Imagine That - SWIS Lesson 9

Hello parents! Hope you are finding enough activities to fill the time of the kids who are on holidays! There is the kindermusik camp to consider if you are looking around for options. You can get the information from reception.

This week, we will be doing activities to train the ears and to relate high and low instrument sounds to animals in the park. For example, the sound of a triangle will be a high sound and the kids will have to think of animals in the park that are high up - like a bird or butterfly. This will be done with the hello and goodbye song. The kids will not only get training in listening but also to be able to translate what they hear into something that is real.

I didn't get a chance to do the Feed the Birds activity last week so we will definitely do it this week. As I mentioned before in the previous lesson plan, this activity focus on copying which is a process that involves the ability to discriminate sound patters, activate auditory memory and imitate sound pattern. We utilise this skill when we play instruments by ear.

We will be empahsize on fine motor skills this week through the activities of Three Blue Pigeons and Mister Sun. The kids will be taught fingerplay; which is a chant or song coupled with finger motions, through these two songs. As most of you would know, the development of fine motor skills, which are movements made by the coordination of smaller muscles such as those in the hands, feet and mouth are very important as the kids need these skills in many aspects of their life - playing a musical instrument, writing, painting etc.

We will be doing some puppetry play during parent sharing time. Your At Home Materials Family Activity #9 has several suggestions how to make finger puppets at home. There is something magical about singing a song while playing with finger puppets or hand puppets. The power and use of puppets fulfills many developmental needs of the child and opens up the door to imagination and make-believe. Extending vocabulary, building self-esteem, exploring emotions, coordination of speech and movement - these are a few benefits associated with puppet play.

We are going to dance to All Join Hands.....and let us see how many creative ways we can move our body parts in circles!! Parents, this is a chance for you to see the kids think out of the box. You will be surprise how good Kindermusik kids are at doing this because of the many opportunities they get to explore different ways of moving.

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 8

Hello, hello, hello! We had a smallish class last week. I guess many are away on holidays. Well, you missed the surprise I had for the kids in class!

This week, I will be starting and ending the class with some training in audiation. Audiation is hearing and comprehending in one's mind the sound of music that is not physically present. For example, we will be singing the hello song...but at the 'hello' word, we won't sing but tap the drums instead. The kids have to 'sing and listen' to the hello in their minds and not with their mouth. We will also do it again with the goodbye song so the parents can see what I mean.

We will be doing the 'Mister Sun' song, a song which is quite familiar to fans of Barney the Purple Dinosaur! We will be adding movements to the song and at the same time getting them to think creatively how to make circle movements with different parts of their bodies! We will aso be doing some music listening of whistling to the tune of Mister Sun. The kids probably can't whistle yet but they may try to! I might be pleasantly surpise to find one or two kids that can whistle. Kids who are unable to whistle can imitate whistling with a high pitched vocal sound. This is a wonderful way to help them practice the use of their head voice. Whistling uses the same muscles that are required for clear articulation of language.

We will also be doing 'Walking on the Bridge' together, in alternating motions. And enhancing it with different speed....walking, running, jumping etc using the rhythm sticks.

Another movement activity...'Row, row, row your boat'. We will be moving to different types of boat : rowboat, sailboat and motorboat... and how different boats move in different ways. We will use props to enhance learning, sticks for paddles, scarves for sails, and paper plates for steering wheel.

'Feed the birds' - an activity that requires the kids to listen to different rhythm patterns in speech and to copy them. Copying is a process that involves the ability to discriminate sound patterns, activate auditory memory and imitate a sound pattern. It will be interesting to see how the kids perform in this activity. Will let you know!

We will be using the slide whistle this week for parent sharing time. We will 'test' the kids to see how well they can blow.

I look forward to seeing all of you this week. Adios!

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 7

We are moving into the birds part of the curricula. This week we will be getting the children to do some anlytical listening - listening to different types of birds and identifying them visually. Analytical listening requires children to :

* Evaluate what is heard and comprehended
* Contemplate and reflect
* Weigh new information against what is already known
* Discuss, sharing thoughts, opinions and viewpoints.

We are also going to listen to Birdland and again we are going to do some listening exercise where the children will be asked to listen and give me feedback - is it soft or loud? high or low? silence or sound?

I would like to pick a quote from Weiss and Lilly-White, 1981 : Hearing and listening are quite different. Hearing is a process involving nerves and muscles that reach adult efficiency by age four to five. Listening is a learned behaviour, a mental process that is concerned with hearing, attending, discriminating, understanding and remembering. It can improved with practice. Listening affects social interactions, one's level of functioning, and perhaps one's overall success in life.

We are going to be 'scarf birds' and dance to Birdland. This activity allows the children to freedom to be expressive, freedom to add creative interpretation and imagination to the movement experience. The children will also be shown different birds and talk about how they move - swoop, soar, waddle etc.

The home made shaker instruments will be use for Obwisana. Making and exploring shaker instruments will provide opportunities for your child to learn and discover by finding new information, making comparisons, and conducting sound experiments.

During parent sharing time, we will be using movement cards to dance to Springland. These cards are designed not only to encourage creative movement but also to foster a nurturing, supportive environment for language development and emergent literacy.

Another activity will be a surprise....so I wont tell. You have to come to class to know!

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 6

Today's lesson is structured with the purpose of giving the children plenty of opportunities to contribute their ideas and to sing and compose. We will be singing and composing to the song Who has the button? which is a singing game. The children will each get a chance to pick an item from a container and sing the song back to me, replacing the words in the song with the item they chose. This is first baby steps towards composing and developing the confidence to sing in public.

With the items found in the park brought from home, we will be again doing the In My Pocket activity where the children are given the opportunity to hum and to contribute to the class. We will be talking and singing to the 'nature treasures' that they collected. Children at this age feels proud when they bring something to show their friends!

During story time ( Book: Can You Find Me?), we will do some simple dramatization. While reading the book, the children will be invited to act out the story by pretending to be the animals and the leaves. Through this type of integrated learning, the children are being exposed to several domains of development: language, movement, creativity and pretend play.

We didnt manage to do the Windy Weather activity last week ( ran out of time....!) so we will be doing it this week. As I said last week, this activity is an expansion of what we have been concentrating on a lot in this curricula, breath control.

The children will get to play the bells this week to the medley of Grasshoppers Three. It is good for me to get a chance to observe their steady beat skills and ability to follow instructions and to focus.

Parent sharing, we will be using the slide whistle after taking a few weeks break from it. This time we will use it to 'tell' the story of Josh and Katie. We will also be introducing a new circle dance (Oopsy Daisy) something we have yet to do this semester.

Homework ( again!!): Please bring a home made shaker instrument to class next week. Thanks mums and dads....I know you guys are busy people, but I hope you will have fun thinking and making the instrument with your darlings!

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 5

Time flies! We are already at Lesson 5 of the curricula. The kids have been wonderful and a joy to be with. Every single one of them! I am beginning to see their personalities ( especially the new kids). This bunch of kids are so teachable and eager to learn. I am proud of them!

For this week, it will be a combination of old and new songs. I will be introducing a new song called Obwisana. This is a popular children's play song from Ghana in West Africa. The translation is : Oh, Gramma, I just hurt my hand on a rock". I am going to use this song to teach the children a simple sequencing pattern with their hands. It involves a series of movements which in turn encourages turn taking. Turn taking requires self control and the ability to postpone one's wishes, which when mastered, will enhance social skill of a child.

We are also going to use Obwisana during parent time activity and we will incorporate egg shakers into the activity.

We will do My Tree House again but this time I am hoping for more suggestions from the kids, especially the quieter ones in class.

Two more new songs which will be introduced are Like a Leaf or a Feather and Windy Weather. Both activities involve whole body movements. The first one, the kids will be encouraged to move like a leaf and they will help give me suggestions how a leaf move - swaying, twirling, swirling....When movement verbs are introduced and experienced in the context of a related movement activity, a child's vocabulary and understanding of words is expanded.

Windy Weather is an activity that highlights blowing - which benefit both the speaking and singing voice by strengthening the diaphragm and lungs. In Family Activity #5 in the Family Activity book, there are suggestions of what you can do with your kid at home to enhance this skill.

We will also be introduced to a instrument called the metronome which is an instrument musicians use to keep beat. We will work with parents as a team to the song Ha Ha this is Way and to keep to the beat of the metronome.

Homework (!!): Bring something you can find at the park next week to class. Thanks mums and dads.....

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 4

Children of Imagine That age enjoy and thrive on pretend play. " Play is the most important thing in a child's life," says Karen Miller, consultant to the Kindermusik International Creative Team and author of Ages and Stages and The Outside Play and Learning Book. Early childhood researchers and theorist agree that play is significant in the development of children physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively.

In today's lesson there are several activities that involve pretend play, such as My Tree House and In My Pocket. We will also be introducing our first book Can You Find Me? which is a riddle book which contains verbal and visual cues. Finding an answer through a series of questions and clues encourages thinkings skills needed for problem solving.

We will also be doing a humming activity. Humming has two specific benefits. Humming over a period of time increases the strength of the acoustic spectrum, which affects the quality of the singing voice. Also, an extended period of time of humming increases the carrying power of the voice, resulting in more volume with less effort.

We will also be listening to Tricky Trails where the children will be introduce to the music that has three movement pathways - zig zag, curved and circle. Movement activities that involve pathways help children develop skills used in writing and copying and even map reading!! ( maybe the dads and mums can do with a bit of help in the map reading area too, hehe!)

Lastly, I would like to include this quote by Sue Bredekamp and Carol Copple in Developmentally Approriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs : Among the key tasts of early childhood educators is supporting children's developing sense of self.....It is an environment of encouragement and genuine respect that children are able to develop confidence and competence, not by being told how worderful or special they are but by being given chances to take initiative, experience success in perfroming difficult tasks and figure things out for themselves.

SWIS Lesson Plan 3

This week we will be concentrating on developing and highlighting the listening ear of your child.

We will strive to improve your child’s listening abilities through Music Listening activities. This week we will listen to “Silly Slides,” a recording that contains glissando sounds. The children will be asked to identify the sounds of different instruments (clarinet, trombone, slide whistle) playing glissandos. Listening discrimination is a valuable skill, one that can lead to the ability to make choices, to understand sound, and to appreciate beauty of sound.

We will also be listening to "This Old Man", a recording that contains sounds of trombone, piano, drum and bass. The kids will be encourage to listen to the different instruments and we will be discussing the different ways of producing sounds on these instruments.

The children will also be asked to identify the various rhythm pattern on a drum, ie walking, running, jumping, tip toeing and skipping. They will get a chance to listen and imitate the rhythm pattern with their hands, just be using their ears to listen ( I will beat the rhythm with the drum hidden behind a box!)

We will be introducing a new song, "Everything is just fine". Again, I will be using this song as a tool for the children to listen and discern the lyrics of the song. We will move and play instruments to this song, according to the various parts of the song.

We continue with the story of Josh and Katie using the sound effects of the slide whistle. Again, this is training the ear to discern the different ways a slide whistle can produce sounds and how we can use the sounds to relate to real life situations, in this case the different playground equipment...the swing, see saw and slide.

Lastly, the slide whistle. We will continue with the learning of graphic notation.

While listening to your Home CDs, ask your child simple questions such as “Do you hear a man singing or a child singing?,” “Is that music fast or slow?,” or “Do you recognize any instruments that are playing?” Encourage listening for preferences by asking such questions as “Do you like the sound of that song?,” or even “Why do you like that song?” It is never too early to start talking with your child about her preferences, encouraging her to make comparisons and talk about distinctions.