Dear Parents,
Our Fall semester is off to a great start! The children have all settled into their new classes and we are busy at work singing and learning together.
Music time in the toddler classes is divided into singing, finger plays, nursery rhymes, movement and listening. The songs we have been singing include: “When I Was a Baby,” Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,” “Rock-a-Bye-Baby,” “The More We Get Together,” “Make New Friends,” “Mister Sun,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and “Magic Penny.” Each class seems to have favorites from previous classes and we include those often as well.
The finger plays include: “Ten Wiggly Fingers,” “Here is a Bunny,” “Two Little Eyes,” “Touch Your Nose,” and “Fee Fie Foe Fum.” The nursery rhymes include: “Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling,” “Higglety, Pigglety My Black Hen,” “Hickory, Dickory, Dock,” and “Hey Diddle, Diddle.”
The listening activities are always among the most popular things we do in music class. Some of the classes start requesting these the minute I come into the classroom! Good musicians are good listeners, so this is a very important musical skill and one that often takes a back seat to all our visual activities. We began this fall with family sounds; babies, daddies, mommies, and children playing. We then went on to farm animals; hen, rooster, pig, ducklings, goat, sheep, horse, donkey, cow, puppies and dogs. The horse sounds included the horses walking, trotting and galloping which is a good way to start understanding tempo. We also used some “sound rattles” to help develop our sensitivity to volume and variations in sound.
The movement activities included: “What Shall We Do When We All Go Out,” “Bounce Along,” and “Macaroni/Trot, Trot, Trot.”
The Evergreen and Forest classrooms had many of the same finger plays and listening exercises. The differences were in the songs and we added some ear training rhythm and tonal exercises to the songs, “Star Light,” and “I See the Moon.” The songs we sang in these classrooms included: “ I Think Your Wonderful,” “Magic Penny,” “Old Jeremiah,” “Mr. Rooster,” “Bim, Bam,” “Go Round the Mountain.” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Treehouse Friends,” and “You Are My Sunshine.”
The River classroom has begun learning to read music. We have concentrated on the rhythm patterns for the two songs they will play on their metallophones and have learned the hand signs for sol and mi and sol, mi, do and are beginning to learn to recognize them on written music. They have been playing their metallophones once a week. In addition, we have learned two new songs, “Come to the Fair,” and “Boatman.”
As always, I enjoy hearing from you. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please let me know.
Ms Kathleen