Cities! Lesson 10

Hi folks, a blessed CHRISTmas to you all. It's now 11:30pm on the 25th of December. Writing out my lesson plan to you folks on Christmas day! :-) It has been a hectic and fun filled few days for the whole family. And the flurry of activities will continue till next week so I thought I better get this out before I run out of time.

Since attendance has been up and down these past two weeks, I have decided not to do too many new activities this week. Instead, I will repeat some of the old activities that the kids found challenging.

In the Three Artist Matching Game last week, the kids did great with associating the pictures of the artists to the movements they performed using props. This week we will make it more challenging and complicated by adding a drum cue. I quote from the teacher's guide:

This activity provides a rich opportunity for integrated learning. In this one activity children are asked to count, recognize counting visually and aurally ( what does 'three' looks like in dots? what does "three" sound like on the drum) and then make decisions based on what they see and hear, using their skill at classifying objects. ( which artist does "two" represent?) Additionally the children's creativity is enhanced when they explore a variety of movements related to the artists.

A new activity we will be doing this week is Roll that Ball. The kids will be made aware of phrasing ( the end of one line in a song) as we roll a ball to each other while seated in a group. After we master that, we will have each child trying out phrasing holding and moving their ball at the end of each phrase. I will demonstrate this concept during our Goodbye song to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

The other activities are using the songs Sorida, Apples and Bananas and Steeple Bells. We will be using different instruments and props to reinforce the different rhythms of these songs.

Parent sharing time: we will be doing a rather challenging activity using hoops. The kids will be learning about a family of instruments and at the same time, developing their listening skills as they learn to move when they hear a rhythm stick cue. This is an activity that requires much self control and a certain amount of focus so it will be interesting to see how the kids will perform this for the first time.

Hope to see you all in class this week. Take care.....

Screech!

This article is taken from Reader's Digest July 2007 issue.

Want to improve your child's brain power and memory? Enrol them in music lessons from as young age as possible. Brain tests conducted on a group of kids be researchers from Canada's Mc Master Institute for Music and the Mind show that early musical training improves memory and IQ - and results can be seen in four years old in as little as four months. Two groups of children aged four to six were studied. One group was given music lessons and the other was not. When brain scans were conducted afterwards, it appeared that the children with musical training generated more sophisticated responses, their brain processing system worked faster and general memory capacity increased.

Thought you would be interested to know this...

Cities! Lesson 9

Hi folks, boy....these few weeks are just whizzing past......before I know it another day gone, another week ago and very soon another year gone! Towards the end of the year, I know some of you have gone on holidays and things are rather quiet at the music school. Anyhow, classes are still on right till the end of the year.....

We are going to sing Hello this week with our drums playing hello rather than us singing the word 'hello'. The focus of this activity is audiation: which means the ability to hear music when no musical sound is present. When you audiate, you have internalized music and are 'thinking' music.

We will continue with There's a little drum activity, still using the drums and practicing steady beat, exploring various movements we can play with the drum and again at the end, using the same song to focus on audiation. This time we will play the word 'drum' rather than sing it.

We are going to introduce the Three Artists Matching Game which is a complex game that involves listening, counting, moving and pretend play. This week we will start slowly by just learning about the artists and moving like them to the song San Sereni ( which was introduce last week when we explore different movements of people with different jobs) using different props like scarves to represent ballet dancer, stick for guitarist and bells for painter.

Then we will zoom to a country far away call China where we will listen to a song call Kang Ding City and allow the kids the opportunity to do some analytical listening: such as who is singing? did you hear instruments? Was the music slow, fast, did it change? There is a story to this song ( thanks to mum-in-law for translating it to me!) and I will explain it to the kids. This is one of the beauty of Kindermusik program. The children gets to listen and appreciate songs from all over the world. We have so far listen and learn about a french song ( Bonjour) and a song from Zimbabwe ( Sorida)

I'm sure we all remember the statue game we played last the week before while we Walk All Around? This week we will be doing it in class with mummy and daddy's help and let's see how well we have learn to pose and stay still!

During parent sharing time, we will be teaching the mums and dads the rhythm of Sorida as we move together as partners. Lastly, with Christmas around the corner, of course I will have a Christmas surprise for you all......which you will see when you come to class!

For those that are away, a blessed Christmas....

Cities! Lesson 8

Hiya folks, enjoyed the photos? The internet at my house was down for the past four days and I was getting cranky because I wanted so much to post those photos.

This is going to be a brief lesson plan this week. I have tonnes of of mails to reply to!

We will be learning a new song this week Sorida. I quote:

"Sorida" is a term of greeting in Shona, a language spoken in Zimbabwe. Children in Zimbabwe participate in games that are inspired by (or actually based on) traditional rhythm patterns which are used by adult ensembles. This song offers the children the opportunity to learn cross-rhythms, where the child sings in one rhythm and uses another in the motions. While this song is a lot of fun, in Africa it serves as a training ground for musical and social skills which later will be essential as youth seeks to become a full member of the society.

Let Your Voice Be Heard! Songs from Ghana and Zimbabwe ( 1997)

Using hand motions, we will learn the rhythm of this African greeting. At the same time we are developing our fine motor skills - which skills are important such as putting together a simple puzzle, painting, or stringing beads.

We will be learning about different occupation and explore the characteristic movements involved in particular type of work as we pretend to 'work' like the chosen person while playing and moving to San Sereni.

San Sereni is a singing game popular with young children in Puerto Rico. In the original game, the children form a circle around one child. This child plays the part of San Sereni and pantomines the action and sounds of the shoemaker, carpenter etc.


Here we come a walking - down the sidewalk as we go zig zagging, jumping over puddles and going over bridge as we explore the city in our class. Children get the opportunity to move in different pathways and develop eye and body coordination.

Remember your resonator bars this week. We will be playing to Steeple Bells as we learn how to play the bars with alternate hand movements, just like a tolling bell. Sorry for this brief note. More next week I promise! See you in class.

Photos from Class ( Cities!)

My cutie pies!

Haha...can you spot the pressed down statue?

Such an angel....

Can I take this statue home?


How cute can he get!

A happy statue!

Another cute statue....

Oops...some runaway statues!

Look how good the little statues are....

Statues in class

A mum and son statue.....


My cutie pies!

Cities! Lesson 7

Hello folks.....I survived the one week of Vacation Bible School though some of you might have notice that my voice was a bit hoarse towards to end of last week. Well, the busyness continues with other Christmas projects for church and my own family. I told a friend that this year I plan to have a peaceful and quiet Christmas.....I hope...because it really has been too hectic these past few months for me. I really want to spend some time reflecting and looking into myself...and just center myself again after being tossed all over for too long.

I start with a quote:

Hungarian composer, folk music collector, and music educator Zoltan Kodaly has an important influence on the world of music education. He considered the voice to be the major instrument, and thought singing should therefore be the focus of much of early music education. His research led him to develop an approach that involves the organized presentation of pitches to develop the ear and singing voice. Bitonic ( sol -mi), tritonic ( sol -mi-la), tetratonic (sol-mi-la-do) and pentatonic(sol-mi-la-do-re) melodies are presented in sequence in Kindermusik Imagine That! to help children develop an awareness of intervals as the tonal building blocks of music.

1, 2, 3, Click! is a song that has a tetratonic melody. We will be singing to this song while we have fun taking photos of ourselves!

We will also be introducing the book Razupazu Toto for the first time. Razapazu travels around the world and takes photos of different types of artists. This book is a beautiful book as we get to learn about different cities, how they look like and what type of artists are there and what is involved in his or her work ( the book ties with the the activity before - 1,2,3, Click!)

We will reinforce Bonjour Mes Amis this week using the drum and mallets as we strike hello in french with our friends. Again we will tie this activity with Razupazu.

We will be introducing an assortment of metal instruments while playing to There's a little bell and at the same time learning about dynamics ( loud and quiet) and tempo ( slow and fast).

I quote again:

When children distinguish between a prominent ( foreground) sound and background sounds, they are practicing analytical listening.

The focus of the next activity is that - analytical listening - while we listen to the Tolling Bell. We will be talking about how the bell moves to a steady beat...using th metronome. Then we will move our bodies little and big tolling bells. This is an introduction to the kids on how to play using alternate hands on the resonator bars next week.

Parent sharing time: a time of parents and kids to shine as we pose like statues and get our photos taken! That's all I will reveal. Come see for yourself! I see you in class this week. Ciao!

Cities! Lesson 6

Hello folks....its latish in the night but I wanted to blog this week's lesson before I get caught up with preparation of Vacation Bible School again. The past two days have been fun, but tiring. I am sure I echo the sentiments of the 100 plus helpers we have helping out in church.

Good news to share....Pat our principal delivered a baby girl last thursday! She is now resting at home, both mum and baby are fine. I haven't visited her yet, but I'm sure the baby is a cutie pie. I love babies....( but three is enough for me!)

OK, a short note...this week we will be hearing and singing a new French song, Bonjour, Mes Amis. ( which means hello my friends) I quote from the teacher's guide:

Hearing and singing songs in a non-native language gives children the opportunity to hear and explore making phonemes, or sound patterns, not found in their native language. Exposure to these phonemes may give children an increased ability to learn foreign languages later in life.

We will also be using this song to develop a keen listening ear by playing the triangle when we hear the word Bonjour. This provides an opportunity for the kids to focus and listen out to the words of the song.

Last week I introduced the chant My Bike. We used hand gestures to represent the different parts of the chant. This week we will be taking turns and using instruments to beep and ring and pedal as we go through the now more familiar chant. This is preparation for ensemble playing as well as the kids listen and wait their turn to play their parts in the chant.

We are fine musicians - we did this during parent sharing time in Lesson 4 and this week we will allow the kids to do it independently without mums and dads helping them. This activity is usually a favourite with the children and most of them responds and focus well, which is a skill we want to develop with children this age. Of course we mustn't forget the obvious benefit which is introducing different timbre of sounds to the children.

This week we will visit the different shops in the city and see what we can eat and buy as we sing to I like to eat apple and bananas. Again, this is a way to train them in basic composing as well as widening vocabulary as they learn about different objects in the shops.

Zum Gali Gali, a song which beat is slower than the kids are used to, emphasizing on the whole beat. We will use the rhythm stick this week to go through various motions, all the time training the kids to play to the right beat.

Parent sharing time: we will use the resonator bars this week and play to Jing Jang, getting the kids use to play bilateral , and then with one hand, and then with the other hand. This is just the first and the simplest activity using the bars. We will play with the bars as we go along further in the semester.

Cities! Lesson 5

Hello again....it has been another eventful week for me and it will get even more exciting by this weekend and the whole of next week. I will be helping out at Vacation Bible School next week at my church. We are going to have about 300 kids congregating at the church for 5 days from 8:30am - 12:45 pm! I will be helping out in the craft station, helping the kids while they have fun cutting, pasting and hopefully making some wonderful crafts. Hopefully I will survive but if you dont see my blog next week, you know I am just super busy with this.

Anyway lesson 5....We are going to start off with My Bike, a rhythmic chant accompanied by sign language (ASL) and various hand movements as we learn the different functions of a bicycle. It will be done as an echo....which means the kids learn to imitate and listen to me before it's their turn to chant the words. We will be signing the word 'bicycle' and 'listen'.

We learn about our speaking and singing voice with Pretzels for Sale last week. This week we will be playing a singing game with the song. I quote from Song Play: A Collection of Playful Songs for Children, by Peggy Bennet:

By participating in singing games, children develop social skills that prepare them for adulthood, including:

-taking turns and waiting for turns,
- working cooperatively,
- observing and accepting others' ideas,
- gaining skills and confidence in being a leaden and a follower and
- watching, listening to and speaking to one another.

This activity will reinforce what we learn last week about our singing voice an gives each child a chance to sing solo.

The next activity focuses on auditory discrimination, by using the City Square Listening Game. Practicing auditory discrimination by listening to a series of sound collages and differentiating among various sounds allows the children to gain experience using different types of attention. These attention skills are necessary for later success in speech perception and reading. ( excerpt from Teacher's Guide)

- focused attention - concentration on a single task.
- sustained attention - concentration on a task over an extended period over time.
- shifted attention - moving between tasks while holding in mind task instructions and manipulating information.
- divided attention - performing tow or more tasks concurrently.

Introducing a new song, 1, 2, 3 Click! a song about taking pictures while we move around the city. Since this is the first time we are doing this song, we will be just singing and introducing the concept of photo taking in this lesson. I will explain more about the musicality of this song next week.

We will also be reinforcing the rhythm of Jing Jang as the kids take turns playing the rhythm on the glockenspiel.

Parent sharing time, we will be playing a variety of percussion instruments to Hey Lolly while we take turns playing different instruments to the unique rhythm of this song.

I see you in class this week.....

Cities! Lesson 4

Hi folks, hope you are all having a good week. Mine has been filled with too many activities....the stress of living in a big city - three kids plus a dog, and a hubby who just started a new business! There doesn't seem to be enough time in a day for all I planned to do. I received a message from a dear friend today who told me that she is reflecting on this past year and thinking of next year's resolutions.....hah! I told her I am still in the midst of living out this year's resolutions and not being very successful at that!

Lesson 4...we are going to start with some music listening : where has my little dog gone? The important thing here is to discern the words of the song - we are learning to listen with a purpose - is the dog little or big? what about his ears? etc. We are going to tie in this song with a book about a lost dog in the city - this is to link the meaning of 'lost dog', especially for the younger ones in the class who may not appreciate what it a 'lost dog' means.

The next activity focus on speaking and singing voice. I quote from the teacher's guide:

Children may not be able to hear or understand between the speaking and singing voice. By experiencing a wide range of vocal possibilities, the child learns to differentiate between his speaking and singing voices. Playing with speech as well as with simple melodies helps the child develop both singing and speech skills.

We will do this with Pretzels of Sale, where we learn about how we can make different voices with our voice box.

Apples and Bananas, this week we will introduce this song, with emphasis on the rhythm pattern of the song. We will be using the castanets as we beat to the rhythm of eat, eat, eat as we follow this song as a playalong.

Learning to stop and pose....we will be using Walk All Around this next two weeks to introduce this concept of freeze and pose ( like a statue). This week we will be introducing this song, seated down and using the rhythm sticks as our legs as we walk, pose, run, pose, tiptoe and pose.

Lastly, Zum Gali Gali, the song we danced to in the first week, we will be using instruments this week to play along to a steady beat with various steady beat movement.

Parent sharing time: please remember the bring the resonator bars to class next week.

Cities! Lesson 3

Hi folks, hope you are having a good week. Can't believe it's already the month of November. Very soon it's Christmas and there, another year gone. I celebrated my 42nd (YES!) last week. Felt very blessed by family and friends as they celebrated the day with me.

Anyway, lesson 3. We are still taking it slowly as I continue to gradually introduce the concept of city life and what we can see and experience in the city. Last week we talked and sang about different jobs that people do in the city and this week we will combine what we learn in Lesson 1 and 2 - modes of transport and different jobs one can find in the city.

In the City - last week we used the rhythm sticks for this song. This week we are going to learn sign language! I quote from the Teacher's guide:

Sign language is considered the 'unvoiced language" and is easily learned. Signing can:

- help children attend more easily - requires eye contact.
- make language active; children are active participant in the learning process.
- foster self-esteem - gives children more control in expressing themselves.

Here we come a walking - a very versatile song which we can use different modes to teach musical concepts. This week we will use the drums as we play to the beat of walking, running, tip toeing, stomping, jumping etc. We are learning to concepts of fast and slow, loud and soft while we 'walk' around the city with different feet!

Elevator and Escalator - we had fun with this activity as we learn about how we go up and down in the elevator in the shopping mall as we shop for different things. The children get to visually understand to concepts of going up and down in the elevator. This week we are going to use the glockenspiel as we explore glissando. Children will become less inhibited about their singing voices when when vocal play such as this ( using a broad vocal range by producing a glissando sound) is naturally integrated with pretend play.

A new activity this week....The Broom Man. A little bit about the song : it is a street cry, a song sung by a vendor to attract customers. This song was collected by J. Rosamond Johnson, an African-American man who began playing the piano at four and went to become a composer, conductor and Brocdway performer. We will be learning the song, and learning what does the broom man do...while adding the element of composing...what does a rag man do? what about a window cleaner man?

We will also do a spot of music listening: Traffic Jammers. The focus here is to listen with a purpose; a city sound hunt as we try to find with our ears as many different city sounds as possible.

Lastly, we will have an active listening activity - an exercise that introduces the concept of timbre, which is a word that describes the difference among sounds. Listening to differences in timbre, the tone quality or tone color of various musical instruments, allows children to learn to attend to relevant sounds and match these sounds to a specific instrument. Activities in which children identify, compare and analyze sound qualities of instruments help children develop auditory discrimination skills.

Parent Sharing time - a chance of us to dance to a jazzy number as we explore various body movements! See you in class.....

Cities! Lesson 2

Hello folks, I am very proud of the children last week! The new kids adjusted pretty well in class, most of them came in on their own without mummies or daddies ( which is a big milestone for them) and all were cooperative and participated well in all the activities. It just shows that it is really a right time for them to be moving up to Imagine That level.

Meanwhile, the 'veterans' ( how can I do without them) boost up the class dynamics tremendously because they were given jobs to take care of the younger ones and show good examples. And did they take their responsibility seriously. I had one kid in class who kept on telling the younger ones...you can do it guys! C'mon, I know you can! Isn't that the sweetest thing? Parents of Ivan - I am so proud of him!

Alright lesson 2. Here we go....This lesson will be have some songs that are the same as last week though we will be using different medium to bring out the flavor of the songs.

Hey Lolly Lolly, is going to be sung using puppets....all that rhymes with Lolly such as Ernie Puppet, Cookie, Bunny...remember, we are emphasizing two elements in this song.....language development as they find words to compose that rhymes with Lolly, and also learning the rhythm of the song ie when can you hear the word Hey Lolly Lolly. It involves listening skills, rhythm awareness and timing.

Last week I introduced the song In the City. This week we will be singing this song again, this time with the use of rhythm stick - to represent different words in the song - walking, city, go and stop. It encourages creative ways to use the rhythm sticks and at the same time developing focus and attention as the children learn to stop and go.

Here we come a walking - this week I will use this song to introduce different jobs in the city - an understanding the kids must have for later in the curricula.

We are going to learn about a lost dog as we sing Oh where has my little dog gone? This will be in introduction to story telling and story plotting which we will explore in the coming weeks. Getting the children to give me suggestions on what can happen to a lost dog will keep those creative juices flowing and also provide a training in keeping logic and sequence.

Jing Jang, a versatile song which can be use for many activities....this week we will explore the drums....and we will continue exploring various ways to play different instruments as we go along the semester. The children will be given opportunities to share ideas and also at the same time made aware of how different instruments can be played. I am sure I will learn a thing or two myself from the children, as always!

Parent sharing time...I will keep you guessing till you come to class!
See you this week.......take care!

Cities! Busy Places-Friendly Faces - Lesson 1

Welcome to all new parents who are reading this blog for the first time! As you can see, I have been blogging for a while now, mostly lesson plans pertaining to the Imagine That curricula. I know parents are curious to know what their kids are doing in class and I thought this is a simple way to keep you in the know ( of course it also helps me by making sure I do my lesson plan in time!)

Just a brief review of what we will be doing this semester. This is a brief summary from the teacher's guide:

People on the go, rushing everywhere - in the city! - A unit that calls us to co-create a city that is familiar, yet like no other. And a city that's really many 'cities' in one. There's a city of music - of songs, recorded works and city sounds. There's a city of imagination. There's a city of stories - of lost dogs and f0und dogs and a globe trotting photographer. A city of movement - sweeping movement, up and down the elevator movement, dance and freeze like a statue movement. A city of music with the Kindermusik Resonator Bars. A city of games - a shoe passing game, street vendor game; and a movement and matching game involving three artists, math, drum and the Puerto Rican children's game song.

There are LOADS of fun and educational musical activities up the street ( pun intended!). Bearing in mind that Lesson 1 is a new level for some kids who just graduated from Our time, and also the curricula itself being a new concept - we will take it easy the first time. It takes some time to understand what is the concept of a city. Though we are living in one, the kids many not realise what it really means - tall buildings, people everywhere, elevators and escalators, traffic lights, different kinds of transportation - these are the few things we will be touching on in lesson 1.

In the City - the focus of this song is the simple tonal melodies. Singing skills tend to develop in the following order - words, rhythm, phrases and contour. Research shows that children's repertoire should include simple tonal melodies ( bitonic, tritonic) which are close in pitch to speech - which makes singing a successful activity for the child. In this song, we are also introducing the concept of stop and go ( traffic lights) - using visual cue - through movement and instrument playing.

Here We Come A- Walking -the music focus here is singing while moving - and using the aural cue of a drum beat. What can we see while we are walking down the street? For this lesson, I am taking the opportunity to introduce various transportation and the sounds they make. We will be using the knowledge of different transportation later in the curricula.

Elevator and Escalator - the music focus here is glissando sound - a musical effect obtained by playing a rapid series of ascending or descending pitches in a continuous sliding movement. We will be using the slide whistle to demonstrate this and at the same time learning the concept of how the elevator moves up and down in a shop. IN the next lesson, we will be incorporating pretend play in this activity.

Hey Lolly - the music focus is to create new verses . I quote from Jeanne M. Machado ( Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts):

Language abilities in three and four years olds are blooming. "Playing" with language by making new, funny words and sounds benefit children by increasing their skill in using speech creatively. Ultimately, this practice in imaginative speech strengthens the children's linguistic intelligence.

We have covered lots in the first lesson. During parent sharing time, we will be learning, through dance the rhythm of Zum Gali Gali, a song sung by the Israeli pioneers while they worked to turn the Israeli desert into fields and gardens.

Kindermusik introduced a wide variety of songs; of different genres and cultures ( we will be covering songs from India, China, France, Africa and many more in this semester).

I see you all in class. Looking forward to a starting a new musical adventure with your kids!

Toys Lesson 16

Hi folks, believe it or not....LAST lesson for this curricula. I will be saying goodbye to some of you....my darlings that are graduating and moving to another level, another class. I hate goodbyes....keep in touch....

Last lesson, it will be a combination of all the favorite activities of this semester. A time to reflect, and observe how much the kids have grown and how they have progressed this last few months.

We have only one new activity, and that is during parent sharing time. A jaw dropping surprise awaits you....

Next week, we will be starting Cities....a challenging curricula as we explore the various aspects of city life....jobs, places to go, things to do, transportation, sounds of the city....not easy for the kids to grasp some of the concepts, this is where I come in....how to simplify the process of understanding and still able to maintain the learning process and make it fun for all! Believe me....I have been working pretty hard these past few weeks, preparing and thinking and humming and even moving ( especially when I stopped at the red lights!) I work best when I am in the car, listening to the music again and again and waiting for the light bulb to light up on top of my head.

So folks, see you all in class this week. Take care....

Rendang, Ketupats and New Ideas......

Sorry I have been out of touch for a while. We didn't go anywhere during the Raya holidays, just stayed in KL and enjoyed the traffic free roads. We visited friends' and family over the weekend, and I had my share of the glorious and yummy rendang and ketupat....hence the title of this message.

I have also been toying with this idea for a while and finally given a push by hubby who is big into buying and selling from ebay. I will be, in the near future, starting a new blog.....solely dedicated to recommending children's books. Apart from music, this is another huge passion of mine. Reading....whether it is adult or kids books. I collect kids books by the way....and my idea of a perfect time is spending time in a bookshop, all by myself with unlimited budget. Bliss......I am definitely not a TV fan....some of you will be shocked...haven't watch any episode of Desperate Housewives, Grey's ( not even sure of spelling!) Anatomy, no Korean Series....the only show I watch is.....American Idol!!!!

So folks, will let you know when my blog is up. Hopefully it can be help to parents who are overwhelmed when they stepped into a bookshop with the wide array of books available.

Toys Lesson 15

Hiya folks, another week has passed and we come nearer to the end of semester. I have been taking some time this week to call parents and discussing about the kids progress and plans for the future. As I have said before, please call me or email me if you need to discuss anything or have any questions to ask, and I will be please to answer them.

This week, we are learning all new activities! Balloon Colors, a song in C pentatonic will be taught, and this activity gives the kids the opportunity to sing in pentatonic ( which consist of five pitches sol-mi-la-do-re) which is based on the Kodaly Philosophy, a Hungarian composer, folk music collector and music educator. Songs organized in certain pitches are intentional to enable children to develop their singing voices and a keen listening ear. It will be done in a fun way that the kids won't even realize that they are being taught (!) because they will be getting to choose the different colors of balloons.

We will also be listening to Chimes, a percussion instrument - it is a set of metal tubes of varying length, hung vertically in a frame in an arrangement similar to that of the piano keyboard and struck at the top with one or two rawhide mallets. The kids will get to listen and to see how chimes look like. After that, they will listen to Toy Cupboard....a piece of music that chimes is one of the instrument used. As I have quoted before, listening is very different from hearing.

Hearing and listening are quite different. Hearing is a process involving nerves and muscles that reach adult efficiency by age four or five. Listening is a learned behaviour, a mental process that is concerned with hearing, attending, discriminating, understanding, and remembering. It can be improved with practice. Listening affects social interactions, one's level of functioning, and perhaps one overall success in life ( Weiss and Lily-White, 1981)

We will also learn about other metal instruments, and explore the different timbre ( quality of sounds) of these instruments.

Tiptoe Too: Dance of the Reed Flutes, another song taken from the Nutcracker Suite ( earlier in the semester we danced to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, which is also taken from the same ) In this piece of music, we will be learning about musical expression....how certain parts of the music sounds light and certain parts, heavy. And how can we translate those expression through instruments ( light sounds will be instruments like triangle and most metal instruments ; heavy sounds will be instruments like drums)

Here is my hoop, an activity that encourages interaction and creativity. What are the different things we can do with our hoops? Use our imagination...a bumpy boat? a sun? a ball?

Lastly, parents be ready with your tippy toes and stomping feet as we dance with our scarves during parent sharing time!

Till I see you in class, have a good week, and take care......

Toys Lesson 14

Hi folks, another week has passed. Hope you all had a meaningful week. It's easy to get caught in the daily grind of life that we forget that life is indeed precious and should be lived to the fullest. As I am writing this, my thoughts go out to the innocent girl Nurin who lost her life in such as tragic way. My condolences to the parents. Our society has become a dangerous place for our children. Gone are those days where we can freely roam the neighbourhood without fear of dangers lurking around the corner.......

It has been an enjoyable experience teaching and being with your children these past few months. Personally, I have been taught by them as well. The kids see the world in a different and fresh perspective....and many a times I have been caught off guard by their insights and it has definitely made my life richer. Towards the end of the semester ( we have three more to go till Lesson 16), I hope that the kids will continue their journey of music, the theme of next semester is Cities! ( where we will be learning about different types of jobs, transportation, cities around the world)

Anyway back to Lesson 14. This week we will be moving on to the stuffed toys section where we will be reading, dancing, listening and moving to different songs about our stuffed animal toys.

Tippity Tippity Too, an activity that highlights the benefit of word repetition and rhyming which includes strengthening of memory, reduction of stress and creating an enjoyable form of sound making. I am sure you have gone through the book with your kid by now. It will be good to see the kids rise up to the challenge of rhyming to the different animals I will be bringing - ones that are different from the book.

Animal Dance, an activity that encourage the kids to listen, and to recognize the different sections of the song. The music form of the song is ABCABCCoda, which means there are three distinct types of musical sections on this recording. The children will first listen, and then we will move our bodies accordingly to the different sections of the song.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain, a fun song that promotes pretend play and tapping to a steady beat. We will be using our drums as the bear scratch, and the horse stomp, and the mouse creep as we have our animal parade over the mountain!

Teddy Bear, a song that encourages pretend play and creative body movement which in turn promotes motor development.

Lastly, during parent sharing time, we will be doing Animal Dance again but this time with percussion instruments.

I see you all in class this week. Take care....

Toys Lesson 13

Hi folks, another eventful week for me. Amanda ( my eldest, 15 plus ) participated in the 30 hour famine organized by World Vision last weekend. She had to fast from 12 pm on the Saturday to 6pm on Sunday. She did it! I am mighty proud of her. The event was at Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil. They had to spend a night there. When I collected her on Sunday evening, there was thousands of people, mostly youth in the stadium. My heart was touched....there is still hope for Malaysia. These youths are the future of Malaysia and for them to have such compassion for the poor and under privileged....there is still Hope for our country. Alex ( my second, 12 plus) can't wait to do it next year. I forbid him to do it this year because I was being over protective mummy! You see, he is 12 plus and only weighs less than 35 kilos....he looks like he is a underprivileged kid with not enough food to eat....how to fast for so long? So I told him next year......with the condition that he puts on weight! My daughter sms me while she was there. She said "mum, you wouldn't be able to do this because you will succumb to your chocolate cravings!" Mmm....she knows me well :-)

Anyway, let's not get distracted by food here. Lesson 13 of Toys. Unbelievable that time passes so quickly. Now I have spoken to some mums last week about your kids graduating from Imagine That level and moving on to the next. For some of you who have any questions, please feel free to write to me, call or speak to me after class.

This lesson will be the last in our train series so most songs will be ones that we have done before though the mode of learning will be different.

Choo Choo Train, the kids really had fun with this activity. If we have time, we will do it again during parent sharing time. This activity calls for using various 'train' instruments to represent the different sounds of the train - the tracks, the whistle, the bell. I quote from the Teacher's guide, this activity involves integration of several learned skills such as:

- sense of timing, sequencing and anticipation.
- interactions structured within a social setting.
- actions and motions that are desribed through language.

Down by the Station, again this activity emphasize the different types of voices of the station master. The children learn that our voice box can project different types of voices. Awareness of different types of voices helps develop language and speech in children.

Choo Choo Choo, where are we going today? This song develops rhythm awareness as we pat on the choo choo choos while we explore different places and what we can do there. We used a map the last time we did this activity. This time we will use flashcards of different places.

Standing On the Platform - will be using the drum to pat to steady beat, and then change to walking, running, tip toeing on the platform. Apart from different ways of beating the drum, we will also get suggestions from kids on what to pack. The last time we did this activity, I gave them the ideas, this time around it is their turn!

The new activity this week is Riding the Rails, a song that reviews fast and slow movement concepts. Children demonstrate their understanding of the music concepts of fast and slow as they coordinate their movements in response to this fast and slow piece of music.

Lastly, we are going to have FUN with Train is A-Comin' during parent sharing time. Be prepared to move and groove! C'ya all in class!

Toys Lesson 12

Hi folks, hope you all had a good week. I am busy, busy, busy! Apart from the usual chaotic hustle and bustle of three kids in three directions, I am also helping out in a children church camp preparing crafts for 300 kids for 5 days. The logistics are mind boggling! I thank God I have other mummies helping me.

Alright, down to business. We had great fun transitioning into the train series. The kids built a train, tested the various functions of the train, and even learn to read a map while we travel to various places with the train last lesson.

This week we are going to see what we can pack for our train journey while we are Standing on the Platform. What are some of the things we put in our suitcase when we travel? Clothes? Snacks? TV? Haha.....let's see what the kids come up with. An activity which has element of pretend play and composing.

Hear the Train is an activity that gives the kids the opportunity to take turns singing ( echoing) . The kids are challenged to listen, watch, remember and reflect as I sing, and then be prepared when it is their turn to sing. The kids become more musically aware of how important it is to preserve the flow of the song between the teacher and kids.

On Our Way....I quote from the teacher's guide:

This activity encourages the development of body awareness that goes beyond labeling and moving specific parts to focusing on and controlling the movement of one's body. This activity is structured to take body awareness a step further by including aural signals. When a specific signal such as walking, running, jumping or ready stop is played on the drum, it allows the child to focus on the signal, to understand the meaning of the signal and then to transfer the meaning to a self-controlled action.

And finally we reached the train station where will do a spot of music listening Hine Rakevet.
In this activity music listening skills are developed as the children discriminate and categorize relationships in sound. There is also the opportunity to develop an awareness of the concept of accelerando in the section of the music that becomes faster and faster.

Finally, we get a further chance to reinforce this concept of accelerando during parent sharing time when we move to Hine Rakevet.

I see you all in class.....

Toys Lesson 11

Hi folks, hope you all had a good week. Mine has been quiet, except for the news that my mum's car was stolen last night! Parked in the basement of the condo's car park. My hubby lost his handphone too, partly due to negligence on his part. He left it in the cab, but cab driver wasn't honest enough to return it. Sigh....My two older kids are finally starting school again after 2 1/2 months of summer holidays. Amanda ( 15 years) is starting her last year of school before taking the 'O' levels. Very soon, she will be leaving home. I don't know how I am going to cope with that :-(

Alright, here we go...Lesson 11 of Toys. Time really flies. This semester has been really good. Though we have many new kids joining Imagine That for the first time, they have adjusted so well and I didn't feel I had to adjust the standard of teaching to accommodate them.

We are moving into Choo choo land this week. Yup, the train series...Lots of fun songs and movements to do. We are going to start with building a train, using the song Sarasponda. In this activity, we are focusing on challenging the kids to listen consciously, anticipate, predict and respond to the repeated 'ret set set' rhythm/word pattern in the song.

After the train is built, we have to test out all the different functions of the train which brings us to Choo Choo Train activity. We will combined different body movements, an activity that focuses on pretend play. After that, we will use different instruments to represent the different sounds of the train: the whistle, the bell, the tracks, going forward and backward on the tracks.

Apart from the train, we have to learn about train station. We will read a book entitled Down by the Station and learn about the different things that happen at a station. We will then use the song Down by the Station to learn about different voices: our speaking, shouting, singing and whispering voice as the station master shouts All Aboard Now!

We are going to do a spot of map reading, to see the different places where the train goes, using the song Choo Choo Choo. Map reading can help with pre-reading skills such as:

* understanding the concept of picture symbols.
* doing things in a set order ( sequencing)
* following a path

Lastly, we will dance to a folk song Jubilee, traditionally used as a square dance tune. This activity enhances the fact the music is a social activity and there is benefits in learning music in a group because the kids get the opportunity to accept each other's ideas, learn to take turns, learn to play instruments as a group, and having loads of fun along the way!

Toys Lesson 10

Hi folks, we have been having lots of fun learning about 'stars' - how they move, listening to songs about 'stars' and playing instruments to various rhythm patterns to those songs. This week we are going to do the last lesson in the 'boat' series and moving on the 'trains' next week.

I didn't get to do If I had a Big Blue Boat book yet which you have as part of the home materials and this week we will definitely do it. We will read it once over to get familiar with the story and then we will add instruments to produce the various sounds we can hear when we are in our big blue boat such as triangles for star, rubbing of sandblocks for sounds of rustling leaves. Kids will learn that an important element in music is to be able to use instruments to tell a story - just like composers use music to tell stories in opera.

Michael Row the Boat Ashore, another song which we can use to learn different rhythm pattern. Last week we did a similar activity using O Watch the Stars. This week, the kids are doing it independently - playing whole beat and half beat - while pretending to be rowing in their boats. It is a challenging activity for them but I have full confidence that they will be able to tap and splash according to beat. We will see during parent sharing time as I hope to be able to show you all this activity.

We are going to use coconuts (!) and shells (!) to perform an ensemble by the sea. It is going to be fun for the kids to be able to use objects they are familiar with to playalong to steady beat and producing an orchestra of beach sounds.

Out Here on the Sea, another familiar and favourite activity of the kids....we will have a underwater treasure hunt as we look for creatures under the sea while we sing and compose to this familiar song! This activity provides an opportunity for kids to compose and to develop sustain focus and attention span as they look for creatures under the sea.

It's been a while since we last have a synchronized circle dance and thats what we are going to do this week to Toembai. As I have shared in class before, doing a synchronized dance is a fun and easy way for kids ( and parents) to appreciate and develop a listening ear to different sections in a piece of music.

Well my dears.....I see you in class then. Have a good Merdeka holiday this friday. May God Bless Malaysia with many more years of peace living in harmony and unity.......

Toys Lesson 9

Hi folks, sorry for being late again this week....very busy, away on holiday (hehe!) Actually we were away at church camp in Penang. Ah, the food and the beach....always love Penang and it was great to be there soaking up the atmosphere with friends, and getting much inspiration for lesson plan especially now that we are at the 'boat and sea' part of the curricula!

We are going to concentrate on humming this week. Humming has two specific benefits, according to Jean Westerman Gregg, speech language pathologist with a specialty in voice therapy. Humming over a period of time increases the strength of the fundamental accoustic spectrum, therefore affecting the quality of the singing voice. Also, over an extended period of time the vibration sensation of humming seems to increase the carrying power of voice resulting in more volume and less effort. (From "Song and Speech: What Humming Can do for you")

Using the familiar Twinkle twinkle little star song, we are going to do instrument exploration of metal instruments. Through instrument exploration a child can learn many musical concepts such as timbre, pitch, vibration rhythm, tonal relationships and melody.

The kids are now very familiar with the song A sailor went out to sea, sea, sea. This week we are going to use the song to play an ensemble; ie performing together as a group, taking turns at various sections of the song. The focus of this activity is to further enhance the learning of the rhythm pattern of this song, developing taking turns and deriving enjoyment from playing as a group.

We are going to do some star dancing with our bodies to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. We are going to learn about Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker where the song is taken from. This Russian composer was best known for his ballets and symphonies. In this curricula, we gave the opportunity to hear several Tchaikovsky selections: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Waltz of the Flowers, Dance of the Reed Flutes and Chinese Dance. These pieces are all taken from the Nutcracker Suite Op. 71a, the orchestral suite drawn from the well-known ballet, The Nutcracker.

Lastly, we will use the song O Watch the Stars to learn about beats in music - what is a quarter beat and a half beat, and a whole beat.

I will see you all in class this week. Looking forward to a fun and learning time together!

Toys Lesson 8

Dear mums and dads, so sorry for being late this week with the lesson plan. I just got bogged down with too many activities and too little time. I already have the lesson plan in hand weeks ago but just couldnt find the time to sit down and put it on the blog.

We are going to start the lesson with drums....again using this versatile and fun percussion instrument to practice and develop listening skills and strengthening rhythm play. I know the kids love the sound of the drums and when all the kids play together in the same rhythm, it is indeed a enjoyable and awesome experience for them. This is one of the benefit in having a group music class. Apart from the social aspect, the joy of making music together as a group is definitely much greater for children in this age range. I am sure this is true even for adults!

We are going to Build me a boat again this week but we will have more 'tools' this time around. Rhythm sticks to hammer and saw, sandblocks to sand, bells to screw and colourful scarves for painting stripes and dots! We are going to have a whale of a time building our boat with our imagination and pretend play.

After building the boat, of course we then have to sail out to sea, sea, sea. Let us see how well the kids can remember to move in their boats ( hoops) to the rhythm of the sea, sea, sea.

We are then going to learn about different types of boats: sail boats, motorboats, and row boats. How can we convert our hoops into different types of boat? How can we row, row our boats; or sail, sail our boats; or vroom, vroom our boats?

When we are Out Here on the Sea, we have to use our eyes to find different sea creatures and compare them to the pictures I have in my sea creatures book, an exercise of learning about sea creatures and the ability to compare and contrast visually.

Then after a hard day work out in the sea, we are going to lie down and watch the stars at night while we use our ears for some analytical listening.

A familiar and much loved song, Twinkle, twinkle little star, will close our lesson this week. I hope you remember the torchlights! And I almost forgot, I BIG salute to all of you for bringing in all those home made boats! We had boats made out from paper, plastic, banana ( yes!!!), coconuts (!!!!)...we had sail boats, row boats, boats with roof, boats with chimney....it was wonderful to see how imaginative the kids and the parents. THANK YOU!

See you this week my dears......

Toys Lesson 7

Ahoy there! As you can guess from my greeting, we are still sailing into this week with our sea travels adventure!

We will have a mixture of old and new activities as usual. The old activities for reinforcement and the new to keep the interest going. We will be introducing the sea sounds listening puzzle this week as a active listening activity. This Listening puzzle helps the kids develop attention skills through:

- the combined use of visual and aural stimuli
- subject matter that is familiar and meaningful to them
- the use of a novel and playful format to convey the information

We will also introduce a new book If I had a Big Blue Boat, a boat that emphasize on sounds and sights found out on the sea. Reading together:

- fosters love of reading
- provides predictability
- introduce new words
- expands understanding of story structures
- promotes critical thinking
- encourages language play and creative expression

A personal note: there is nothing more important you can do with a child at this age than to read to him/her. Not only for all the benefits above, it also foster bonding between parent and child. I know that one of the highlights of my day is to tuck in bed with my kids and read to them. And we talked and talked...about all sorts of things. Today my son said to me...mummy, I need more hands to tell you how much I love you. I don't want any other mummy except you, even if the other mummy gives me sweets and lollipops, and allow me to watch TV all the time! :-) Now that is more precious than anything in the world......

Coming back to lesson plan, we will also be incorporating instruments in our story...which instrument can produce the sounds we can hear in the story? How do we make the sound of the rustle of leaves, or the flippish leap of fish? Ahhh....it will be interesting to get the kids to produce their musical story to this book.

I can't wait to see the home made boats you guys will be bringing to class. I know, from the home made instruments the last time, you mums and dads out there take the homework seriously and I truly appreciate the effort you take which helps make the class activities so much more enjoyable, interesting and meaningful. Let's see how our home made boats weather the storms in the class!

This week, we will be doing the Boatman's Dance during parent sharing time. Get ready our sea legs to dance together! See you in class! So long.....

Next week: Please bring a torchlight for each child. We need it during parent sharing time.

Toys Lesson 6

Dear parents, hope that you had a good week. I can't believe it's almost August! Didn't we just celebrate Christmas not that long ago? :-) Teaching Kindermusik has been one of the best thing that has happened to me. Apart from the enjoyement I derived out of being with the kids, I have had the privilege of watching them grow; physically, socially and musically. Some of my Our Time kids are now doing Young Child and as I reflect back on the time they first started Kindermusik, I am just amazed at how much they have grown. I know I only blog about My Imagine That classes, and it's because of time constraints, but I just want to say how proud I am of the kids and with the current classes of IT kids, I can see the potential in them as they continue with the program.

Ahoy there matey....we are moving into the boat and sea part of the curricula this week. We are going to be experiencing adventures out in the sea for these next few weeks. But of course before we venture out of the habour, we need a sturdy boat and we are going to build one this week in Build me a Boat. We are going to disover the many tools we need in building a boat; hammer, saw, screwdriver, sanding block and a paintbrush. And we can have all these tools in the rhythm stick (!) as we move to a steady beat while exploring the different ways we can use our tools.

Now that we have build our boat, it's time to go sail away in the sea on our Big Blue Boat. How does it feel to sail on a boat? How do we move when the sea is calm? What if there is a storm and we have choppy waves? What is the rudder for?What is the sail for? What is an anchor? How do the sail ( scarves) look like when the sea is calm, and how does it look like when the strong wind blows?

Out here on the Sea - what can we see while we are out on the sea? We are encouraging singing ability and speech here as the kids looking and looking out here on the sea and giving me suggestions on what they can see and how it moves. They are using a multitude of skills here....imagination and creativity, singing and language development, confidence to give ideas and learning to accept each other's ideas and working together as a group.

We are going to be A sailor went to sea, sea, sea and learn the rhythmic chant. Again, as in many songs in this curricula, this activity promotes learning and listening of different rhythm patterns. Its going to be fun as we get into our hoops ( oops...i mean boats) and sway and move like the sailor who went out to sea, sea, sea!

Righty ho....I'll see you and your kids in class this week....bye!

Toys Lesson 5

Dear mums and dads, you may be interested to know this...taken from the Teacher's guide of Imagine That curricula. Musical profile of an IT kid:

- are developing beat awareness
- can match beat to external sound source in non-locomotor ways
- enjoy the interactive nature of circle games
- are beginning to sing accurately in a limited range
- can differentiate between the singing and speaking voice
- are beginning to understand musical concepts such as loud/quiet, high/low, long/short, and fast/slow

We are already at lesson 5 of the curricula and the kids are doing well, each in their own way. The students that have been in IT level previously have really settled down and are growing steadily as independent learners. The newer ones are all doing so well too, despite being new to class....each and every one of them are participating so well.

We continue our lesson with using the already familiar Hello song to develop phrasing awareness in a song. The kids are going to use parts of their bodies and then drums to create awareness of this. We will continue using drums to tell a story of a spider....using rhythm patterns and different musical concepts to express the various characters and mood in the story. This activity is always a firm favourite with the kids, because it involves their sense of imagination, creativity, and music...all roll in to one.

We have been using our ears a lot these few lessons....listening to different types of drums, different instrument sounds that represent different toys, music with different sections and how we dance and play instruments to that....and we will continue with strengthening our auditory skills this week with listening and guessing ( without visual help) how a drum can be played.

A few kids requested for the Jack in the Box activity which ties in nicely to listening skills as well as we move our fingers and bodies according to the song. When do we pop and how do we flop...an acitivity that requires the whole body to be alert and moving.

We will introduce a new song Toembai this week. This is relatively a fast song, compared to Al Tambor and we are just going to start slow by getting acquainted with the beat of the song using the one bell jingle and exploring different ways we can make beat with the bells.

The Flower Drum song, the kids love this Chinese song and this is another great song to use to develop auditory skills as the kids have to listen to the part where the drums are introduced and repeated in the song.

I sincerely hope your kids have been learning and enjoying their music class as much as I have derived pleasure from teaching them. Hope this blog has been useful to you as an insight into what we do in class.

C'ya all this week in class!

Toys Lesson 4

Wooohooooo......boy, was I impressed with the home made musical instruments your kids brought to class! Some of you spent a lot of time making it and I am deeply aprreciative of your efforts. The kids were so proud to show their instruments and they even got to share and take turns playing with the instruments their friends brought to class. Hopefully I will be able to put up a few pictures of the instruments the kids made and you can see for yourself. One of the kid even named his instrument. Bravo!

This week we are going to use the our bodies to play a steady beat to the Hello song. Can we pat our knees to a steady beat? Can we alternate patting knees and clapping hands to a steady beat? How about patting knees, clapping hands and touching heads? In this activity, we are promoting not only development of steady beat but also a practice in sequencing.

How can we go to the Toy Shop this week? With our rhythm sticks, we can walk, run, jump and roll....and even row boats and drive cars with horns. There are a myriad of ways in which we can use the rhythm sticks as instruments for pretend and imaginative play. I won't be surprise if the kids give me even more suggestions during class time!

In the Toy Shop this week, we will have to use our EARS to listen to the toys we have. Can it be a toy frog ( using a guiro) or maybe a toy clock ( metronome). We might even find a toy bike and a toy train! Maybe even the doundoun drum or the pow wow drum....one never know what exciting discovery we have in our toy shop. If we 'open' our ears, we will hear lots of interesting sounds.....

We ran out of time to the I am a top activity so we will do it this week. I know the kids have been asking to do this as they had so much fun the last time winding up the tops and seeing it spin and spin....This week, we are all going to be spinning tops and I'll get to 'wind' up the kids with my special magic key!

We continue our lesson about different types of drums from different countries. Last week, we played and learned about the chinese drum. This week, we will get to play with Mr Snare Drum....I know the kids will be terribly excited at the sound this drum can make and we are going to have a terrific time marching with the drum!

We will play our drums to Al Tambor. This week, we will only use the drums. This activity promotes listening to various sections in a song, steady beat and exploring different ways to play the drums.

Lastly, we will have another circle dance....the surprise activity awaits you when you come to class!

Toys Lesson 3

Dear mums and dads, here we are at lesson 3...your kids have done two lessons of Toys so far and it has been an exciting journey of sounds, sights and movements as we listen to drums of different sorts, move like different toys and even dance as a group.

For this week, I can't wait to see all the home made musical instruments your kids will bring to class. Hope that you had fun making it and the kids' participation in the process of making it bring out an awareness of how sounds can be made.

We are going to get a chance to demo each home made instrument that are brought to class and we are going to play along to Toembai.

Last week we have the tabla drum from India, this week we will have a chinese drum. The kids will have a chance to see both the drums and compare the sounds and how they look and the different ways of playing. We are going to introduce the Flower Drum Song, a piece of music that has drum play in different sections and the kids will be get to train their listening ear by identifying the sounds of the drum.

Last week, we introduced a new toy which is a top...which was a great hit with the kids. We are going to move our hands and our whole bodies like a top this week.

Remember the Ta ra ra bom de ay song we did during parent sharing time in Lesson 1? This week the kids are going to do move according to the rhythm pattern all by themselves!

We are going to use Al Tambor again this week but this time, not as a circle dance but as an ensemble. Ensemble playing develops many aspects in a child - learning to take instructions, taking turns, developing self control, and developing a keen sense of listening and timing.

I'm going to introduce the different ways of playing a drum while we sing the goodbye song.

Sorry this lesson plan is short....not feeling well, hope to make it to class this week. See you....

Toys Lesson 2

Hi mums and dads, the first class went really well ( both Friday and Saturday classes) considering there are new kids in class and dynamics of the class tend to be different when a new semester starts. It was a joy for me to see the cute adorable faces staring at me when I'm telling the Toy maker story and to see how much they enjoy being in the class, learning and participating in all the activities.

We are going to continue with our toy shop adventure this week, with some old ( to reinforce) and some new activities. Don't forget to bring in your kid favourite toy as we are going to use them as props for the kids to give suggestions on a movement or a sound that toy makes.

We are going to introduce a new toy this week, a top. We are going to look at tops from different countries, and have a live demonstration on how a top works. When we are familiar with it, then we will use our hands and our bodies to move like tops in I am a Top.

Througout the semester, I am going to give the kids a chance to see and feel different types of drums from different countries; how drums are played, what sounds they make, why are they different......this week we are going to India! We'll get to play with a tabla drum ( which my hubby lug all the way back from Nepal) and see how different the drum is from our other drums in the studio.

You will be surprise how many different kinds of drums there is and how every drum has it own unique sound. We are going to listen to some other drums: the pow wow drum, the doundoun drum and the snare drum. The focus of this activity if listening skills. The range of listening skills in young children may be quite wide.

- marginal listeners - who hear all sounds with equal aural value
- attentive listeners - who can give some priority to a single sound source
- analytical listeners - who focus on a single sound source and can describe characteristics of that sound source.

Lastly, we will dance to Al Tambor. This song, popular in Panama, was written in 1918 to publicize a toldo, an open air dance hall which was popular during fiesta times. It was written in the style of tamborito ( a popular Panamanian style of dance and dance music) featuring several drums, dancers and singers, The adaptation uses words which loosely translate to mean "I want you to escort me to the drum of happiness".

See you in class!!

Toys I Make, Trips I Take

Hello everyone! We are back in business! We welcome a new semester, a new class with the promise of new relationships and enriching experiences for both me and for the families in class. Some of the kids have moved up to Young Child, and the rest have continued with Imagine That. We welcome new families into the class and before I share the lesson plan, I would just like to share with the new parents the emotional profile of a three and four year old children:

-may experience separation anxiety
- are learning how to take turns, occasionally finding it difficult
- are learning to make friends
- enjoy being independent and doing things on their own but become easily frustrated if problems arise
- seek frequent approval from adults
- love make believe
- are proud of accomplishments
- experience mood changes
- are aware, perhaps protective, of their personal space.

Righty ho...now that we have got that out of the way, let's see what we have in store for first lesson. We are going to take an adventure into a make believe Toy Shop with the toymaker and meet all the different toys he created this week - the jack in the box, the ball, and the drum.

Let us see how creative the kids are at giving me ideas of different things they may encounter at a toy shop and how these toys move. How do we chug like a choo choo train? How do we fly like a kite? How do we snarl and move like a dinosaur?

We are going to do some music listening to the Jack in the Box jumps up. The 'special sounds' in this recording are fun to listen to and they hold the attention of kids. This listening activity, comprised of 'special sounds" in the context of a larger piece of music, challenges the kids to begin to develop music listening skills. Music listening skills involve comprehending, categorizing, describing, evaluating and comparing. We are going to use our hands and our bodies to mimic the movements of Jack in the Box.

Play, Play, Play is a song that has a simple tonal melody that helps develop singing skills, one of many Kindermusik songs that are specially selected to enable kids to sing sucessfully.

Keep the Ball A-Rolling is a French Canadian River song. Although we sing only part of the song in class, the entire song ( including one verse in French) is on the Home CD.

My Drum is a chant that focus on loud and quiet - which is known as dynamics. Dynamics are important to the expressive power of music. The children will be able to learn about opposing concepts of loud and quiet through experience with vocal play as well as through listening.

Actual drum play will be experienced during parent sharing time. We have a special friend who is going to make his appearance now and then throughout the semester....Bobo, the clown! Bobo is going to teach us a special song which we will be able to play our Kindermusik drums to during parent sharing time. And of course, for first class, we must have a circle dance. This dance emphasizes the importance of people of all ages singing and dancing together. Children and parents experience an emotional and social bonding, a sense of belonging and a nurturing environment. Creating a sense of community is an important goal of all Kindermusik classes.

Mums and dads, those of you who have collected your materials last week, please bring it to class this week as I would like to have the opportunity to orientate you on the use.

I'll see you in class then....Cheerio!

Weathers Lesson 14, 15 and 16

Hi mums and dads, hope you are enjoying this two weeks of school holidays with your kiddoes. I've been busy, running the kindermusik holiday camp which some of the IT kids attended. On the personal front, hubby and son number 2 came back after a 10 day mission trip to Nepal. It was an enlightening and inspiring experience for them. Last night, i sat down and viewed almost 1000 photos of their trip! Daughter number 1 joined the Relay for Life ( an event organised by the National Cancer Society in support of cancer patients) last weekend and it was a great experience for her too. She walked through the night - from 6pm on saturday to 10am on sunday! - at Bukit Jalil Stadium.

Back to lesson plan - the next three last class of Weathers - we will be reveiwing what we have done throughout this curricula. This week we will be reviewing acitivities and songs all related to animals - bunnies, farm animals, dolphins, horses etc. We will also be reviewing the four different themes within the curricula - sun, rain, wind and storm.

I strongly encourage you to go to the website : www.kindermusik.com - and read about Toys for those to remain in Imagine That level and Young Child for those who are graduating. Of course, any questions, please feel free to ask me.

I'll see you in class, bye!

Weathers Lesson 13

Hello everyone, another week has gone by and we are at lesson 13 of Weathers - a few weeks left before the end of semester. I think I have managed to talk to most of you about your child's progress and the plan for next semester. Some of the kids will be graduating to another level, and some will continue with another curricula of Imagine That called Toys. If you do have any questions, please stay back after class and we can spend some time discussing your thoughts and any concern you have. I must reiterate how proud and amazed I am about every single kid in the class. It has been a real pleasure to teach kids like this, and let me tell you I've had my share of hairy experiences with wild kids!

Coming back to the lesson for this week, we will continue with our snow adventure with 'getting dressed' for playing in the snow. Of course, clumsy and forgetful teacher here gets all her boots and hats and mittens in the wrong places and has to be corrected by the kids!

We will do our Jolly Snowman walk and dance again, an activity the kids enjoyed. There were some who felt a bit embarassed when I put them on the spot and asked how a fat, jolly snowman might dance. Some were more spontaneous, some just stared at me loss for ideas! Hopefully this week, with a repeat of this activity, the kids will warm up to the idea of giving me suggestions on how a snowman might move in the snow.

Jingle Bell Symphony, a piece of music that exhibits heavy, ponderous parts, and light, airy parts - we will move and dance in this activity - how do our bodies move in a heavy way, how do we move in a light, airy way? Apart from learning to listen to the dynamics of the music, the kids also learn to be creative in their body movements. We will then repeat this song, this time using instruments to represent the light or heavy sounds.

We were introduced to the handbells last week, and this week the kids will learn about the harp through the song Snowflakes - how the music is produced and the difference between the timbre of the harp and the handbells. We have also been listening to Snowflakes on the glockenspiel. Introducing the kids to different instruments and talking about the sounds of these instruments creates an awareness of different instruments and the sounds they make.

Since we are at the few last lessons of Weathers, we will start doing some review activities from the earlier lesssons. We will start with using the Weggis Song and review the concepts of legato and staccato. Please remember to bring the rainshakers as we will be using it for this activity.

Righty ho, I'll see you all in class this week. Ciao!

Weathers Lesson 12

Hello all, another week has passed. Time REALLY FLIES. We are already at Lesson 12 of Weathers...coming to an end soon and doesn't it just feel like yesterday we started Lesson 1? Looking back, we have come a long way and I must say I am mighty proud of the kids. I have taught many kids, and have had my share of hairy experiences of teaching the wild ones but this bunch of IT kids are just terrific, sincerely from my heart. It is really a joy to teach them week after week and see them absorbing the various activities we do in class. I have learnt through them to be a better educator as well so it has certainly been a rewarding experience for me.

We continue with our snow adventure this week. Snowflakes is a song that has beautiful tonality and we will be using the song to sing and just enjoy the melody and also to let the kids feel the sensation of snow falling on their bodies. I promise you this will be a hit with the kids!

After that, we will be having a snowball play - a chant with creative movement. Again, this is another example of guided pretend play where the kids are introduced to the possibility of using objects and movements as symbols, and thus developing cognitive skills. Many children, especially now with the influence of television and computer, don't know how to do this on their own and we as adults have to show the way by interacting and playing with them.

How does it feel like when we are walking in the snow with snow boots? This activity's focus is learning balance. Balance ability improves as children learn to use internal and external cues to help them remain upright. The internal cues comes from muscles and joints. The external cues are primarily visual ( The joy of movement, by Sandra R. Curtis)

We are going to be introduced to the handbells by doing some listening to musical snow. Handbells characteristically are struck from the inside of the clapper, thus producing a ringing sound, the pitch being relative to the size of the bell. This activity integrates a few domains of development - language ( discussing, describing), cognitive ( remembering, recognizing), musical ( introduction of music instrument), physical ( hearing and singing) and emotional ( feeling the beauty of the music)

Next, snow play would not be complete without building a snowman right? The music focus here is pretend play with singing and movement. This is one of my favourite activity in Weathers curricula and it involves the kids pretending to be fat jolly snowman and to move and dance like one. Watch out what happens in the end when the sun shines down on us!

Alright, parent sharing time - we will be playing an ensemble and moving to Snowflakes. Ensemble is a group of musicians, instrumentalists and/or singers, who perform together. This is basically what we are doing - the children get to play and enjoy music in a social environment and learn to take turns and to accept each other's ability.

Righty ho....I'll see you all this week. Have to go take care of my brood and save them from watching to much TV! Haha

Weathers Lesson 11

Hi all, I had an interesting day today. I attended a one day course on play therapy - which is basically using toys to bring out hurts and issues that have traumatized children. Interestingly, I found some comparisons with what we do in Imagine That curricula. I quote from Ellen Galinsky and Judy David in The Preschool Years:

- Play fosters a positive self concept
- Play promotes language development
- Play stimulates thinking and problem solving
- Play enables children to understand the world
- Play is a forum for children to express and resolve their feelings
- Play enhances creativity
- Play develops social skills and social thinking

Guided pretend play is one of the elements in Imagine That curricula and children these days, living in a society that gives less and less opportunity for play as we put more emphasis on academic, need to have this freedom to just play! Birds fly, fish swim, and children play!

We are going to go skating today as the weather turns colder....it is time to put on our ice skates and skate on a pretend pond to the music of Skater's Waltz. This kind of pretend play allows children to practice separating objects from their real life uses, developing abstract thinking. How would a ice pond feel like? How do we move while we skate? How does our feet move when it is on a slippery surface?

After our slippery adventure on ice, we will have some down time where we relax and rock to a steady beat while we listen to another version of Jingle Bells. It's important for the children to be aware of the different versions of the same song and move in response to the cue of the music.

Time to exercise our voices and tongues after a relaxing time of rocking! The musical focus here is vocal development as we sing All the Day Long in various syllables ( ba, boo, la etc) to the mirror. In this activity the children are led to concentrate on a specific phoneme and to discover how it sounds and feels when spoken in isolation. Looking in the mirror helps support their understanding of the articulation of these sounds.

After this let's dance to the same song in a circle without mums and dads and see what creative ideas on movements we can come up with! I know these children will have plenty of of good ideas that I might not even thought of!

How would one dance to the jazzy version of Jingle Bells? Again, the children are made aware of the different versions of a same song...an education in different genres of music. Mums and dads, we are going jiving again this week so put on your dancing shoes! If time permits, we might just do a spot of skating with the children too!

Let's also see how we can sing, rock and dance to our Goodbye song!

Weathers Lesson 10

Hi all, hope you had a good week, especially as we have a two day break in the middle of the week! I know some of you took off on Monday as well and had a good long break. Well, we are back for another week of class and we have lots of planned activities to do! This week, we are going to do lots of singing and speaking - we are going to concentrate on training vocal development and developing the confidence of singing in a group and deriving pleasure of being in a community and accepting each other.

We are going to have another special guest this week that will come alive in class with a little bit of help with my hand ;-) and he is going to explore with the kids the different ways we can greet hello to each other, from hands to legs to head....

We have a new book to share with you too. It is about three little kittens who love to play outside. One day while they were out playing, the weather started to change from a sunny day to a rainy day.......We are going to enjoy singing and reading together as a group and at the same time, getting to understand the words of the song we sing.

This will be followed by analyzing the music of Funiculi, Funicula....who is singing, what are they singing, is it a high or low voice? is it a happy or sad song? All this is part of training the kids to have an analytical listening ear when they listen to a piece of music.

After the happy singing, we will have a cold wind attack! When Cold Winds Blow where we will enjoy some pretend play with scarves and dim lights and feel how it is like when we are blown by the cold wind.

While we are feeling cold and maybe even miserable because of the weather, what is the best thing to do? Have a campfire and dance around the fire while we chase the blues away with This little light of mine. We are going to explore how to beat steady beat with using a torchlight!

Now that we are feeling warmer with the fire, we can sing snow song - this song is a very familiar song that the kids will be able to sing with much gusto!

Singing is a child's most direct form of musical experience. Singing does not need any external aid or media; it lets children as well as adults be responsible for the production of the music. In a sense, when we sing, we become the music. This immediacy is becoming less and less available in other musical experiences, in which the music is performed for us by professional musicians or is mediated by electronic means.

Songworks l, by Peggy D. Bennet and Douglas Bartholomew

The origin of Jingle Bells, composed by James Pierpont was first sung during the Thanksgiving season. Though it is often associated with the Christmas season, it is actually not about Christmas. Rather it is about wintertime fun!

As you can guess, we are moving to the 'winter' part of the curricula, with lots of snow, skating, snow fights etc! I can say for cetain we are going to have lots of fun learning and exploring this part of the curricula!

Parent sharing time: This week we are going to concentrate on finger movements using the song Lirum Larum. Learning to control finger movements is important and necessary for fine motor skills required for holding a pencil, using scissors, buttoning a shirt or playing a keyboard or a string instrument ( both instruments which the kids will be expose to in the next level Young Child in the Kindermusik Programme) Activities that focus on the ability to isolate and manipulate one finger at a time are excellent preparation for that.