Young Child 4

Week 10:

Today’s class was loaded with opportunities to learn and to relate new information to past learning! The ti-ti
symbol (two eighth notes) can be divided into individual eighth notes! Ask your child to show you how!

We are also working on solidifying in our bodies and ears a syncopated rhythmic pattern. Syncopation is a rhythm in which a beat not normally emphasized receives emphasis. By speaking the word “syn-CO-pa-TA-ta” and stretching out the syllables “CO” and the first “TA,” it is possible to feel a syncopated rhythm.

Young Child 2

Week 10:

Reviewing material previously learned and working with new material access different areas of the brain. With this in mind, we make it a point to review favorite songs and singing games each and every week as well as work with novel material.

New this week were the terms staccato and legato, referring to the articulation or detached and sustained qualities of sound. Staccato refers to sounds that are separated and detached. The children found that the word staccato lends itself to this type of sound if you separate it as follows: stac-ca-to! Legato refers to sounds that are smoothly connected. Try saying legato as smoothly as possible.

Imagine That!: CITIES! BUSY PLACES~FRIENDLY FACES

Week 10:

Through activities such as Three Artists Matching Game and Moving Artists, your child is encouraged to offer her own ideas, to answer open-ended questions, to consider options; in other words, to come up with her own plan. It is through multi-layered activities such as this, always presented so as to be engaging for young children, that Kindermusik continues to spark learning in so many areas of your child’s life.

We worked so hard this week: moving like artists, mirroring each other, rolling balls down our “city sidewalk” and playing our resonator bars with alternating mallets. Building lots of brain power!

Our Time: FIDDLE-DEE-DEE

Week 10:

For the past two weeks, the children have taken turns playing the resonator bars while the class sang Sweetly Sings the Donkey. The repetition of this activity has allowed your child to become more and more familiar with the song, thus encouraging him to sing along. This activity also provides the opportunity for each child to learn how to take turns in a supportive environment! And the children have also been further developing their sense of steady beat, the most fundamental property of music. Feeling, moving to, and playing a steady beat help children develop a sense of time and the ability to organize and coordinate movements within time.

Village: The Rhythm of My Day

Week 10:

Much of this week’s music contains syncopation, where a strong beat shifts and is less emphasized. Syncopation is often used in jazz music, and in much of the Caribbean music you hear in The Rhythm of My Day.

When you move to this music, you may feel yourself getting a little off-balanced.

As you dance with your baby, he will also feel these patterns in the music. Moving to these different rhythms will help your baby make new neural connections and challenge his sense of balance and coordination—essential for learning to sit, crawl, and walk.