2 Year Old Music Class

Week 6

Routine is such an important part of learning because it helps us know what to expect during our day.  Music class is the same!  We have a routine, and now that we have had music class for a few months the two year olds are doing a great job knowing what to expect and following the routine of class.  We alway start by listening to new music, then we work on singing, followed by large movement, instrument play, more singing work, and the same goodbye song each week.  The routine of class helps build a happy and safe space to learn in and I'm so proud of the work our littlest learners are accomplishing!  We always end class with God Is So Good.  Maybe this song can become part of your routine at home as a lullaby or calm song as well!

Week 5

We continued our work on musical contrasts this week with large movement (spinning, stomping, tiptoeing, running, and walking) to the song Spin and Stop.  We also worked on start/stop and loud/soft with the book Jump Frog Jump.  Rapping rhyming books or books with a good structure with children is a fun way to work on phonetic anticipation and awareness.  Here’s a fun example

Week 4

We are continuing to work on learning routine and following musical cues.  We added the rocketship chant this week.  The vocal play in this chant helps children learn the difference between their singing or speaking voice and their screaming voice.  

Week 3

Everyone enjoyed Two Little Kitty Cats this week.  It was a fun review song for the threes and fours and a new start and stop song for the twos!  This song is a great opportunity to work on singing voices instead of screaming. Cats can’t scream, they meow, so while we run we meow on the tonic and dominant notes from the song. The older classes also pounced and prowled.

The two year old classes are continuing to work on songs that help with sound and silence and starting and stopping.  The kids are getting used to the routine of music class and soon we will start working on musical contrasts (loud/soft, high/low, fast/slow, staccato/legato, etc.).  

Week 2

I like to start each class with listening.  All of the classes listened to a few of Mozart’s Twinkle Variations today. We figured out that we were hearing a piano play and that it was a song most of us knew. (Some of the older kids identified it as A,B,C which is also correct.  Twinkle Twinkle, the alphabet song, and Baa Baa Black Sheep are all the same melody!) We sang Twinkle and felt the beat in our bodies with two of the variations.  Can you sing the melody along with the variation?  (Hint: sing the first line twice to make it fit. “Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are.  Twinkle twinkle little start how I wonder what you are.)

We will work on watching a conductor a lot this year!  Learning to move and stop and play and stop is big work for two year olds.  They found creative ways to play sticks and other instruments today.   We enjoyed moving and stopping to Pop Goes the Weasel and playing instruments to this fun version of the song.

Week 1

We are off to a wonderful start in music class this year! In addition to getting used to the routine of music class, the two-year-olds are working on hearing, identifying, and responding to musical contrasts. A few of the songs we have used to learn sound and silence or start and stop are Spin and Stop, Sandpiper, and Pop Goes the Weasel. We have enjoyed playing instruments and large movement activities with these start and stop songs. Start and stop songs like freeze dances are a great addition to your daily routine. You can help your little one get out energy and then freeze which gives you a great opportunity to redirect them if needed.

See How I'm Jumping

This is a fun recording of the song.  We didn't use a recording in class so we could put in whatever movements we wanted, elongate the stop, and my version ends with a flop instead of another stop.  We had a great time moving to the beat, freezing, and falling down.  

This Little Light of Mine

We played instruments to this fun version of This Little Light of Mine!

Sandpiper

We enjoyed running, flying, freezing, and moving to Sandpiper as well.  Again, we enjoyed this song without the recording so we had more time to freeze but it's a great recording to enjoy at home.  My own children have always loved this song and still sing it when we see sandpipers at the beach!

I love adding a book we can sing or move along to to class occasionally. So far this year we have enjoyed working on the contrasts of loud and soft with Jump Frog Jump and hunting for colors with the book The Leaves on the Trees.

We are starting to work on songs for Christmas already! The two-year-olds are primarily working on Twinkle Twinkle and Go Tell it on the Mountain but they will continue to enjoy working with all of the songs for the Christmas program. Did you know that the theme for Twinkle Twinkle was originally composed by Mozart? See if you can sing the theme along with all of the different variations!

We end every music class by singing God Is So Good together. You can incorporate this song into your daily routine as a prayer before meals or a lullaby before bedtime.

This site is set up as an ongoing blog post. Everything you see below this point was from a previous year and I will continue to move songs to the top of the post as we learn or are exposed to them in class this year.