Weathers Lesson 3

Hello, Apa Khabar, Ni Hao Ma? We are taking a trip around the world this week to Turkey, China, Japan and America and learn about the music and the cultures of the people there!

This curricula of Weathers presents a wide variety of music from different cultures - music that touches on rain and sun which is link to what we are doing this term. This week we are going to learn about the rhythm and the styles of music through dances, drama play and instruments.

We are going to China and learn about the song of the Harvest - The Happy Dancer. The kids will learn about a little bit about the background of the Chinese Culture, and about Chinese Music. We are going to enact a drama about people harvesting and at the same time move to the rhythm of the music.

We then move to Turkey where we are going to play and listen to a Turkish song called Uskudar. We will be playing our rain shaker instrument for the first time this week and will explore the various ways to play it and to move to the beat of the music.

Then we will head off to Japan, the land of the rising sun. We will learn about Japanese people and specifically how they move when they dance. This is a practice of learning small movements with our body as we take baby steps, and we shuffle and move our wrist gently while we hold our Japanese fans!

"When movement experiences and the sensations of moving are connected to the expressive and imaginative powers of the mover, we have dance. Dance involves a heightened kinesthetic awareness, a bodily intellingence, and a sharpened perception of movement as an asthetic experience." - The Creatice arts By Linda Carol Edwards, p.103

The parents will join us as we explore the song of the Native Americans - The Spirit of the Sun. This song has a very strong musical beat and we will use this song to play a steady beat as parent and child partner each other. When we are familiar with the beat, we will do a synchronized partner dance with lots of stomping and patting while keeping to the 'pulse' of the song. Of course we must not forget our Kindermusik ankle bells which helps us develop beat competency in the lower body!

Parent Notes:

The Happy Dancer is derived from two Taiwanese Songs, The Love Song and Dance to the Moon, and a series of happy cheering sounds typical of aboriginal people of Taiwan. The Love Song refers to Ahlishan, a beautiful mountain in Taiwan where the Ah-Mei Tribe lived long ago. The Ah-Mei Tribe was especially famous for joyful singing and dancing.

Uskudar is a popular Turkish song originated during the early years of the Ottoman Empire and tells the story of romance between a young woman and a young clerk. As it begins to rain, the two meet on the street in Uskudar. She courts the clerk by dropping her hankerchief on the ground. When the clerk finds it he returns it to her, filled with a candy called the Turkish Delight.