Weathers Lesson 13

Hello everyone, another week has gone by and we are at lesson 13 of Weathers - a few weeks left before the end of semester. I think I have managed to talk to most of you about your child's progress and the plan for next semester. Some of the kids will be graduating to another level, and some will continue with another curricula of Imagine That called Toys. If you do have any questions, please stay back after class and we can spend some time discussing your thoughts and any concern you have. I must reiterate how proud and amazed I am about every single kid in the class. It has been a real pleasure to teach kids like this, and let me tell you I've had my share of hairy experiences with wild kids!

Coming back to the lesson for this week, we will continue with our snow adventure with 'getting dressed' for playing in the snow. Of course, clumsy and forgetful teacher here gets all her boots and hats and mittens in the wrong places and has to be corrected by the kids!

We will do our Jolly Snowman walk and dance again, an activity the kids enjoyed. There were some who felt a bit embarassed when I put them on the spot and asked how a fat, jolly snowman might dance. Some were more spontaneous, some just stared at me loss for ideas! Hopefully this week, with a repeat of this activity, the kids will warm up to the idea of giving me suggestions on how a snowman might move in the snow.

Jingle Bell Symphony, a piece of music that exhibits heavy, ponderous parts, and light, airy parts - we will move and dance in this activity - how do our bodies move in a heavy way, how do we move in a light, airy way? Apart from learning to listen to the dynamics of the music, the kids also learn to be creative in their body movements. We will then repeat this song, this time using instruments to represent the light or heavy sounds.

We were introduced to the handbells last week, and this week the kids will learn about the harp through the song Snowflakes - how the music is produced and the difference between the timbre of the harp and the handbells. We have also been listening to Snowflakes on the glockenspiel. Introducing the kids to different instruments and talking about the sounds of these instruments creates an awareness of different instruments and the sounds they make.

Since we are at the few last lessons of Weathers, we will start doing some review activities from the earlier lesssons. We will start with using the Weggis Song and review the concepts of legato and staccato. Please remember to bring the rainshakers as we will be using it for this activity.

Righty ho, I'll see you all in class this week. Ciao!