Weathers Lesson 2

Hello parents! The kids all did so well in class last week and I do really feel very proud of them. Being a new semester with all new activities, the kids just slipped into all the activities with not much effort and it wasn't difficult to get them 'hooked' into the new theme.

This week we are visiting the farm on a very hot and sunny day. The day started with the sound of rooster going Kukuriku. The kids will be playing instruments that represent the different parts of the songs - the triangles for the sun and the sticks for the rooster.

After the 'roosters' have sung their song, it is time to see what animals we have at the farm and the different sounds they make! (I went to visit the farm one day)

On the farm, we bumped into some bunnies who came out to play and we got to do some finger play to Here's a bunny. The 'bunnies' then started hopping to Hop to It - a jazzy song which encourages the 'bunnies' to listen to when they have to jump into the safety of their hoop homes!

Neigh...neigh....here comes the horses and we will tap our little feet to Shoe a Little Horse while we learn about the shoes that horses wear!

Gosh, it is such a hot and sunny day that we have to run for shade under a tree and move and sing to some cooling down activities like This is the way we drink our juice. ( tune of Mulberry Bush) At the same time we will have a chance to compose some new verses to this familiar tune.

While we rest, we will sing to Head and Shoulders and learn about tempo - fast and slow- with the metronome.

Finally when the parents joined us, we will dance with Sally Around the Sun - an activity we didnt get to do last week as we did the Chinese New Year Scarf dance instead.

See you all this week....!

Parent notes:
While playing the Ankle Bells, your kids are developing beat competency. Beat competency is a learned skill and develops through playing, dancing, chanting and singing. At home this week, you can extend your child's experiences with the Ankle Bells in a number of ways. Look up Family Activity #2 for lots of ideas.

Weathers Lesson 1

Once upon a time......there was a group of 12 children and 1 teacher who decided to go on a musical adventure to explore the magical world of weathers. They started their journey at home....waking up to the sound of a rooster crowing Ku Ku Ri Ku. Thd children were so happy to hear the song that they sang and move, and even created new sounds for the rooster. The children find the rooster song so easy to sing because its melody is so simple that all the children could sing it!

After the children woke up, they thought about what they can do in the morning....I can this and that and that's what I do! Wow, they found out there are so many activities they can do, like I brush my teeth, brush, brush, brush, brush and I comb my hair, comb, comb, comb comb. They realised that every kid has a different idea and they learn to accept and respect each other's suggestions.

They even had time to sing stories with the story telling boxes - stories about different members of the family doing various activities in the morning.

After spending time in the house, it was time to move into the garden. They make themselves comfortable around the Mulberry Bush and sang and move to various imaginative scenario that one can do in the garden. One of which is growing like a sunflower, from a seed in the ground to a tall plant waving in the wind. The children were magically transformed into Sunflowers and Bunnies.

Of course the children bunnies started hopping all over the place with excitement and we had a hopping time with Hop to It.

The parents of the children then joined us for another round of hopping and then we all danced merrily around the sun and the moon with Sally! Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Weathers story next week!

Parents' corner:

Singing skills tend to develop in the following order - words, rhythm, phrases and contour. Morning Sun has Risen provides immediate singing success through the imitation of the bitonic interval featured in the rooster crow, KuKu RiKu. This interval is accepted as the most common, easily sung interval used worldwide by children of all ages.

Game playing techniques in this creative storytelling activity ( e.g. tossing the Storytelling Box) stimulate the development and sequencing skills and foster the use of memory and recall. The added complexity of movement and singing provides optimum opportunities for connected learning for each child.

Weathers Preview

Hello hello everyone, we are back for a new semester of Imagine That called Weathers. I am excited as we embark on a new journey of learning music together with your kids. In Hello Weathers, Let's Play Together! we will meet an approaching thunderstorm, swirling wind gusts, flaky snowflakes and bright sunny skies that elicit more imaginative play and discovery than a day can possibly hold.

We will:

Listen to musical wind, rain, snow and storm; to handbells ringing and children singing; to a listening puzzle with moving interchangeable pieces and sounds; to Beethoven and the sounds of Chinese language as we compare and contrast sound and songs.

Sing the pitter patter and drip, drip, drip drop of musical rain. Crow rooster sounds. Create the "Boom Bang" of thunder and the "Zig Zag" of lightning while playing on drums.

Move with their Kindermusik Ankle Bells and shake their Kindermusik Rain Shakers as they dash through the windy rain. Experience the feel of legato and staccato in the Weggis Dance and the changing of tempi in Head and Shoulders.

Make homemade wind chimes that encourage the creator within each and every kid.

And........many, many more activities and adventures awaits as we explore the theme of weathers together!

Goodbye SWIS, Hello Weathers!

I can't believe we have finished 16 lessons of See What I Saw! It really seems not that long ago I wrote the plan for Lesson 1. It has been a very fulfilling 16 weeks of teaching for me. I have seen the kids growing emotionally and musically (!) through this time. We have done lots of challenging activities and it has been good to see the kids rising up to the challenge.
We are taking a one week break to which coincide with Chinese New Year holidays.
We resume class on the 24th and I look forward to seeing all the familiar faces again. I'm glad to let you know that we have nearly all the kids from SWIS continuing with Weathers. 11 kids from SWIS are coming back, and we will have a new kid coming aboard.
So the kids will have most of their old buddies which will be great for dynamics and as a teacher, it's good to as I already know them and we can jumped straight into the activities!
Thank you mums and dads for your continuos support. To know that you are coming back because you see the benefit of the programme is a wonderful affirmation to me as an educator.
To all of you who are celebrating CNY, Gong Xi Fa Cai....to the rest, Happy Hols. See you again soon. Take care, especially for those for are travelling this festive season.

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson 14, 15 and 16

Hi mums and dads, trust that you all had a good break last week. I did...we went to Port Dickson for a short break and it was good to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and just sit around doing nothing ;-)

You know, I've been writing lesson plans for SWIS since lesson 1 and I hope you all have been reading it and benefitting from it. But no one has left a comment so far....it would be nice to you can give me some feedback such as whether you would want me to continue...or don't bother as no one really reads it...or where I can improve etc.

Ok, the last three lessons of SWIS. I'm going to try something different. We will be basically reviewing some of the favourite activities during class time, those activities that the kids had fun doing and this time around, I try to be less hands on and see how well the kids have learned through this semester. It will be a chance for me to observe the independent learners and those that need more guidance.

During parent sharing time, it will be a treat for all of you who have brought them faithfully week after week without fail - dancing, singing and playing with us. The kids will put on little mini concerts - pieces of songs that I feel they can perform independently to showcase what they have learned and most importantly, to boost their confidence by performing in front of parents and friends. So, most welcome to bring cameras to capture these moments, and of course both parents are most welcome to be present in the room.

The vital thing to remember here is not whether they have perform right or well....the important thing is that they have confidence to do it and as parents, our job is to cheer our darlings on. The essence of Imagine That curricula is to bring out the creativity in each child and to acknowlege their ideas and their abilities. If I as an educator can see a child moving towards this direction, then I rest at ease knowing that I have manage to 'bring' that out in a child and I have done my job.

So mums and dads, I look forward to seeing you all this saturday.

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 13

Today's lesson has a lot to do with sequencing and musical form. We are going to start the Hello, How do you do? song in a musical rondo. A rondo is a musical form distinguished by the return of the first theme within a series of new themes ( ABA, ABACA, etc). It is not as complicated as it sounds ;-)

For example, to sing the Hello song in a musical rondo of ABACA pattern, a sample of three different motions would be A - clap hands, B - pat knees, A - clap hands, C - tap head, A - clap hands. Get it? Try it while you are reading this....not that difficult right? And can you see how this is tied up to sequencing? Sequencing is a vital aspect in music, and maths...and many other aspects in life in general.

We will also do a musical rondo with the Goodbye song to give you an idea of how it is done.

We will reinforce the learning of sequence by singing The Green Grass Grows all Around, which is known as a cumulative song because we will add additional verses as we go along and hopefully the kids will slowly grasp the sequence that emerge as we add more verses. Cumulative songs can be a fun way to help children stengthen their skill of remembering things in sequence!

We are then going to move to another more challenging activity with patterns which is locomotor movement. Using the On Our Way activity, the kids will be expose to patterns in rhythm. I will use the drum as a cue and we will be moving to the ABAB movement pattern. A sample of it will be A - walking B- jumping . I will attempt not to give any verbal directions ie the kids have to really use their ears to know when to walk, run and stop.

I quote from " Early Childhood Today Interviews: On Math, Music, and More" by Douglas H. Clements:

"Any kind of rhythm is setting children up to understand patterns, and mathematics is filled with all kinds of patterns. That doesn't mean that music equals mathematics, but the two are connected. Research tells us that children deal with patterns all the time. In fact, some mathematicians have even defined mathematics as the study of patterns of numbers in space."

We will also be playing in an ensemble to Shoo Fly, a song that the children have enjoyed tremendously. This week, we will even have a special story book that is entitled Shoo Fly, which will be such a treat for them.

Didn't we have fun with La Cucaracha last week with parents? This week, we will be doing it just with the kids, to reinforce the idea of different sections in a piece of music.

Parent sharing time this week....you will have to help me hunt for my missing dogs who ran away in the park. This activity involves the kids power of observation and counting. You'll see what I mean when you come to class! Then we will All Join Hands and end with a dance!

I'll see you all in class this Saturday. Bye.....

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 12

Oh where, oh where has my students gone?
Oh where, oh where can they be?
With their sweet, sweet smiles and their angelic faces,
Oh where, oh where can they be?

( Sung to the tune of Oh where has my little dog gone?)

We had only FOUR students in class last Saturday! I guess the rest of you are still holidaying somewhere, maybe in the Caribbeans....It was a different atmosphere, but the lesson went on as planned and I believed we all had great fun and much learning done.

This week we are going to continue with the picnic series. We are repeating the Going on a picnic activity but this time we are taking a "rhythmic walk" to the picnic spot. The kids had great fun picking the food to bring to picnic last week and this week we are going to do the same, except this time we'll try to pick healthier foods ;-) No more fries and burgers!

The kids had a good time shooing away the Malaysian flies last week and this week, I'm afraid we will be attacked by flies again. Again, we will be singing the song with actions, and then enhancing it with instruments. As per last week, this song is used to project expression in music...one section of noise and chaos, and another of sweet and calmness.

This week, not only are we attacked by flies, but we will also be drenched by a downpour! We will be using various instruments to create the sounds of rain. The activity focus here is to give the kids the opportunity to recreate experiences. Creative experiences encourage exploratory behaviour and encourage an active response rather than a passive one.

Of course after the rain we have to invite our favourite Mister Sun out so that we can continue with our picnic. We will be singing the Mister Sun song to the finger and hand movements which we did once before during parent sharing time. It's so important for children this age to be encouraged to explore as many possible ways of moving - whether it is fine or gross motor skills.

We will also be moving to "Precious Stone" which is a classic rock piece featuring cello, bassoon, clarinet, oboe and flute. I'll be showing them pictures how these instruments look like and how they are played.

Parent sharing time....we will be moving and grooving to "La Cucaracha", a traditional Mexican folk song. We're going to need lots of energy for this dance so eat your breakkies before you come for class! Lastly, if we don't run out of time, we will use the parachute to emphasize the glissando sound in "Allee Galloo"....the kids did great with the glock and body movements last week for this activity.

So, hope to see ALL of you this Saturday! 5 more lessons to go and we'll be done with this curricula.....the next one will be called "Weathers"....a curricula based on summer, spring, autumn and winter. I will try to write up a short print out on it soon!