 I sure had a fun week with the kids! They are so much fun to teach! Everyone has been doing homework and "play" practicing. I can tell the kids are listening to their music, as they are singing along with me. Thank you for making listening time a joyful priority because the magic is beginning to happen! I can tell the students are starting to feel somewhat comfortable. This is a great thing when they start to open up and internalize their experience. Keep in mind, when you come to class, they will sometimes behave differently. Just remember to be actively engaged in what I’m doing and don’t force their participation, just encourage. (You can always bribe them before you come to class though!) Keep up the good work and consistency parents! You’ll be happy with the results. Remember, parents come on all odd lessons, "So I'll see you next week!" (Re, Sol, Do) Homework: p. 28–31 Students get to cut out the Magical Lamp 'puppets' and glue them onto the listening guide! Schedule Reminder: There is no class on Thursday, October 13 due to Fall Break :)  Goin’ on a Lion Hunt We're learning how to keep a steady beat when we sing this song. We use the varying tempo in this song to demonstrate fast and slow. What fun! Seems simple, but it's a powerful way to teach them to internalize rhythm. Melodic Patterns The songs Let’s Play Music, Hickety Pickety, and May There Always Be Me, expose the kids to melodic patterns that have a strong cadence pull to "DO". These patterns help the child to sing in tune and trains the ear to hear how songs should end. Boom, Boom We introduced this fun song today. This song helps us recognize a melodic pattern (SO DO), and helps us keep a consistent steady beat. Very soon we’ll be using it to practice the autoharp and read our chord music! NEW Melodic pattern The SOL SOL DO pattern was introduced today! Your student will start to notice this pattern with their ears and then their eyes everywhere ... even to the cheerios floating in their cereal. They are little sponges. May There Always Be Me Today we learned the term ‘lullaby’.  For my convenience, I have preloaded content for the whole semester. I will update each future post with specific time-sensitive info before I send the link each week. If you choose to read ahead you might see details that don’t apply to your child’s class. For this reason I do not recommend reading ahead. Thank you!
Thanks for coming to Lesson 5! YOU are a vital part of your child’s music education. =) You’ll notice that the bulk of new concepts and skills are presented on Parent days. We want you to see how the activities are done so that you’ll know just what to do at home. If ever you have questions however, feel free to contact me. I feel so lucky to be teaching such amazing students! You have brilliant, eager students that are so receptive at this age. I love teaching them and can't wait to see them next week. Homework: p. 26–27 Students identify which line/space the black "balloon" is on/in, then draw a black balloon in the same line/space in the 2nd column to match. A lot of new things were taught today! Below are a few highlighted activities and their purpose. May There Always Be Me We taught the kids to feel their heartbeat and introduced the concept of keeping a steady beat. This is important when you're teaching a child to internally feel the value of notes. A-Hunting We Will Go We identified the MI RE DO pattern and sang it independently. The solfege patterns are important in training the ear. All the patterns we will learn in Let's Play Music have a strong cadence pull to DO. When the ear hears these patterns over and over again they aurally can start predicting where the music is heading. Patterning plays a major role in the construction of music. Chords in Pieces We actually read music today! Well, our eyes followed a chord map, and we sang the broken chords! Ding Dong, Ding Dong Correctly imitating pitches is important in learning to sing in tune, which puts us on a path to becoming a complete musician. The Staff It was so fun to identify the 5 lines and 4 spaces on the staff!! We are taking time to let the kids visually familiarize themselves with the single staff. We used our Red Balloon song to accomplish this! We LOVE having our parents come to class on parent day. It was so much fun singing our lullaby and rocking back and forth feeling the steady beat of the music. Music is healing and can help us feel emotions. Music is powerful and every child needs music in their life. And not just for the reasons and benefits we normally think of as music educators. Read Carson's story and witness how the power of music aided in healing a traumatic event in his young life. For my convenience, I have preloaded content for the whole semester. I will update each future post with specific time-sensitive info before I send the link each week. If you choose to read ahead you might see details that don’t apply to your child’s class. For this reason I do not recommend reading ahead. Thank you!
Hi, fabulous parents! Class was so fun! I love interacting with your students and teaching them through play. I have the best job in the whole world! Just a reminder next week is parent week and tuition is due on the 20th! Please pay the invoice online or bring cash or a check to class (check made payable to Infusing Music, Inc.) Also, are you having fun listening to the music? When you expose your student to the music and sing a lot, the child experiences fun repetition at home so they learn faster and internalize the concepts and skills in class more rapidly. Homework: p. 24–25 Students listen to Barnyard Boogie and then match the animals to their clapping hands. Also, be sure to follow the instructions for the listening (CD) activities and the Bell Practice. Learning to sing harmony In class we listened to and sang the song Hear How the Bells. The kiddos got to sing the melody while the ostinato played on the bells. We’re reinforcing hearing layers of sound as well as the importance of keeping a steady beat. Music staff training They are also learning how the music staff works. Notes are on the lines and spaces, and when they go up, our bodies and voices go up, when they go down, our bodies and voices go down! This exposure is prepping them to read music! Autoharp Playing the autoharp helps the children gain strength in their hands, helps them to "anticipate" the beat when they strum the strings, and primes their brain to do different right hand and left hand movement. It's the perfect prep work for playing the piano. Check out this article about the WHY and HOW of practicing the Autoharp at Home ... even when you don’t have one! For my convenience, I have preloaded content for the whole semester. I will update each future post with specific time-sensitive info before I send the link each week. If you choose to read ahead you might see details that don’t apply to your child’s class. For this reason I do not recommend reading ahead. Thank you!
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Clara McDonaldAs a music educator of 25 years, my passion is infusing others with music! Archives
May 2023
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