| Milk & Cookies |
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"We are all explorers - fascinated by the new, intrigued by the mysterious and captivated by the challenge of learning and doing."*
In class we enjoyed lots of exploration with the egg shakers: shaking high, shaking low, rolling, tapping, rubbing and so many other ways thought of by your children! Toddlers always seem to discover yet another way to play the shakers!
An important aspect of exploration of an instrument with your child is that of "scaffolding." Scaffolding is a process of interaction during which the adult gently guides and supports the child's learning by building on what the child is able to do. This involves varying the level of the activity depending upon the child's response. Because each and every child in our class is unique, we often observe many different things going on during Exploration Time. What other ideas can you and your child come up with this week at home? Explore!!
I'm sure you found singing I'm a Little Teapot with a whole group of children as much of a treat as I did in class! Familiar songs are a great starting point for singing with your own child at home. As you gain the confidence that you actually can sing (even if it is just for fun!), check out all the music scores in your Home Activity Book. You'll find all the words there even if you don't read music. And of course, your CDs provide you with all the songs and chants we enjoy in class.
Kindermusik CDs are created with several goals in mind: to expose your child to developmentally appropriate songs and chants; to encourage your child's interaction with songs and chants; to provide appropriate singing models; to broaden your child's listening opportunities with songs from several cultures; and to introduce your child to a variety of instrumental and vocal sounds.
So until next week, enjoy listening and singing together!
*Teaching Kids to Love the Earth, by Lachecki Herman, Passineau, Schimpf, Treuer
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| Hello Weather, Let's Play Together! |
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 Today we continued with rain-play fun. We sang and danced (with our rain hats!) and made even more designs with our colorful rainbow pieces. Be sure to cut out your own rainbow pieces (page 27 of Family Activity Book) for color play at home. Remember, it is not necessary for your child to put the rainbow together "correctly." The goal is to explore in whatever manner suits your child. This might be a good time to encourage renewed interest in the Hello Weather Play Set. Some play ideas might include: gear up the kittens for rainy day play; make your own mud puddle for kitten-jumping; place a clear plastic sheet protector with blue paint "raindrops" over the garden, then watch the sunflower grow from a seed to a bud to a flower! Remind you of someone special? |
| Here There Everywhere |
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Beep! Beep! We're off to the city.
Not only did we experience going to the city, but we also explored moving and stopping. Did you realize that when your child moves and stops his body, he is practicing an important skill? Moving then stopping develops a skill called "inhibitory control," or the ability to stop oneself and wait. This vital life skill builds confidence and self-discipline, a confidence that stems from the awareness that "my body does what I ask it to do."
Take a ride together in your dining room chair bus while singing "The Wheels on the Bus." Be sure to go through green lights, but don't forget to stop when the light turns red!
Track 23 on your home CD is full of bus sounds. Are you listening to them, or can you hear them? Consider this:
"Listening and hearing are very different skills. Most of the senses, sight, taste, and smell, involve chemical reactions, but ears work purely in a mechanical way. Hearing is a physical process. Sound waves create vibrations that are transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain. Listening is much more complex, as it includes the mental processes of interpreting and absorbing a message and storing and retrieving information. Hearing is a sense most people are born with, but listening is a learned, mental behavior" Adapted from Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts 4th edition by J. M. Machado, 1990
The more your children experience the difference between listening and hearing, the more they can develop focused listening skills, or the ability to block out the outside noise and focus in on one noise. Coming to Kindermusik on a regular basis gives your family the opportunity to build and practice this listening skill.
I'm looking forward to listening to your voices next time in class. | |
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Greetings! Kindermusik Families!
We are half-way through the semester and I am having such fun! I certainly hope you are too! With the colder weather approaching and shorter daylight I thought I would reprint an article for you that is helpful at this time in the semester.
Remind Me. Why Are We Doing This Again?
It's mid-semester. You are tired. Sometimes you want to drive right on past class and just go shopping Clayton or Knightdale. Why are we doing this again?
Here's why:
Your child is being exposed on a weekly basis to intentional listening to music, listening to and following instructions, sitting still and moving about on cue, taking turns, borrowing items and giving items back to the owner, participating as a team in group dances or singing games and basically getting a wonderful preparation for the social expectations of school. Kindermusik is social/emotional education.
Your child is listening to animal sounds, jazz music, Classical pieces, string instruments, keyboard instruments, folk songs, new compositions, multi-cultural music, major, minor tonalities and more. They will have been exposed to many types of music that most children never hear. Their brains are being tuned for musicianship - whether that takes the form of performance or just the ability to understand and therefore deeply enjoy the performances of others. Kindermusik is music education.
Your child is experiencing cognitive development. Since music stimulates the entire brain, every concept introduced in song has at least double the staying power. They have experienced counting games, counting fingerplays, songs and activities about the parts of their bodies. They are learning to connect the written and spoken word which will in turn enhance reading ability. Older children are actually reading and writing notes and rhythm which helps build visual tracking skills, mathematics understanding and reading ability. Kindermusik is math, literacy and arts education.
Your child is developing physically. From the tiniest of our babies who have begun to creep to reach a scarf or are becoming very quick at snagging a rolling ball to our big kids who are gracefully acting out choreographed motions, they are experiencing meaningful movement activities that aid physical development. They are dancing to the beat or with the rhythm of many different meters and styles of music. Finger plays, choreography, beat keeping games - these activities will build coordination and a sense of rhythm that will help them dribble down the court or soccer field, swim with consistent rhythmic strokes, become graceful and musically sensitive dancers or gymnasts and connect bat and baseball efficiently and adjust their tempo to reach the base at just the right moment. Kindermusik is physical education.
Your child is learning to communicate. Kindermusik's intentionality in develop children's language skills is noticeable. Infants are hearing words sung and spoken rhythmically, seeing signs that will help them communicate, and watching mom and dad's mouths work while they are massaged and have their arms and legs exercised. Toddlers are playing with sounds and words, listening to and imitating sounds they hear and communicating during storytime and - well, all the time! In the Imagine That! preschoolers class, the children are very actively talking to the teacher and shaping the lesson, contributing ideas and telling their own stories - lots of them! Young Child kids are now able to differentiate their speaking voice from their singing voice and are learning to sing not just for their own pleasure, but in a way that is pleasing for others to hear. The oldest are speaking expressively and persuasively and are using the combination of the spoken word and music to become fabulous storytellers. Kindermusik is language development.
Kindermusik is whole-child development disguised as fun. Your kids are learning in ways that you know they would not have so consistently experienced in any other place. Oh, yeah - that's why we're doing this!
Thanks for reading all the way down! See you in class! :)
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| Zoom Buggy |
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Splish, splish, splash! What a fun giggly time we had this week with water play. Plus, it was a great sensory play experience-mixing water, a rhyme, baby, and you!
We call it play but your baby's mind calls it thinking, experimenting, figuring it out, exploring, and problem solving. Play that taps into many of your baby's senses, is fundamental in helping your baby learn, prompting actions or responses, and interacting with others.
This week include some sensory play time. Take a look around your house for a common household item that would be engaging, fun, safe, and employ many of your baby's sense. Some ideas: empty boxes, pots and pans, or paper can provide sensory play opportunities.
This week we start the Dream Pillow Music and I know you will love it!
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| Kindermusik for the Young Child |
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 The children were certainly inventive today! To create a musical interpretation of "A Weather Story," the children used their "percussion" instruments to represent specific weather sounds.
Activities such as this provide an opportunity for flexibility, change, or rearrangement, thus encouraging creativity. The creative process itself enhances the child's ability to think in different ways and extends the thought process.
"I can't see the wind, but I know it's there." How does the wind move? How does it affect trees, flags, kites, grass, and flowers? Can you feel the wind? In class we listened to "I Can't See the Wind" and moved "like the wind." At home, play your Home CD and move like the wind. Then try some contrasting movements with a rousing movement game to "Join the Parade." Which types of movements do you and your child enjoy the most?
Movement activities provide many opportunities for children to express themselves. "We all need to experience the freedom and joy of our own creative movement. We need to create, to express and be nourished as we learn from experiences which connect to our deepest selves."*
Enjoy listening to bird sounds at home this week I can't wait to see your special rendition of your favorite bird!
*A Moving Experience, by Teresa Benzwie, Ed.D., p. ix. |
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