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.