Super Bowl Music Together Class

Last night was a little sad.  I love my Panthers and I hated to see them lose.   I'm still proud to be a Panthers fan.  They played hard and gave us a remarkable season!  We are going to enjoy a little fun improvisation with some of the Music Together songs in class to help us get through this tough time together.

There's A Cobbler changed to There's A Panther 

There's a quarterback on our street
Who kept getting sacked right off his feet
He got sacked the whole day long
Bronco defense they were strong
With a bam and a bam and a bam bam bam                                                                            And a bam and a bam and a bam bam bam                                                                            Getting sacked the whole night long                                                                                        We played hard, but they were strong

But that quarterback on our street
Gives footballs to kids he meets
Gives footballs the whole day long
And we are proud to be Panther STRONG
with a dab and a dab and a dab dab dab                                                                                  And a dab and a dab and a dab dab dab                                                                                 Gives footballs the whole day long                                                                                           We are proud to be Panther Strong

 

Who Say's They're Gonna Come Back

Who say's they're gonna come back                                                                                                              They Panthers do that's who                                                                                                                            They'll win games again next year                                                                                                                  Because they do love you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Sometimes they lose one                                                                                                                                  And that makes us sad.                                                                                                                                    Sometimes Cam gets sacked                                                                                                                          And that makes us very mad!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         But who say's they're gonna come back                                                                                                       They Panthers do that's who.                                                                                                                            They'll win more games for you next year,                                                                                                  Because they do love you!

 

Studying Star Wars Music With Preschoolers

starwars.png

Star Wars is so popular, why not study it in preschool.  Even if the kids haven't seen the movies, most of them are familiar with the music.  A great article about the music in the Force Awakens is Seven Things We Learned About Star Wars The Force Awakens From it's Music.  The article goes through each of the themes associated with the main characters.

We typically study pitched instruments and add in Carnival of the Animals or Peter and the Wolf during the second semester in preschool.  Last year we studied the music from Peter Pan the  musical and movie.  Here is how we will branch out and study instruments through star wars music this year.

I start every class with listening.  As the kids come into music we have something new we are listening to, and quietly moving to in our spots or patting the beat to.  To introduce Star Wars we listened to the Imperial March as the kids entered the class and kept the beat in our bodies.  We also sang the Star Wars version of A Ram Sam Sam.

A Jabba the Hutt, A Jabba the Hutt, A Luke Skywalker, and a Jabba the Hutt, Darth Vader, Darth Vader, A Luke Skywalker and a Jabba the Hutt.

In the lessons to come we will listen to the theme music for each character and explore keeping the beat in some fun ways.  One fun post I found had a lesson on keeping a steady beat light saber fight with pool noodles or boomwhackers while listening to the Imperial March.  This will be a reward at the end of a class!  

We will also try a small part of the Imperial March and the Star Wars theme on boomwhackers.  There are free printables for these on Teachers Pay Teachers and Preschool Prodigies.  

Odd Meter Elephant Chicken Chicken

I didn't care much for odd meters until I started teaching early childhood music.  Once I became a Music Together teacher, and realized you could improvise crazy things in odd meters, then I began to love them!

There is a silly chant in 7/8 in the current Music Together collection.  Its a great opportunity to improvise with silly sounds.  The 7/8 pattern is 3 beats + 2 beats + 2 beats, or elephant chicken chicken.  Elephant is a three syllable word and chicken is two.  To get 7 beats you need one elephant and two chickens!  You can also make elephant and chicken sounds to play with odd meter.  

What other animal combinations can you come up with to make 7 beats?  Mix a three syllable animal with a two syllable animal.

Three syllable animals

Antelope
Chimpanzee
Crocodile                 Bumble Bee
Wolverine                Killer Whale
Flamingo                 Oscelot
Octopus                   Buffalo

Two Syllable Animals

Baboon, Rabbit, Raptor, Dragon, Llama, Cheetah, Penguin, Puppy, Dolphin, Rhino, Falcon, Eagle, Monkey, Donkey, Beaver, Tiger, Lion, Walrus, Hedgehog, Lizard, Bunny, Kitten, Pigeon, Woodchuck, Toucan, Turtle, Turkey, Lobster

 

Learning Musical Contrasts through Ice Skating

One of my favorite activities is playing with staccato and legato musical contrasts with the Skating song from Charlie Brown.  All you need is the music (the link's below), and some paper plates.  

Skating
Fantasy Records
Buy on Amazon

Scatter the paper plates around on the floor.  Tip toe around the plates (staccato, detached movement) during the descending eighth note patterns in the song.  Then jump on the the plates, keep your feet down and skate (smooth, connected legato movement) during the dotted half note section.  These two parts are about 4 measures long and alternate back and forth.  Then there is a fun, jazzy middle section to the song where you can jump off your plates and show off your dance moves.  The alternating eighth note and dotted half note sections come back at the end.  End with the staccato tip toe phrases, and legato dotted half note skating.  

Soundtrack: A Charlie Brown Christmas Version: Starbucks Exclusive Artist: Vince Guaraldi Trio Composer: Charles Wesley, Felix Mendelssohn Producer: Timothy Jones Drums: Colin Bailey Bass: Monty Budwig Mastering: George Horn Piano: Vince Guaraldi Track Name: Skating Track Number: 07 ~ Merry Christmas!

Tip toe music 0:08 - 0:11

skating music 0:11-0:15

Jazzy dance section 0:57

Building Each Continents Tallest Mountain Classical Conversations Cycle 1

We are going to study each continents tallest mountain with egg cartons this week.  The supply list is simple.  You just need to save up lots of egg cartons and have some good paper handy.

Begin by building your mountains.  Each student will need 28 egg carton pieces (7+6+5+4+3+2+1).  Your tallest mountain will be 7 pieces tall, second tallest 6 pieces tall, and so on.  Next put all of the mountains in order by elevation.

Now you are ready to draw your map.  This is a great time to practice you cartography skill.  Begin by drawing your major lines of latitude and longitude.  You need these to help put all of the continents in the correct place.  

Finish by putting each mountain on the correct continent.  

You could cover your mountains in masking tape, or clay, and then paint them as well.

Here is a video to watch to help put the height of these mountains in perspective.  This is the tallest building in the world.  If you look at the first picture on the post you can see it barely sticking up on the bottom right.

Geology.com

Geology.com has a great interactive map.  You can zoom in on each of the mountains.  It also has wonderful pictures and information about each mountain.

Winter Music Together

I am excited about everything there is to learn from playing with songs in the Drum collection this Winter!  We have experienced some good songs to put in your "diaper bag" or "back pocket," for those times you need to help redirect or motivate your little ones.  Our first week of class we sang Clap Your Hands.  This song is easy to improvise new lyrics with to go along with your daily routine (wash your hands, eat your food, hold my hand, etc.).  The other song that is great to add to your day is John the Rabbit.  Reinforcing some good manners with that repetitive "Yes ma'am" is always a great addition to the day.

We have been singing Tomorrows Now Today, and will sing the same lullaby for one more week.  Your children hearing your voice during the lullaby is so important for their musical growth.  I like to repeat one lullaby for several weeks so you can really learn it, and hopefully start singing it at home too!

Our first week of class we danced to The Fresh Beat Band's Freeze Dance.  Click below to listen here, or buy from Amazon.  Our instrument play along was the song Play Along from the Music Together collection.


Week 2 we danced to the Can Can.  We experienced dynamics by tip toeing, wiggling, jumping, and finally kicking!  We enjoyed some jazz for our instrument play along with Bounce Me Brother With A Solid Four.  


Rock Candy Cycle

To explore types of rock we started with review the memory work and an explanation of the rock cycle.  Then we did an experiment with starburst candy.  You can get a science journal sheet to explain the experiments on Teachers Pay Teachers.

After the starburst experiment we read the book How to Dig A Hole to the Other Side of the World.  This book is a fun way to talk about the parts of the earth.

After reading the book we made our own parts of the earth with an Oreo representing the crust and the mantle, chocolate syrup representing the liquid iron outer core, and the m&m representing the solid iron inner core.  The Oreo model can be found here.

Then we enjoyed eating all of our treats!



Journey Through Japan Classical Conversations Cycle 1

While studying Japan we did a journey through Japan event.  I used this activity guide from Teachers Pay Teachers for part of the activities.  I also found several Japanese folk tales from the library.  We read a folk tale, looked at the geography of Japan, and items we use that come from Japan.  We also made Japanese fans out of coffee filters and Popsicle sticks.

I was fortunate to learn some traditional Japanese dances from a Hawaiian music teacher.  We learned two Japanese dances.  One was called Tanko Bushi (the coal miners song), and the other was a dance from the Japanese Bon festival.  We practiced the dances first.  Then each child took a large white t-shirt and decorated it so it looked like a kimono.  After they decorated their kimonos I gave them fabric to wrap around the middle as a sash.  Once we were dressed and ready we performed our dances in our outfits!

For a snack we ate rice crispy/Swedish fish sushi, marshmallows, and banana slices with chopsticks. 

Mystery Music Event Classical Conversations

Before Halloween we had a mystery music event.  We were in our music theory study in Foundations and this event was a continuation of what we were learning in music.  We began by discussing melody and scales.  The kids played boomwhackers to play with the major scale and some modes.  Then we played Joy to the World and Happy Birthday on boomwhackers.

After our study of melody we studied rhythm.  The kids played a monster rhythm game.  I had puff balls with different sized eyeballs on them.  A whole note monster was 4 puff balls hot glued together with one big eyeball on the first one.  A half note was two puff balls hot glued together with one medium sized eyeball on the first one.  A quarter note monster has one medium sized eyeball on one puff ball.  Two eighth notes, tiny eyes, go one one puff ball to create an eighth note monster.  I made a dice with a different note value on each side.  Each child had a sheet with two blank measures in different time signatures on it.  I would roll the dice and they had to fit the correct monster into the correct time signature.  The first one to fill all of their measures won!

We also played rhythm bingo.  

  

Can You Stop the Fall of Rome?

I found a wonderful simulation for the kids to go through on Teachers Pay Teachers called Can You Stop the Fall of Rome?  It was $7 well spent!

Before we began the simulation we sang through the timeline song, stopping on any card that had to do with Rome.  You can find all of the timeline cards that talk about Rome in the back of your CC guide.  Page 199 has a list of which timeline cards go with each history sentence.  

Next we talked about what the role of a Roman Emperor would have been.  Then we began the project.  Each child received and Emperor card and a treasury card.  The Emperor card gives them a brief outline about who they are, and the treasury card tells them how much money they have to work with.  They also each received a worksheet to keep up with their treasury.  ll of the cards and worksheets needed are included in the packet on TPT.  I printed them all out and laminated them. 

The simulation is a powerpoint.  It worked better for me to have it printed out and in a binder.  I read a question, the kids picked how they would handle the issue as emperor, then they found out how much money they gained or lost.  I was impressed with how well the kids did, and how much thought they put into the activity!

We ended by playing some games Roman Children would have played.  Swords and Jacks were among the games.

There are also some fun online games, and paper doll activities about Rome.

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Model Building Classical Conversations Cycle 1

To learn more about the seven wonders of the Ancient world we had a model building event.  You can find the templates for the models for free online at Delta 7 Studios!

I recommend having glue dots and plenty of good scissors on hand.  I had the models printed on card stock to make them sturdier.  Each child also had a small box to put their model in to take home, and on top of to display.  I got small boxes for free at my local wholesale club.

After we built the models we went outside for some fun!  

We measured our street, and marked every 10 feet all the way up the street.  We marked how tall each of the seven wonders was.  We had to go all the way to the top of the street to get to the top of the great pyramids!  My kids helped measure and mark the street before the event started.  Their classmates just explored it with us.

Next we had a minute-to-win-it building competition.  I picked up a bunch of large boxes for free at my local wholesale club and taped them closed.  Two kids competed against each other at a time.  Both had a bunch of boxes.  They had to see who could make the tallest standing tower in one minute.  

For our last game I put one box with each of the wonders written on it around the yard.  One person was "it."  This person stood in the middle with their eyes closed.  While they counted to 20 the rest of the kids went to one of the wonders.  Without opening their eyes, the person who is it calls out one of the seven wonders.  Whoever is at that wonder is out and has to come to the center.  The person who is it does this 3 times to see how many people they can get out.

You can test your knowledge of the Seven Wonders online

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/social_studies/seven_wonders_of_the_ancient_world/quiz2962.html

http://www.funtrivia.com/html5/index.cfm?qid=65637

 

Organization

I am so excited to not only have everything I do in one place, but to also have it organized!  The title of the website is the same as my main blog, Make More Music Little Ones.  Making music is part of everything I do.  It makes our day more exciting.  Music is a way to direct your child, its a memory device for school work, it's calming and it's energizing.  I have had several blogs for Music Together, preschool music, music lessons, and homeschooling.  Now they are all here!  If you want to read every post I write you can check them out on the blog page.  If you just want preschool music or homeschooling information you can go straight to that page and the blog posts are sorted there for you.  I also added a page called Mommy's Interlude.  It's so valuable for moms to take a small break for all of the craziness, even that break is just a quick cup of coffee, or a short minute of prayer.  

Fall Songs With Preschoolers

I love teaching preschool music.  The musical activities 3-5 year old kids can accomplish never cease to amaze me.  We have been working on some basic, but very important concepts this Fall.

Audiation

Audiation is the ability to hear music, melody and rhythm, in your head.  We have been singing Bingo to work on audiation.  Each time you sing a verse in Bingo you take away one letter, clap on that one while thinking it in your head, and then sing the remaining letters.  The kids are doing great with this!  We have used

this schoolastic book

along with the song.

Dynamics and Tempo

In the Hall of the Mountain King is a fun song to work on dynamics and tempo with.  It starts quiet and slow then speeds up and gets louder through out the song.  We start each music class by listening to a song then talking about it.  That might sound boring, but we act out the song with small movements while we listen and work on steady beat and it's a great experience.  Little kids can come up with some great answers about what they hear.  If you haven't ever asked your kids about what all they hear when they listen to music you should.  It's a fun conversation.  We used the song as a play along at the end of class.  The students have to play the instruments quietly when the song is quiet and get to get louder and faster with it!  Here is a video to enjoy with the song, and a cartoon about the music.

We read the book Gobble Gobble Crash to talk about dynamics.  The silly turkeys are loud and soft in the book.

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Watching for Cues and Songs With Parts

We worked on a Fall chant that has four different parts.  I divided the class into four groups and each group had a part.  After they learned to do their part they had to watch me to cue them, and only perform their part when they were cued!  They got so good at it that each group got to pick out a non-pitch percussion instrument (shakers, maracas, cymbals, drums) to accompany their part this week.

Steady Beat

We work on keeping a steady beat in our bodies and with instruments all the time.  We are also working on keeping a steady beat as a group with an egg shaker passing game.  The game will be part of the song I've Been Workin' on the Railroad.  

Ukulele

I've been bringing my ukulele to class each week and accompanying at least one song on it.  It is a fun, simple instrument to learn.  I created a free online class so you can learn to play some preschool songs at home!  

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Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 9

New Grammar

Each week we are adding another small piece to our blob maps.  Blob maps are called that because the continents look like a blob, not the exact shape.  My hope for the students at the Journeyman level is to get the blob shape continents in the correct places based on latitude and longitude.  This is a great map to let them look at while they draw freehand.

Go back to weeks 1-4 for videos of how to blob.

Geography - Eastern Asia.  There are some great songs on CCC for geography for cycle one.  I play all of the weeks in a row and the kids see how fast they can find the places.

Math - This week we are skip counting by 15's.  There is a pattern in the ones place 5,0,5,0,5,0, etc.  That pattern helps me multiply by 15!

History - Confucius.  If you type Confucius into Pinterest you find all of the things he said.  

You can download a FREE powerpoint with sayings by Confucius

here

.  Then choose to write about one or illustrate one.

Latin - Keep memorizing those declensions!  I printed out two of each chart for my kids.  One chart I cut into pieces and they have to match it to the full page while saying them for review.

English - There are so many fun ways to work on prepositions!  Go to the park and act them out, make a preposition picture book, just act them out with a chair.  I think we will try a box and ball this week.

Science - Parts of a plant

We began this activity in class as a way to review new grammar, and to study flowers for science (it was raining to so week 9's nature walk got switched with week 10).  You can find how to do the full activity

here

.  

If you go ahead in new grammar you can get great information for inside the book.  The CC Science cards, or the science snippets on the app or tutorials also have great information for weeks 9-11 that can help you finish this project.

Music

I adapted the Recorder Karate curriculum for D tin whistle for my class.  It works really well, the only difference from soprano recorder is a few fingerings.  I also created an online class to help the students out.  You can get to it

here

.

We reviewed what a staff is, note names, and how to draw a treble clef.  Then we added a 4/4 time signature and filled measures with different combinations of notes that add up to four beats together.

After that we did a quiz for fun to see how well the kids could identify B, A, and G patterns with their ears! You can get the worksheet

here

.

1d504d11ce12a91f183881ab7dffda01.jpg

Music Together Classes Fiddle Collection - October

We are 6 weeks through our nine week fall session of Music Together and I love watching the kids, and the adults, accomplish new musical goals.

We have been working on singing Apples and Cherries as a round.  We began by each group singing one flavor of ice cream as a repeated vocal ostinato.  When we put all of the groups together it created harmony!  Singing in a round does the same thing.  It gives your children wonderful harmony to hear in a simple song.

We sang a drone on D and A along with the song Bella Boya.  Bella Boya is a complex little mixed meter song.  I am very pleased at how all of the classes  have learned to sing the song, different parts, and play the clapping game while you sing.  It is great for little kids to see adults and bigger kids working together to create music.  

This is also a song that is fun to play on the soprano ukulele.  My kids enjoyed learning how.  You can learn how by clicking

here and joining the Play Soprano Ukulele with the Fiddle

collection group.

For our free dances we danced along with the different parts to Lauren's Waltz, the play along from the Fiddle Collection.  We also did the Monster Mash!

For the play along we explored dynamics and tempo changes with In the Hall of the Mountain King.  We also played instruments to Ghost Busters.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Weeks 6 and 7

Some weeks there is just not enough time to add anything extra.  The great part about CC Foundations is that if you are memorizing your CC work, and doing your math and English that is enough!

This is our second time to go through Cycle 1.  The first time through we were brand new to CC and still getting a feel for homeschooling, and what we were suppose to be doing.  It is a whole new world the second time through.  The kids are considering working toward memory masters (memorizing all 7 subject for all 24 weeks).

How we are preparing for Memory Masters:
(We stole all of these ideas from other smart mommies!)

*We are listening to all of the weeks already.  I found all of the audio I wanted on CC Connected and made my playlist by subject for all 24 weeks.  We will listen to 24 weeks of one of the subjects each day.  My kids favorite songs are the geography songs.

*Each of my kids has a note card box for review cards.  My third grader has to copy the review cards and make her own, my second grader is using the premade cards.  Cards they need to work on go in the front of a divider and cards that are mastered go behind it.

*We are tracing our maps a lot!  I love the CC geography trivium tables.  It's well worth your $10!  You can trace on them with dry erase markers and they are easy to put in your backpack on the go.  We also tape tracing paper over the maps for review.

I'm sure there are more wonderful ways to study for memory masters, but this is what we have come up with so far and I am pleased with it.


Fall Music Together Week 3

It's always a joy to get to make music with the children and parents in my classes.  Last week and this week we sang a song called Can You Do This?  The song is in Lydian which might make it sound a little different To you.  If you want to play around with the Lydian mode at home you can play from F to F on a piano or keyboard using all white keys.

In one class I had the chance to point out how kids feel the rhythm in their whole bodies, and we can help them match the beat of the song by showing the beat in our whole body as well.  adults often stop feeling and expressing music in their whole body.  If you watch a toddler they feel the music from their head to their toes.  Sometimes the trick is just figuring out how they are experiencing the music and how to help them learn the best for the stage of life they are in.

Last week we sang Apples and Cheries with Ice Cream flavored.  Each part of the room got one flavor to sing over and over again.  If you haven't tried this along with the CD yet you should.  Pick one flavor (one phrase) and see if you can stay on that part during the whole song.  We are building up to singing the song in a round.

This week we moved to Los Fandangos.  There is a clapping part that goes along with the song.  Listen for it on your CD and look for it in the songbook.

This collection also has a lot of call and response songs.  Use these to your advantage during the week.  They can be fun in the car.  Songs like Can You Do This are great for directing you kids to do things.  I can wash my hands, you can wash your hands, I can dry them off, you can dry them off.  I can hold your hand, you can hold my hand, I can keep you safe, you can keep me safe.

The only song from outside the Fiddle collection was the play along.  It was This Little Light of Mine by the Chris Barber Jazz Band.  

Here

 is the link to get it.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 5

History

Some fun activities for at home this week

Games about the Roman Empire and the split of Rome

http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/preload.htm

http://ccingitonedayatatime.blogspot.com/2012/09/starringall-thumbs.html

Geography

This weeks geography is the Egyptian Empire.  Here is a fun way to combine art and geography!

Build the Egyptian empire out of sugar cubes, construction paper, and straws

We enjoy the Magic Treehouse books.  There is a fiction and nonfiction book about Egypt

Science

I like these

sorting cards

.  A simple sorting activity might be fun for all of the kids this week.

Science Experiment

Here is a video of this weeks science experiment.  Watch it with your kids after our school day and see what they remember.

http://imaginationstationtoledo.org/content/2011/04/how-to-make-a-naked-egg/

Blobbing

It's finally time to add the continents!  This week we will practice tracing North America.  Next week we will add it to our blob map.

Fall Music Together Has Begun

We are off to a fantastic start for this session of Music Together!  Thank you to all of the parents who sang, danced, and played instruments with their kids today.  You all did such a wonderful job right from the start.  When you model musical behavior you help your kids learn to be musical.  It doesn't matter if you always sing on pitch or keep the right beat.  If you are having a good time making music your kids will learn to enjoy music.  By being exposed to a community of music makers in a Music Together class they will learn to sing in tune and keep a steady beat.

Today I shared with you that I am going to play a new song on the ukulele each week in class.  The ukulele is a great instrument to enjoy playing with your child at home.  It's also a fun first instrument for kids who are a little older.  Because it is small it is easy to put your fingers down for the notes and chords.  I have started

basic ukulele tutorials

for you so you can learn to play at home.  You can find the tutorials here 

http://me-and-my-purple-ukulele.thinkific.com/

I played the Hello Song and I've Got the Rhythm In My Head on the ukulele in class today.  I've Got the Rhythm in My Head only has one chord!  It's so easy to play with your little one at home.  You can hold down the two fingers needed for an F chord and let your child strum.  If your child is ready to try putting their fingers on the strings this is an easy place for them to start!

The only song we did that is outside the collection today was the Freeze Dance by the Fresh Beat Band.

It's Time To Make Music!

The Fall Music Together session finally starts here Monday!  Music Classes at Journey Montessori will start with regularity now that we are past Labor Day as well.  I have enjoyed a little break but I'm thrilled to start classes this week.  All of the Music Together teachers in Charlotte get together before each new session to share awesome teaching ideas.  Here's a little video to enjoy before coming to class this week!