Preschoolers Have Musical Creativity

I was looking at old blog posts and came across this one.  I felt like it was worth sharing again.

Make More Music Little Ones: Wouldn't the World Be A Better Place If...

: when one person started clapping others joined in and created something beautiful. I love that my job is to cultivate this kind of creativity...

We started off strong on our first day of music class at Journey Montessori Preschool today.  We listened to Mary Wore Her Red Dress and talked about what we heard first.  Then each child got to do some simple improvisation by switching Mary to their name and red dress to their favorite thing they were wearing today.  We worked on steady beat at the same time by patting the beat while we sang.  I always enjoy asking kids to improvise, or make up their own verses.  Little kids are typically eager to improvise and very creative.  When I try to get a room full of adults to do the same activity they are typically quiet and stare at me like I've asked them to do something really difficult.  I hope the kids will keep their creativity as they grow up.  One of the best thing parents can do to foster that creativity is to be creative with them.  Make up silly songs.  Change words to songs you like to make them your own.

Next it was time to move around a little.  I sang Pop Goes the Weasel and we had to jump up on "pop."  Once we got the hang of that we moved around the room to the beat of the song, then froze and threw our scarves up in the air on "pop."

Our last task of the day was to identify a few types of non-pitched percussion instruments and do a play along.  When the kids heard the music begin they were aloud to come choose an instrument and play along.  This is a great way to enjoy creative play with the kids while assessing their ability to play along to the beat of the music.

I am excited about the year ahead with this group of students!

Peter and The Wolf

At Journey Montessori we have been listening to a new character in Peter and the Wolf each week and discussing what family each instrument belongs to.  So far we know that Peter is played by the string family, the bird is played by the flute, the duck by the oboe, and the cat by the clarinet which are all part of the woodwind family. 


This week we added Grandpa who is played by the Bassoon (also a member of the woodwind family).  We discussed the size of the bassoon and its low sound.

On May 5th The Charlotte Symphony will be playing Peter and the Wolf for their final Lollipops concert of the season!  I encourage you to take your children to the performance this weekend and the one in May!  My kids have gone since they were tiny and they LOVE the concerts!


The students really seem to be enjoying Peter and the Wolf at school.  
Here is a link to the book were are reading the story from

Click the YouTube links below to see a great animated version of Peter and the Wolf.

Charlotte Symphony Lollipops Concert This Weekend!

The Charlotte Symphony puts on some fantastic kids concerts each year.  Make plans to go see them perform the Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra this weekend!  If you go early at 10:00 your child can play the real orchestra instruments, participate in drum circles, and design their own instruments before the concert!  These concerts are a fantastic way to teach your children about music.


Does a bassoon sound like a baboon? Can a trombone moan or a kettledrum hum? Introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra through Benjamin Britten’s classic, A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, then hear those instruments strut their stuff as they twist and shout to the tunes of The Beatles.





At Journey Montessori we have been listening to a new character in Peter and the Wolf each week and discussing what family each instrument belongs to.  So far we know that Peter is played by the string family, the bird is played by the flute, the duck by the oboe, and the cat by the clarinet which are all part of the woodwind family.


On May 5th The Charlotte Symphony will be playing Peter and the Wolf for their final Lollipops concert of the season!  I encourage you to take your children to the performance this weekend and the one in May!  My kids have gone since they were tiny and they LOVE the concerts!

Journey Montessori September 19

We continued working on some basic musical concepts this week with the songs we sang, danced to, and played instruments with in class.
The students are continuing to work on finding the steady beat for the Hello and Goodbye songs.  I change the steady beat to make it faster or slower, so they have to listen closely to the guitar to know how fast to pat the beat.
We did two familiar, and fun, rhythmic chants this week in music class.

I Have a Little Frog

I have a little frog
His name is Tiny Tim,
I put him in the bathtub,
To see if he could swim,
He drank up all the water,
And gobbled up the soap!
And when he tried to talk
He had a BUBBLE in his throat!

Hey Diddle Diddle

Hey! diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.


I read a great book to go along with the poem "Hey Diddle Diddle."
"Hey Diddle Diddle" by: Eve Bunting

The rhythm from the original poem is continued in the text in the book.  Each animal in the book plays a different instrument.  Students who I had last year that remembered what family different instruments belonged in could also identify those instrument families while we read the book!


http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Diddle-Eve-Bunting/dp/1590787684



We danced with scarves this week to the song "Pop Goes the Weasel."  Again the students had to work on listening closely to the music to know when to dance and when to freeze and throw their scarves up (they threw the scarves any time they heard the music or words for pop goes the weasel.)

We played sticks this week and worked on when to play and when not to play.  The students found very creative ways to keep their sticks quiet!  They were all very good listening for when to play and when to stop.
Our instrument play along song was "Rocky Top."  All of the students are doing a fantastic job waiting until they hear the music begin to get the instruments, keeping all of the instruments with their "family" in the correct box, and putting them all back as soon as the music ends.  The play along time also gives me a good opportunity to see who can play along to the beat of the song, and who can change the way they are playing to match the music (loud, soft, fast, slow, etc.)
Click the link below to listen to Rocky Top at home.  Help your children identify the instruments they see playing, and see if you can figure out what family of instruments they belong to.

Montessori Music Class

I can hardly believe we have already had three wonderful music classes at Journey Montessori this year!  The students are doing great in music class and we are having lots of fun.  We have several songs that we have been singing for the last three weeks.  Some of the songs will change soon and some of them will stay as part of our routine in music class.  We will always start class with our Hello song and end with a Goodbye song.  Right now I am just looking to see that the students can help me find the steady beat with both of those songs.  As the year goes on we will add some more difficult rhythms with the Hello and Goodbye songs.  We are also working on using our singing voices and finding the tonic (first note of the scale/key we are singing in) the dominant (fifth note of the scale/key we are singing in).  These are the easiest notes for our ears to hear and voices to sing.  The kids don't know they are working on all of this though, they just think they are having fun singing in silly voices up high and down low!

Some of the songs we have been singing that will change soon are, Open and Shut Them, Marry Wore Her Red Dress, and Yankee Doodle.  Below is a list of what musical concepts we are working on while singing those songs.

Open and Shut Them - This is a familiar song for many children.  We are using this song to calm down and prepare for music class.  We are also using this song to work on audiation.  (The definition of audiation is in the Music Together post below.)  Because it is a familiar song I am listening/watching to see if the children can sing part of the song, then hear the next part in their heads while we continue with the hand movements silently, then sing the following phrase, and so on.

Mary Wore Her Red Dress - This has been a fun way to get to know each of the students.  Each student gets a turn in this song to tell me something they are wearing and the class sings about it.
Check out the book Mary Wore Her Red Dress at your library or Amazon.  You can look inside the book on Amazon and see the song notated.
http://www.amazon.com/Dress-Henry-Green-Sneakers-Along/dp/0618752498

Yankee Doodle - We have used this song to work on marching (large motor skills) and group work.  The students are separated into two groups in class, the green group and the yellow group.  Each group had two phrases of the song to march across the room and back to their line.  They had to work as a group and listen closely to the music to all make it back to their line in two phrases!
We also used this song as a play along.  They learned about all the different non-pitched percussion instruments we have in the room and what family (box) they belong in.  Click the link below to play along with the song at home!

Journey Montessori May 11

I can hardly believe there are only two music classes left this school year.  I have had so much fun teaching your children and I am amazed at all they can do!  We have continued to identify instruments and what instrument family they belong in.  The children are all doing a wonderful job of telling me the name of each instrument and whether they belong in the brass, woodwind, string or percussion family, as well as why they belong in that family.  If you want to play around with instruments and musical concepts with your child(ren) at home I encourage you to go play at sfskids.com.  It is the San Fransisco Symphony's kids website.
They are also able to quickly identify musical contrasts, verbally or with movement, such as loud/soft, fast/slow, high/low.

A great summer music activity is Jump Start Music.  Your child can work on melodies, rhythm patterns, and instrument recognition at home on the computer.
http://www.rmlearning.com/2071.htm


We have been working on clapping the syllables of our first names in class for the past month.  In this class we added the icons and note values that go with our clapping.  We looked at a half note, quarter notes, and eighth notes.  Ask your child to clap their name and see if you can match it with one of the rhythms below. (The rhythms should appear as follows 1. one half note, 2. two quarter notes, 3. eighth note, quarter note, eighth note, and 4. eighth note, eighth note, dotted eighth note, sixteenth note.)

________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________                ______________________________________

        ____________                     _____________________________               ______________

___________      __________                _______               ___________

Journey Montessori April 28

We continued working on high and low sounds this week.  The students performed rhythm patterns in either a silly high voice or a silly low voice.  Listen for high and low sounds around your house or when you are out and about and create your own silly high and low sounds this week!  This is great vocal practice.

After playing around with high and low we listened to all of the pieces from "The Carnival of The Animals" that we had been listening to over the past couple of months.  This students job was to identify the animal the music was about and any instruments they heard.  They were very quick at identifying what animal the music was about.  We had fun moving around like lions, hens and roosters, fish in the aquarium, fossil bones, kangaroos, turtles, birds, and elephants.  Below are some of the pieces from "The Carnival of the Animals" that we did not get to in class.  Enjoy listening to them and identifying the animal and what instruments are playing at home.

Donkeys



Cuckoo


Swan


Pianists



Finale


Tomorrow from 10:00 - 12:00 is the Charlotte Symphony Lollipops concert where they will be performing the Carnival of The Animals!  This is a great opportunity to see the symphony with your young children.  I hope you can attend!  If you miss out on this performance look back for next years Lollipops season that starts in the Fall.

Check out the Music Together Post below.  There is a great video of the Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly playing a rhythm game.  It's a fun game to try at home.  Also listen to the Boston Pops patriotic sing along.  How many of the patriotic songs that they play do you know and sing with your children at home?

Journey Montessori April 14

The Montessori students have been working on 4 and 8 beat rhythm patterns.  The students are all continuing to do a great job creating their own 4 beat rhythm patterns vocally (with animal, and other sounds).  Some of the students are now creating their own 4 beat pattern with body percussion as well.  

In our last few classes we added high and low sounds to our rhythm patterns, as a class.  I sang them a pattern and they had to tell me which sound they heard, high or low, and how many times they heard it.  We then added this repeated pattern as a ostinato (A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm) along with a train song we have been singing.  The students helped me graph the ostinato on paper using simple long or short lines as symbols.  Reading the long and short lines for the ostinato is a beginning step to reading music.  The short lines can become quarter notes and the longer ones half notes.

_ _ _ _                _ _ _ _         ___

  

               _ _ _ _                _ _ 

Journey Montessori April 7

Today we talked about high and low sounds in a variety of songs.  We started using icons to identify when the music was high or low.  Using icons such as simple lines is a first step to reading real notation.  As you listen to music with your children ask them if they can identify high sounds, low sounds, and what instruments they hear playing.  The children are getting very good at identifying key instruments and musical components.

Our Carnival of the Animals piece for today was the Fossils!  We heard instruments from the string family, the clarinet from the woodwind family, and the piano and xylophone from the percussion family.  Watch the video below with your child so they can see all of these instruments playing.  We also heard the familiar tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" hidden in the middle of the piece (listen for the piano to play it around 1:19)!

Carnival of The Animals

It has been awhile since I put an update on here about what we are doing in class.  Over the past month we have continued to work on finding the beat, identifying contrasts in music, creating rhythm patterns, and identifying musical instruments and they family they belong in by listening.  Here are some of the pieces from Carnival of the Animals that we have listened to recently in class.

On Saturday, April 30 the Charlotte Symphony will be performing The Carnival of the Animals with the North Carolina Dance Theater School of Dance for their Lollipops (kids) concert.  The Lollipops concerts are a fantastic way to introduce your child(ren) to the symphony.  They let the kids play the instruments of the orchestra and make their own instruments before the concert!

Click this link to find out more about the concert:  http://www.charlottesymphony.org/Lollipops.asp

CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS Saturday, April 30, 2011  North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance Jacomo Rafael Bairos, conductor Dancers from the North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance strut, prance, pounce, and glide in Saint-Saëns’s musical menagerie, Carnival of the Animals. Hens and roosters, tortoises and kangaroos, and the elegant swan all come to graceful and boisterous life in the Lollipops season finale.

Journey Montessori, February 10

I have so much fun teaching your children each week!  We listened to the Tortoises from the Carnival of the Animals this week.  We talked about how slowly they were dancing and used large, slow stretching movements to go along with this music.  The children are getting more accurate with identifying instruments and what families they belong in each week!  Listen to the Tortoises at home this week and see if your child can identify the animal the music is about and what instruments they hear!  Parents can you hear a slow version of the "Can Can" being played?  If you want to hear the fast/regular "Can Can" go to the May 22, 2010 posting and click the YouTube link there for it, then come back and listen for the slow version the turtles do here!



We also had a wonderful time dancing to the "Russian Sailors Dance."  The children changed the way they were dancing and moving each time the music changed.  We had to move with big and small, loud and soft, fast and slow, and high and low movements.  Try this out at home with your child.  If you don't know how to move to the music just follow what they do, kids are smart!  You can listen to the "Russian Sailors Dance" by clicking on the YouTube link under the January 27, 2011 post.

Your children are creating fantastic rhythm patterns each week.  I am always amazed at their creativity and willingness to share!

If you have the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" at home, ask you child to sing it to you.  We sang the book to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

Journey Montessori, February 3

Today at the Montessori School we continued listening for what instrument was playing in selections from the Carnival of the Animals.  The children identified the bass and violin in the string family, the piano in the percussion family (because the hammers inside the piano strike the strings), and the flute in the woodwind family.  We listened to the Hen's and Roosters and Lions from last week and they identified the instruments and animals by listening.  To listen to those pieces at home check out last weeks post below.


We also started working on short and long rhythms today, and reviewed soft and loud, (although the kids think we were just having fun!) We pretended to be asleep, get hungry for a cookie, and sneak to get one without getting caught!  Somehow we always seem to get caught when the loud "surprise" comes!  We play this game with the first part of Haydn's Surprise Symphony.  Listen to at least the first 31 seconds of the piece below. 
"Haydn's music contains many jokes, and the "Surprise" Symphony includes probably the most famous of all: a sudden fortissimo chord at the end of an otherwise piano opening theme in the variation-form second movement. The music then returns to its original quiet dynamic, as if nothing had happened, and the ensuing variations do not repeat the joke."  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._94_(Haydn)  The surprise comes at 0:31 in the link below!  Some say this symphony is called the Surprise symphony because Haydn added the sudden surprise to wake up the concert goers who had fallen asleep while listening!

Journey Montessori January 20-27

The students at the Montessori school have begun studying the families of instruments.
Last week we began this study by reading the book "Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin."  Several of the children said they already have this book at home, but if you have not read it I highly recommend it!
We also used our sticks to pretend we were playing violins (string family), drums (percussion family), trumpets (brass family), and flutes (woodwind family).

To further explore the instrument families and other fun music activities at home check out the San Fransisco Symphonies kids site at sfskids.org.

We have continued working on musical contrasts by moving and playing loud and soft, fast and slow, staccato and legato.  Click on the links in the Music Together post above to play along or move/dance with some of the songs we are using to learn these concepts.

We are also listening to music from Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals.  We are using this music to discuss all of the above concepts; instruments, musical contrasts, and movement.  This week we discussed the Lions and Hens and Roosters.  Below are links to the book we are using in class as well as the first two pieces we listened to.


Lions


Hens and Roosters

Songs from the Montessori Lesson, January 13

We had such a fun class today!  We discussed theme and variation today in class.  Reagan played her violin for everyone to help us learn what at theme and a variation are.  First we listened to the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the violin and then sang the song together as a class.  Singing the song the way we are used to is the theme and the rhythmic notation looks like this;

Next Reagan changed the rhythm of the theme creating a variation on Twinkle Twinkle.  We could still identify that the song was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but this time she used a 16th note rhythm that we called "Grandma rides a motorcycle."  Ask your children if they remember this variation and can sing it for you this week at home.  We will sing more variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the weeks to come.

We did an instrument play along to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.  Click the link below to play along at home and enjoy listening and watching the video as well!




We have also been working on creating our own vocal rhythmic patterns with animal sounds!  All of the children are very creative and rhythmically accurate!

Iconic Rhythm Patterns

If your child attends Journey Montessori they may have brought a note card home today with their name on one side and some lines on the other.  This probably looks very confusing!  We are working on recognizing rhythmic patterns.  Until now the students have echoed rhythm patterns that I clap or play, or created their own using vocal sounds.  Now they are matching the rhythm pattern with an icon.  This is very similar to the way that we learn to talk and read.  First we learn to make sounds and words by echoing and experimenting ourselves, next we learn to identify our ABC's, and then we learn to put them together to form words and sentences.  The children are learning to match what they hear to the icons they see.  The lines on one side of their note card match up with how many claps their name gets (or the number of syllables their name has).  The students learned how to clap their names, then we drew lines for each of the claps on their card.  The lines are the way we are representing the rhythm their name creates.  The students are just looking at the icons (lines) not the notes themselves yet but for those of you who are curious where this activity is leading here are the note values that lines correspond with;
   

Another activity we do in class that uses icons to create rhythm patterns is using note cards that have stickers on them.  One of the note cards has the following stickers on it:

By using the icons (fruit) the children have clapped a four beat rhythm pattern!  Once they have mastered reading rhythm patterns using the icons then we would change the icon to the note and clap the rhythm pattern that way.

Little Princess Goodnight

Little Princess Goodnight is poem that we turned into a sound story in the Montessori class.  A sound story is when you take a poem or a story and add instruments/or sounds to help tell it.  In this poem the princess, her animals, and some other key words get sounds to help tell the story.  First we read the poem and picked out the key words, and identified what color the words were.  Next the students assigned each key word an instrument that they felt was appropriate for that word.  The last step was to assign parts and wait for their turn to play.  They did a great job of identifying the words and colors and waiting too play.

Once upon a time 

There was a Princess.

A lovely Princess.

She put her unicorn under her pillow.

She put her dragon under her bed. 

She put her peacock under her chair.

She put her mouse under her slipper.

And then she crept into bed and fell asleep.

But not the mouse.

The mouse crept out form under the slipper,

  and pinched the peacock under the chair.

The peacock crept out from under the chair,

  and pinched the dragon under the bed.

The dragon crept out from under the bed,

  and pinched the unicorn under the pillow,

And the unicorn started to cry!

The little Princess awakened.

"Oh dear!" she said.  "What shall I do?"

She thought~~~~~~~~~~

and thought~~~~~~~~~~~~

and she thought~~~~~~~~~~~

and thought~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then.....

Little Princess Goodnight jumped out of bed!!

She put her unicorn on top of her pillow.

She put her dragon on top of her bed.

She put her peacock on top of her chair.

She put her mouse on top of her slipper.

And she, Little Princess Goodnight,

Crept under her bed and went back to sleep.

She was a lovely Princess!!

The End.

The students figured out what the word crept meant in the context of the poem and that a soft instrument would be appropriate for the word.  In addition to putting instrument sounds to the colored words you can also put a sound for thought, and the exclamation points.  

Arirang

For those of you who took the Music Together Drums Collection, here are some great YouTube videos of Arirang, a traditional Korean folk song.

The first is of the New York Philharmonic playing Arirang.  Listen for the melody that we sang in class and pick out the instruments you see with your children.



The next video is of someone ice skating to Arirang.  This is fun to watch and may give you some good movement ideas.  Pretend like you are ice skating and use scarves while you dance like we did in class.



The last video is of a family singing the song together.  The grandparents are very old, and grandpa doesn't have teeth, but they still sing together.  It is always wonderful to see a family singing a traditional song together.



The Montessori students will be studying Asia soon.  We will sing Arirang in class, and discuss the difference in tonality between American folk songs and Asian folk songs.  Your children have studied the instruments families a little bit in class.  See if they can identify instruments in the orchestra while watching the New York Philharmonic play Arirang (in the above video).  If you need some help identifying the instruments and what families they belong in check out sfskids.org.  This is the San Fransisco Symphonies kids website and is a wonderful place to play.  I used this website when I was teaching public school to help the students learn their instruments and musical concepts.