Toys Lesson 15

Hiya folks, another week has passed and we come nearer to the end of semester. I have been taking some time this week to call parents and discussing about the kids progress and plans for the future. As I have said before, please call me or email me if you need to discuss anything or have any questions to ask, and I will be please to answer them.

This week, we are learning all new activities! Balloon Colors, a song in C pentatonic will be taught, and this activity gives the kids the opportunity to sing in pentatonic ( which consist of five pitches sol-mi-la-do-re) which is based on the Kodaly Philosophy, a Hungarian composer, folk music collector and music educator. Songs organized in certain pitches are intentional to enable children to develop their singing voices and a keen listening ear. It will be done in a fun way that the kids won't even realize that they are being taught (!) because they will be getting to choose the different colors of balloons.

We will also be listening to Chimes, a percussion instrument - it is a set of metal tubes of varying length, hung vertically in a frame in an arrangement similar to that of the piano keyboard and struck at the top with one or two rawhide mallets. The kids will get to listen and to see how chimes look like. After that, they will listen to Toy Cupboard....a piece of music that chimes is one of the instrument used. As I have quoted before, listening is very different from hearing.

Hearing and listening are quite different. Hearing is a process involving nerves and muscles that reach adult efficiency by age four or five. Listening is a learned behaviour, a mental process that is concerned with hearing, attending, discriminating, understanding, and remembering. It can be improved with practice. Listening affects social interactions, one's level of functioning, and perhaps one overall success in life ( Weiss and Lily-White, 1981)

We will also learn about other metal instruments, and explore the different timbre ( quality of sounds) of these instruments.

Tiptoe Too: Dance of the Reed Flutes, another song taken from the Nutcracker Suite ( earlier in the semester we danced to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, which is also taken from the same ) In this piece of music, we will be learning about musical expression....how certain parts of the music sounds light and certain parts, heavy. And how can we translate those expression through instruments ( light sounds will be instruments like triangle and most metal instruments ; heavy sounds will be instruments like drums)

Here is my hoop, an activity that encourages interaction and creativity. What are the different things we can do with our hoops? Use our imagination...a bumpy boat? a sun? a ball?

Lastly, parents be ready with your tippy toes and stomping feet as we dance with our scarves during parent sharing time!

Till I see you in class, have a good week, and take care......