

History

Some fun activities for at home this week

Games about the Roman Empire and the split of Rome

http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/preload.htm

http://ccingitonedayatatime.blogspot.com/2012/09/starringall-thumbs.html

Geography

This weeks geography is the Egyptian Empire.  Here is a fun way to combine art and geography!

Build the Egyptian empire out of sugar cubes, construction paper, and straws

  

We enjoy the Magic Treehouse books.  There is a fiction and nonfiction book about Egypt

Science

I like these sorting cards.  A simple sorting activity might be fun for all of the kids this week.

Science Experiment

Here is a video of this weeks science experiment.  Watch it with your kids after our school day and see what they remember.
http://imaginationstationtoledo.org/content/2011/04/how-to-make-a-naked-egg/

Blobbing

It's finally time to add the continents!  This week we will practice tracing North America.  Next week we will add it to our blob map.

Fall Music Together Has Begun

We are off to a fantastic start for this session of Music Together!  Thank you to all of the parents who sang, danced, and played instruments with their kids today.  You all did such a wonderful job right from the start.  When you model musical behavior you help your kids learn to be musical.  It doesn't matter if you always sing on pitch or keep the right beat.  If you are having a good time making music your kids will learn to enjoy music.  By being exposed to a community of music makers in a Music Together class they will learn to sing in tune and keep a steady beat.

Today I shared with you that I am going to play a new song on the ukulele each week in class.  The ukulele is a great instrument to enjoy playing with your child at home.  It's also a fun first instrument for kids who are a little older.  Because it is small it is easy to put your fingers down for the notes and chords.  I have started basic ukulele tutorials for you so you can learn to play at home.  You can find the tutorials here 

http://me-and-my-purple-ukulele.thinkific.com/

I played the Hello Song and I've Got the Rhythm In My Head on the ukulele in class today.  I've Got the Rhythm in My Head only has one chord!  It's so easy to play with your little one at home.  You can hold down the two fingers needed for an F chord and let your child strum.  If your child is ready to try putting their fingers on the strings this is an easy place for them to start!

The only song we did that is outside the collection today was the Freeze Dance by the Fresh Beat Band.