Lesson 3

Use this week to get your left hand red-blue chord transition solidified before we add the yellow chord next week. We should be getting to the point where we can play this transition with our eyes closed and even hands together! (That's tricky because the fingering is different for the RH than the LH. Only try it hands together when the muscle memory is solid in each hand separately).

Celebrate Connection
A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!

• Play "Freeze ad Thaw": Parent or child will say "start". Child will play until parent randomly says "freeze". Child will freeze until parent says "thaw". Then trade places.​
• Name that tune! In how few of notes can you name a song?

Homework pp. 8–9: Students trace and color notes to indicate baby steps, skips, and leaps.

Caterpillar Song
WOW! Our caterpillars are getting smoother and steadier with this 5 finger pattern! As your child progresses playing this song, watch for these 4 things:
1. Bubble Hand
2. Strong Independent Fingers
3. Smooth Sound
4. Steady Rhythm

Turtle Shells
Let's play our “Turtle Shell” intervals with the left hand! Using fingers 4 & 5 to play a 2nd is tougher than using the RH 1 & 2, so try warming up with “Where is 4? Where is 5?” before playing the interval. Repeat for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Enjoy a little twist on the classic game Twister to reinforce and strengthen those finger numbers.

Love Somebody
We LOVE when our parents play along with us! Share more love with your child by playing an octave higher or accompanying together with the chords while listening to the album. Ask your child to teach your family the ‘LOVELY’ game that accompanies this song!

I am Robin Hood
"I am Robin Hood" is used to introduce quarter rests and the notoriously challenging dotted quarter-eighth note pattern with a fun and full-body experience. Practice "shooting" an arrow with your child while singing and notice the hesitation needed to sing "Sho-ot the arrow, Wa-atch it fly!"  Also, the open 5th in the left hand is a particularly satisfying sound to young children, resembling the sound of drums, and is easy to play!

Echo Edna, a silly tool to help students let go of their inhibitions, helps our students in class be able to recognize steps and skips on the staff, sing them, AND play them. Teaching our students to read music using steps and skips leads to more fluent playing and better sight-reading.

"Simon Says to Step or Skip" is a fun game to practice this concept at home. Print or make your own step, skip, up, and down cards. A fun way to add tactile and visual reinforcement is to use small pencil top erasers or any small toy as a starting note and then step or skip with another one. It’s So Fun!