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!