Week 5

Village: Cock-a-doodle-MOO!

What a relaxing calming way to start this week’s Village class—an intentional touch routine to the recording of “Little Boy Blue.” In the beginning of the semester some babies seemed uncomfortable relaxing in a strange place. But I am noticing a peaceful calm throughout the room when this activity begins.

Each Village lesson includes a Warm-up or an Intentional Touch Activity. In addition to being a way to create adult-baby emotional bonding, intentional touch has many physical benefits, including stimulation of the digestive, circulatory, and lymph systems.

Whether waking up from a nap or from a night’s sleep, an intentional touch routine with a rhyme or a song can make the transition from sleep a little easier. When your little one seems unusually fussy or irritated and can’t seem to calm down, a relaxing intentional touch routine may be what is needed.
Our Time: Away We Go!

Your toddler spends a lot of time working the big muscles she needs for walking and running. Equally important are the smaller muscles in her fingers, the fine motor skills.

We use these muscles when we’re “walking” fingers, shaking eggs, rolling hands, wiggling thumbs, playing the sandblocks, even giving tickles! These activities help your toddler learn to use hands and fingers, which will lead to skills like stringing beads, turning the pages of a book, cutting with scissors, and gripping pencils.

This week have some fun with your fine motor skills.

Imagine That!: Toys I Make-Trips I Take

Our new book, If I Had a Big Blue Boat, not only helps us explore the sights and sounds of the sea, it helps our language and thinking skills. By reading together, your child will learn and understand new words. Research proves it.

In telling about things that happen in his own day, your preschooler uses new words and begins to develop the concept of beginning, middle, and end, which is good for expressing himself more clearly. And the adventures in the story lend some ideas for his own creative, imaginative play at home. You might be surprised how far his imagination can take all of you.

Building a boat:

Dancing like stars:

Young Child 2:

The children now have so many music-making skills available to them! We enjoyed echoing melodies on the glockenspiel (using the three notes they have learned), “writing” and singing melodies, and reading rhythms. As well as building your child’s self-esteem, music-making activities “may improve [the child’s ability to listen and differentiate sounds.] These qualities can positively influence a variety of skills, especially listening and reading … [and can have] lifelong implications, including a significant and lasting effect on…perceptual abilities.” (Arts with the Brain in Mind, by Eric Jensen, p.32)

Other activities today introduced the concept of crescendo (gradually getting louder), graphic notation (abstract visual representation of sounds), and listening to and identifying the sound of an animal. Ask your child what animal sound he heard today!

Today’s Music at Home 20 offers several ways to use the song “Lucy Locket.” Encourage your child to sing and play at home!

Moving during a crescendo:

Elephants on a spiderweb:

Young Child 4

“[T]he musical arts let us communicate with others—illuminate and record human insights. …Music-making is part of what makes us human. Frank Wilson (1999), assistant clinical professor of neurology at the University of California School of Medicine, says that learning to play an instrument connects, develops, and refines the entire neurological and motor brain systems.” (Arts with the Brain in Mind, by Eric Jensen, p.13-14.)

Music is important to our lives in ways too numerous to count—emotionally, expressively, cognitively, academically, and on and on. It is helpful to you as a parent, however, to recognize some of the benefits Kindermusik offers your child. Learning to play instruments such as the glockenspiel and recorder helps your child develop fine motor skills, hone visual perceptions, train auditory functions, and integrate learning.

Week 4

Village: Cock-a-doodle-MOO!

Babies need learning experiences that stimulate all their senses. The “On the Farm” activity is a wonderful example of tapping into multi-sensory learning—touching the puppet, watching the puppet, listening to the music and animal sounds, making animal sounds, and moving like animals to the music. Research shows that participating in an activity, such as “On the Farm” activates several senses at the same time, making a number of neural brain connections at once. Multi-sensory learning makes the most lasting impression and with repetition the brain connections are strengthened.

Take the musical farm home this week! Liven up diaper time by making an animal sound and then waiting for your little one to imitate you. This back and forth barnyard talk could be the extra ingredient needed to divert an upset or cranky baby who doesn’t want to be changed.

Our Time: Away We Go!

Toddlers love to go, but toddlers also need to learn how to stop, which is good for quiet time, taking turns, sharing, and being safe. Learning to stop in the middle of a fun activity gives your busy toddler a chance to learn what we call inhibitory control, or the ability to control her actions.

The sudden “stop” in the middle of bouncing, walking, or running teaches self-control through fun, active play. It’s fun and full of giggles, but you know the real secret: she’s getting ready to follow directions in school, wait for her turn, and more.

Imagine That!: Toys I Make-Trips I Take

Imagination and creativity can do almost anything.

That’s why in class we made our own instruments. For a preschooler, the ability to create her own instrument gives her a sense of accomplishment and pride. She uses her own unique ideas—her creativity—and solves problems by herself.
Playing her instrument in front of others lets her express herself in a safe, supportive environment. She also practices being a good friend and listener to others. In our wonderful band, she experiences the joy of making music together—that’s powerful learning from something as simple as an empty oatmeal container and beans.

Young Child 2:

The journey to music literacy is a step by step process, and the children are enjoying each and every step along the way! Today they discovered how note heads on the music staff connect with rhythmic symbols (ta and ti-ti) to make complete music notes! They also discovered how bar lines help organize music notes on the staff.

To ensure that the symbolic aspects of music stay entertaining, we incorporated lots of singing games and movement in today’s class with a Lucy Locket partner dance and a lively circle game to Mouse, Mousie.

At home this week, enjoy helping your child locate notes on the music staff (Activity Page 1b) and play the glockenspiel. Please take note of the information at the bottom of Music at Home 19 that explains the process of playing melodies from musical memory.


Young Child 4:

Last week the children were able to hear the difference in two pitches on the recorder. Today we focused on hearing and recognizing a rhythmic pattern. The children became familiar with four different rhythmic patterns by saying and clapping them as well as by playing them on rhythm sticks. Then I sang a song that used one of those patterns over and over. Using their listening skills, they were able to identify the “correct” rhythm pattern.

The development of listening skills can affect your child’s life in many ways by building the ability to appreciate of music, understand verbal directions, recognize sounds of caution, enjoy the sounds of nature, participate in a conversation, and more. Kindermusik provides the opportunity for your child to broaden and expand upon skills used daily!

Week 3

Our Time: Away We Go
"Children ages 1 1/2-3 learn primarily through movement. In order to learn they must manipulate objects and participate in body movement." (Rhythms of Learning by Chirs Brewer and Don G. Campbell)
This week we "manipulated" hoops to help us learn about: in, out, over, under, through, around, up, down, bouncing, rolling, jumping, hopping, twirling and many other concepts.
And of course, we had a good time practicing steady beat with our rhythm sticks!

Village: Cock-a-doodle-MOO!

This week was definitely a “high and low” workout for everyone! From reaching up high and bending to touch our toes, to the delightful “Clever Cow” finger play—walking fingers up and down our littlest ones from toe to head and back down.

Babies learn through their senses—so everything needs to be experienced in as many ways as possible. Your little one is busy trying to make sense of his world and the many concepts that are part of our everyday vocabulary. Engaging activities that combine language, music, and movement are ideal for introducing concepts such as high/low and up/down.

Babies love an energetic bounce…or two. Almost any song will work as a bouncing song, but this week’s favorite, “Hop Up, My Baby” has an extra surprise tucked in the middle—suspending baby up high. As you can see, they really loved it! Scarf Play:

Imagine That!: Toys I Make-Trips I Take

We are surrounded by sounds, but are we listening to them?

Most people are born with the ability to hear, but listening is a learned skill. In active listening, we make a decision to pay attention and not speak or make sounds. Practicing active listening provides lifelong benefits. It’s necessary for following directions at home and at school.

Spring 2012: Week 2

Village: Cock-a-doodle-MOO!

We had Fun today skipping, creeping, running, and of course greeting one another! I enjoyed watching the babies’ faces as they had fun singing and moving at different speeds…. or to use the musical word for speeds—tempi.

While your baby is developing an understanding of music and language, it is important that he be given many opportunities and experiences to hear and feel a wide range of speeds; from slow to moderately steady, to quick.

Enjoy sprinkling a few “fast and slow games” into your week. Sing a favorite song very slowly while dancing slowly with your baby; then sing the same song quickly and dance quickly. Alternate between the two extremes and notice the joyful realization when your baby anticipates what is next. This is a great game to play with your baby anytime and anywhere … and all you need is your voice!

Our Time: Away We Go!

We had fun with fast and slow in our toddler class also. We practiced that concept with rhythm sticks, dancing, finger plays, and other movement games. Over the next few lessons, we’re going to repeat many of these activities. You may find yourself wondering why we’re singing the same songs, but your toddler loves the comfort of familiarity. With each repeated activity, the neural connections in your child’s mind grow stronger, helping him to think, reason, create, and express.

This week at home have some fun with the Train and Tunnel Cut-Out on pages 7-8 of your home activity book.

Imagine That!: Toys I Make, Trips I Take

Did you know that having a strong sense of steady beat helps develop so much more than musical skill? In musical play, your child is practicing and developing a sense of rhythm in the legs and feet. This lower body beat practice is good for playing sports, especially dribbling and shooting basketballs, as well as for dancing, skipping, and running. Today in class, we did a variety of activities to help us with this very important concept.

So as you listen to the sounds of your child exploring the Kindermusik drum, keep reminding yourself of all the great learning that is taking place!

Ball Play:

More than one way to play a drum!

Young Child 2

Today’s class was full of fun and games—literally—with lots of learning mixed in! The children loved the Musical Baseball game. When each child came up to “bat,” he or she listened to me play a simple c”-a’ melody on the glockenspiel and then had three chances to repeat it. Little did they know that they were honing their auditory discrimination skills while playing the game!

An important concept explored today was the concept of dynamics—the term which refers to how loud or quiet music is. Several activities dealt with identifying loud (forte) and quiet (piano) sounds. Music at Home 17 offers some creative ways to explore dynamics with the glockenspiel and objects you can find at home.

Different ways to practice forte and piano:

Forte outside the circle:

Piano inside the circle:

Just for kicks!

Lucy Locket:

Young Child 4

We learned the note a’ on our recorders! And not only did they learn to play the a’, it was incorporated into a special story they are learning to tell with music accompaniment. This story, Momotarosan, is a Japanese folk tale about a brave and generous little boy. (Ask your child to tell you about it!) Through the telling of the story with instruments, your child learns to watch a conductor (me), listen for a cue, play in an ensemble, and focus her attention on one activity for several minutes.

Music at Home 47 serves as a practice card for playing a’ on the recorder and also the Momotarosan recorder melody. Be sure to use this helpful tool at home this week!