Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 11

Hello mums and dads, hope you had a meaningful Christmas and a good break last weekend. I did!!! I know most of us are still in a holiday mood....and a New Year is approaching in a few days' time. Time flies....

Wasnt the The Kindermusik Bird song we did last lesson so good? Kudos to the mums and dads who helped sing and keep in rhythm. The kids got a wonderful opportunity to listen to this unique vocal ensemble of mummy and daddy turkeys ( gobble, gobble, gobble), woodpeckers ( tok, tok, tok) and cuckoo birds ( cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo).

We are already at Lesson 11 (6 more lessons to go before the end of semester!). We didnt get to do Allee Galloo activity last lesson because I added in some Christmas activities at the last minute. But we will be definitely doing it this week. Please refer to lesson plan 10 for information on the activity.

We are also moving on to the picnic segment of the curricula. I am going to introduce the book, The Ant Picnic Feast. Then we will be going on a picnic (a pretend one of course!) The activity focus here is play which in a right setting, promotes opportunities for children to learn social patterns, interact with others in a positive way for an extended amount of time and communicate more effectively with others. Related to "Going on a picnic" activity is the next activity "Eating is fun" which focuses on singing. I quote from Dorothy T. McDonald and Gene M.Simmons in their book, Musical Growth and Development : Birth Through Six:

"Singing ability is related to the ability to control speech fluctuations, and speech activities appear to help develop tuneful singing skills. The ability to sing and the ability to converse with expressive speech are closely related. Playing with rhythmic speech ( chants, poems, rhymes etc) as well as simple tonal melodies ( bitonic, tritonic etc) help the child develop both singing and speech skills."

Any picninc will not be complete without FLIES!!( especially in Malaysia!) which of course means that we have to "Shoo Fly"! This song will be presented in a way that enhances musical expression. A segment of the song will be noisy and 'chaotic'...and another segment will be smooth and calm. If time permits, we will be playing instruments that express chaos and calm.

Parent sharing time....a time for us to play with spoons! Dancing spoons....will be played in a ensemble of plastic and metal spoons so that the kids can not only play in parts and experience taking turns...but also it allows them to listen to the different parts of the song and respond with their spoon instruments! It is going to be interesting and fun to see what we can do with the spoons!

That's all folks...I see you this Saturday with your cutie pies!