This semester the 4 year old class has begun studying music from around the world. We are learning all of the continents and experiencing some music from each of them. Scroll all the way through to see what music we have enjoyed from each continent. In addition to the world music study we have also been preparing for the Easter Cross Parade program and some fun end of the year songs for you!
If your child has been singing the continents to you here is the song we are using.
We began our musical journey in North America with songs and styles from the United States of America. We used the Scholastic storybooks to understand our countries songs better. We played a duck duck goose style game with a jazz version of A Tisket A Tasket. We got on our horses and rode around the room to Aaron Copelands Hoe Down. And we experienced some ragtime with Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag.
Next we moved to Central and South America to experience musical styles like the samba and tango. We learned several songs in Spanish! Enjoy.
Our next stop was Europe. We enjoyed music from several classical composers and some Irish music. We learned about following a conductor and the structure of music while playing instruments with part of the William Tell Overature Finale by Italian composer Rossini. We danced to the Can Can composed by French and German Composer Jacques Offenbach. We also enjoyed some traditional Irish music.
After Europe we took a few weeks to enjoy music from Asia. While all of the continents are too big for us to cover all the styles of music unique to them Asia absolutely is and has a huge variety of music to explore. We began in Russia with Reinhold Moricevič Glière’s Russian Sailor’s Dance. This is one of my favorite pieces of classical music to dance and move to. The same theme repeats throughout the piece but it changes each time sometimes feeling big and strong and sometimes soft and lovely. How would you move to the music as you listen to it? We also enjoyed the traditional Russian folk song Little Birch Tree. Its a beautiful melody that Tchaikovsky used in the 4th Symphony. Listen to the symphony and see if you can find the folk song melody.
Next we moved across Asia to China, Korea and the Middle East. We enjoyed a fun follow the leader game to a Chinese Dragon Dance song, the sweet melody of the traditional Korean song Arirang, and some fun sounds from Disney’s live action Aladin that is set in the Middle East.
We are not studying any of the culture of the locations around the world. For music class my goal is for the students to hear and experience through instruments and movement the different tonalities and rhythms that come from around the world. If anyone has preschool appropriate songs that would be a good addition to our study I’m always glad to add more regions.
We made a quick stop to Africa which is always a great opportunity to enjoy drumming. We had a huge drum circle to drum along with an African kalimba and drum music and the traditional song Funga Alafia.
Our last stop is to Australia. I brought in a digeridoo for the kids to see and hear (I don’t play it as well as the videos but it’s a fun instrument!) We listened to some traditional aboriginal music and Waltzing Matilda which is an unofficial National Anthem for Australia and very different sounding. Australia has an interesting contrast in music between the aboriginal music and the music that came from being under British rule.
This page is an ongoing blog post style page so you can still see what we worked on first semester beyond this point. I will update with songs from more continents that we are learning throughout the rest of this semester.
We began our year with songs that help us identify language such as colors and rhyme through music. We have also worked with identifying musical contrasts such as legato/staccato (bouncy and smooth), sound and silence (start and stop), and loud and soft.
Change how you move to match the music each time the way the theme is being played changes.
During the last few classes we have been learning several American songs. Next semester we will review the American songs and begin to explore music from around the world. I love the Scholastic books for each of the American songs we have listened to in class. The pictures help tell what the song is saying to us. Taking time to ask the kids what they see in the books and hear in the songs is a lot of fun.
We are already working on our Christmas songs for this year! The children will be singing parts of Angels We Have Heard on High, Away in a Manger, The Little Drummer Boy, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Go Tell it on the Mountain. Did you know that the melody to Twinkle Twinkle was originally written my Mozart? See if you can sing the song along with each of the variations in the recording below.
Music can help us be excited, move, and play and it can also help us calm down. We end each class with a calm song. Singing calm songs at home can help both adults and children relax and calm down before bed, a nap, or anytime you may need a calm moment.
The book Time For Bed can be sung to the tune of The Day is Now Over. It’s a sweet book about baby animals at 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.
We also enjoyed moving to Don Alfredo Baila. This is a fun Spanish song to do a freeze dance to and learn fingers, hands, arms, and chest. It’s an adaptation of the song Juanito Cuando Baila. Enjoy learning more parts to move with that song!
Carrie Underwood sang America The Beautiful acapella at the presidential inauguration after the accompaniment track wouldn’t play. It was a fabulous performance and I highly recommend watching it. Skip to 0.45 in the video to enjoy her performance. We studied this American song in class two weeks ago and you can find more information below. The inauguration was full of patriotic American music that every American should know.
In addition to singing, moving, and playing instruments, the four year old class will be learning about music from around our world. We started this week with a variety of music from North America, specifically the United States.
Jazz music began in the United States by blending music from other cultures around the world and became popular in the early 1900’s (This kids didn’t get this background in class, they just experienced the music.) Ella Fitzgerald was a popular jazz vocalist and her version of A Tisket A Tasket is fun to listen to and play a duck duck goose style game with that we will enjoy closer to valentines day.
America The Beautiful is one of our countries songs that every American citizen should learn. Scholastic has beautiful books to go along with some of our countries songs. We sang the song together and then went through the book a second time to see what each phrase of the song was saying about our country.
