Weather Lesson 6

Hello everyone, hope you had a good weekend break. Time flies....here we go again...into lesson 6 of Weathers.....

Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter....how do we say Hello with our rain shakers? Let us see how creative and imaginative the kids are in discovering the many ways to play the rain shakers with our Hello song. You know, the kids have often surprised me with how good they are in thinking out of the box...especially in a Kindermusik environment where we support and affirm ideas from the kids.

Remember the Sun and Rain Dance? We are going to continue to listen to different long and short sounds of different instruments and moving in response to these sounds. The concept of staccato ( short bumpy sounds) and legato ( smooth connected sound) will be reviewed again and how these two sounds relate to the rain and the sun.

This week we are going to explore Sign Language. There are many benefits in learning this:
- create an environment for understanding without words.
- make languge active; children are active participants in the learning process.
- help children attend more easily - requires eye contact ( children are overloaded with sound in the environment)
- foster self-esteem - gives children more control in expressing themselves and is an acquired skill.

We are going to listen to musical raindrops and musical wind - and sign what we hear. We then going to translate what we hear into symbols ie how does raindrops look like? how do we draw wind? Through this activity, the kids are learning the relationship between sounds and symbols - a concept which is useful in learning to read musical notes as they advance to higher levels in the Kindermusik program.

What kind of props can we use to make short staccato rain sounds? What kind of props can we use to symbolise the smooth connected sound of the wind? The activity of I can hear the rain and wind is another example of integrated learning. It requires the kids to:
- label sounds with music terminology
- demonstrate a musical interpretation sound ( of rain) and movement ( of wind)

How do we walk when the wind blows? Of course we walk the Windy Walk! The kids are using their bodies to express what they hear aurally - walking steadily with the drum cue and walking while their bodies are blown by the wind with the slide whistle cue. How do we walk if it is a strong wind? How we walk if it is a light wind? What if the wind blows so hard that we fly into the sky and then land with a bump? Again, we are hearing and moving to legato and staccato sounds.

Parent sharing time: We are going to have a legato and staccato dancing and singing game so be prepared to move! Mums and dads....hope we will be good role models to our kids! Let us move with enthusiasm and don't be shy! It is going to be an exciting time of learning - moving, dancing, playing instruments, listening, drawing.....using all our senses to learn music the Kindermusik way!