Dear (Contact First Name),

Betsy Flanagan, Director 

Musical Pathways Foundation

PS Spring Break Dates:  March 18-22 (Use Quicklinks to view full 2013 Calendar) 

Up, Down, In, Out, Over, Under, Curvy, Straight, Side-to-Side, Backward, Forward, Around . . . .all words we said or sang in class this week while we moved.  How do we best accomplish teaching our children these important concepts?  Face-to-face communication, along with touch, vocalization and body posture, are key elements in establishing interactive relationships, which are critical to early childhood learning. 

 HOME ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS 

• Enjoy dancing your Spatial Dances:  Santy Maloney and Sonata for Flute
• Enjoy some Spatial Lap Bounces:  Bell Ringing Tune, Duke of York, and Hickory Dickory Dock story pages.
• Here is a link to your  Hickory Dickory Tickle and Bounce Journal  
• Here are a couple of websites to help you in your ASL:Sign Language discovery.  Signing Savvy and ASL Pro   

Great Vestibular fun!  Most babies will enjoy hammocking:  however if your baby was uncomfortable with this activity in class this week, just try again in the comfort of your own home.   Remember - there is no ONE RIGHT WAY in class, but we want you to keep continually offer the experience without asking "if they would like it" or "if they would want to" prior to engaging them.  Begin with the ideal, and then adjust to follow your child's learning comfort.   So much early childhood development involved in OFFERING. 

4)  Click here to go to "play.kindermusik.com" and enter your CODE from your play.kindermusik.com card. 

5)  Click here for your copy of Village Helpful Guidelines    

6)  Click here for more Mother Goose:  Activities, Crafts, Mother Goose for Moms, and more . . .   

7)  Listen - listen - listen to your CD

Your child will be comforted upon entering the busy classroom if they are familiar with the "sounds of Kindermusik."

THIS WEEK'S ADDITIONAL LEARNING POINTS FOR PARENTS  

HUMMING:  Santy Maloney Dance

Humming along with the music provides a pleasurable experience for Baby and Young Toddler Your child held close will feel and enjoy the comforting vibrations of the adult's body while hearing the soothing sound of the hum. Young toddlers will "wonder" about how to make the sound while all children will be experiencing a new timbre of sound from their grown-up.

BENEFITS OF CHIME BALL PLAY:  Roll that Ball

Balls are classic children's toys. Chime balls have the added interest of a sound contained within them. When Baby plays with the chime ball, she experiences tactile and auditory stimulation, and her play helps her on the path to developing: 1) Understanding of cause and effect., 2) Eye-hand coordination, and 3) Sound localization. All this while he/she is having fun!

Arthur Gutterman

Ah "scaffolding"!  Playing with the hoops is so enjoyable to watch!   So many play ideas emerged as each child explored (finding out on their own) and as you interacted with your child and "SCAFFOLDED" new ideas.  Priceless!!

Have you noticed that the first four weeks of the Our Time semester has loads of REPETITION (of course with subtle extensions)? Those who have been in Our Time know that this is BY DESIGN. Unlike babies, the 2 -3 year old needs this familiarity at the beginning of each semester in order to get into the "scaffolding" mode. Until a child feels comfortable with the sight, sound and feel of the activity, they will not be able to progress as far with your scaffolding efforts. So, embrace repetition with new eyes, ears, and thoughts. How can I change this activity with my child this week to expand their movement or language vocabulary? FUN!

ADDITIONAL VALUE FOCUS INFORMATION 

Scaffolding

What is Scaffolding?   

1. Eye-to-eye preferable (Your child will SEE your joy of play in your eyes) 
2. Imitate by doing and describing (Follow your child - no matter how unusual - as long as safe)
3. Present a "Can You" Challenge (Here is where you will grow your child's skills)

Your interaction in this week''s exploration of our "hoops" prop was so fun and a vitally important to your child's growth and development.  Children learn through their own exploration, but a parent's guidance to help stretch and vary their child's ideas provides challenges to lead to new levels of learning. This is scaffolding.  

It's sometimes hard for parents to believe that scaffolding now helps create much higher skill levels later when their children are on their own in Imagine That and then Young Child where higher level skills are required!  We want you to enjoy your home play, as that is where the retained learning occurs.  Love hearing your stories about how your children are already creating their own play to the songs and activities this semester.  Your stories are heart-warming.  Enjoy this experience with your child every day!  Life is FUN!

This week we take a look at how we can help your child's development of Social Skills both in and out of the classroom, and highlight the use of the beneficial effects of both "Storytelling" and group "Joining In" experiences.  

DEVELOPMENTAL FOCUS 

There are many opportunities in Cities! activities for social interaction and development.  By this Lesson 4, the children are beginning to recognize their classmates and learn their names. Have you noticed your child developing friendships? Is your child more likely to sit by themselves and watch the other children, or join in?   It is important to allow your child to join in at a level in which they feel comfortable.  Click this link for a Developmental Social Skills Chart and for more on our current "Story-telling" and "Joining In" fun activities    The Kindermusik classroom provides children with a safe place to practice social skills they will need throughout life.  Both educators and parents can foster these social skills by:

• Rewarding pro-social behaviors with smiles, touches and attention. (Reminder:  Describe what "we see" versus judging saying "good job" or "good girl." )  
• Asking children to help each other. Invite often often often. 
• Specifically recognizing respectful behaviors. (With joy, describe what respectful behavior you saw in detail to your child)
• Praising children for cooperative actions and attitudes. (Describe what cooperative action you saw - no such thing as too much detail.)
• Encouraging the children to listen to one another's ideas.  

7-YEAR CONTINUUM

How Kindermusik fosters the development of your child's social skills over 7 years. 

VILLAGE:

Village provides the perfect start for your baby. A safe social environment with lots of "touching" and social modeling by parents.   

OUR TIME:

In Our Time classes, we invite play between parents and children as a basis for understanding social interaction. The class provides opportunity for parallel play with others using instruments and props. As your child matures, we see the beginning of peer relationships with other children in class. Turn-taking and sharing are practiced with care and age-appropriate expectations.  

IMAGINE THAT:   

During ages 3-5 years, children will have the opportunity to interact one on one with other children in class as we play games, take turns, become partners, share ideas, show respect for others ideas, and practice empathy in class each week. Typically, one observes more non-social play at this age, but NOT in the Kindermusik classroom where interactive play is fostered thru age-appropriate cooperative activities.  

YOUNG CHILD:   

In Young Child for ages 5-7, we focus on the process, not performance, in order to build on the social relationships that are developing in class. We learn, listen, play, and work together as a group, supporting each other. The ensemble activities present opportunities to work together towards a common goal. Children arrange and write music together which is true cooperative play.   Kindermusik experiences through age 7 promote success in school because of the emphasis on social skills.     

 HOME ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS

1)  Week #4 Family Activity: "I am a Story Teller.  Oe day my dog got lost and . . ."   p.7  

Create a "Happy ending" lost-dog story:

• Make a recording of your child's own city story (Video, Tape Record-Bring your recorder, iPod, or DRAW and tell your story LIVE.)  NOTE: Bring your Recording to Class next week to share at Gathering Time    
• Listen to stories on your Home CD and act out a story with a hide and seek stuffed animal game.
• Spend time this week playing a storytelloing game with your
  Cities! Game Board Set and your City Sights Game Cards.  See Page 26.
• Have fun at the library, checking out more books about "Dogs in the Coity."  See you Family Activity Guide for a list.
• Listen to stories on your Home CD and act out a story with a hide and seek stuffed animal game. 

3) Continue to listen to your new CD's

4) Practice your I LOVE YOU REJOINING RITUAL together at home.

5) P.A.C.E. (Positive, Active, Clear, Energetic)

Positive  = Hook-ups/Stationary cross-lateral

Active = Cross Crawl/Moving cross-lateral/cross midlines

Clarity = Brain Buttons/Tarzan

Energetic = Hydrate!  

6) If new,  Click here for your copy of Imagine That Helpful Guidelines  for our newcomers this week. 

7) If new,  Click Here for a copy of the Parent Class Handout for our newcomers this week. 

ANIMALS IN MUSIC     

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 make finer acoustic distinctions and related auditory refinements. 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/she heard today! And then check out Margaret Mahy's children's book  17 Kings and 42 Elephants for a lively and delightful elephant read!

Music of Europe - Week #1  

"[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.  We now have begun to study the music of Europe.  We learned a new Polka this week and learned a new note on our Glockenspiel through a Hungarian song called See The Rabbit Running.  We explored the new note on the recorder "d" by experiencing Mother Goose Rhymes which are believed to have originated in France and later translated into English.  We are using music from around the world to help your child develop fine motor skills, hone visual perceptions, train auditory functions, and integrate learning.

 

 HOME ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS

1) MAH Card #50   

Use your Music at Home 50 card as a reminder to play some of the songs your child has learned in class.  

• Enjoy playing your new note "d" on the Recorder -
  NOTE:  Choose which Nursery Rhyme will you choose to play next week on the note d"?
• Enjoy playing your new note "e" on your Glockenspiel - See The Rabbit Running (Hungarian Folk Song) 
• Enjoy drawing Treble Clef signs - Can you memorize the poem? 

• How about a duet?  Parent on Glockenspiel and child on the Recorder.  This play may seem like simple fun, but it creates retained learning because it extends the playtime (brain growth)!
• NOTE:  At graduation, families will all participate in our entertainment.  This is great FIESTA fun and really works your child's arranging and group leadership skills, so why not begin now?

3) Continue to enjoy Kapulupulu Kane stick "partner" game together. Fun!

4) Write 2-Measure Melody (4 beats per measure)  Bring it to class to Hang on the Wall 

• Draw a Staff with 2 measures
• Create a melody on the glockenspiel.  
• Transfer to the Staff  

5) Continue to listen to your  CD!!   Burn copies for bedrooms, cars, etc.

6) Color in your Song Book

Elite Artistry  

Premier Music Instruction  

Piano, Voice, Violin, Guitar 

      2012 - 2013 CALENDAR

Sept: 10, 17, 24

October: 1, 8,15, Master Class, 29

November: 5, 12, 26

December: Master Class, 10, 17, Recital 9th

January: 7, Master Class, 21, 28

February: 4, 11, 18, Master Class

March: 4, 11, 18

April: 1, 8, Master Class, 22, 29

May: 6, 13, 20, Master Class      

June: Recital & Awards Banquet - 2nd

HOW WILL YOU KNOW WHEN CLASS IS CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER?

TEXT: LOVEKIDS

TO: 36000

• If the Waunakee Schools are CLOSED, then Musical Pathways classes will be canceled as well.
• If the Waunakee School district is having LATE START there will be no change to our class schedule.
• If the Waunakee School district calls EARLY RELEASE, then the EVENING classes will be canceled.
• If the Waunakee School District cancels their evening sports activities, then the EVENING classes will be canceled.

          Musical Pathways Foundation

DIRECTORY