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.

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 2

1. Hello, How do you do?

For this lesson, I will be using instruments to play hello to each other. We will be playing to steady beat and as well as other creative options suggested by the kids. This is a way to encourage creativeness and to think 'out of the box'. Again, this promotes self esteem and confidence in one's ability to suggest ideas. No wrong or right way of playing as long as the kids can label the movements and tell me what it is. Share with you something cute. Last week, when we were playing rhythm sticks to "This Old Man", one kid rolled the sticks on the floor and he called it the 'roti canai' movement! The kids loved it, and later when I asked them for 'roti canai' movement, they all remembered and we all have a good laugh over it. To me, this is part of what a Kindermusik class is all about. Fun and laughter, freedom to give ideas and know that it will be accepted and acknowledged by your peers and teacher.

2. What do we do when we all go out?
This week, we will be doing some basic composing. I will be asking the kids to tell me what they can 'see' when we all go out, rather than 'do' - so what do we see when we all go out? To enhance learning and to make it relevant to the theme of park, I will be introducing creatures that we can see at the park - grasshopper, ants, ladybird, bird.....and moving to them. Hopping like a grasshopper, crawling like an ant... The development of body awareness in children this age is very important.

3. Grasshopper Park Story
For this lesson, I plan to incorporate the slide whistle as sound effects in the story. See Saw ( up and down pitch), swing ( sliding sound) and slide ( gradually going up as in climbing up the ladder and then sliding down). This is the expose the kids to the different ways of playing and making sounds with the slide whistle. Interactive story telling incorporates a variety of experience..singing, speaking and playing with vocal sounds.

4. Grasshopper Park Medley.
This is an instrumental movement piece. The kids will be encouraged to listen and recognize the three different segments - swing, slide and see saw and move to the approriate section. This is to develop analytical listening skills.

5. Ha, Ha This a Way
We will be using drums to beat to the different rhythms of walking, running and jumping. Last week, we moved to the cue of the drum. This week, every kid will have a chance to play on one drum each and to show me how they can drum to running, walking and jumping.

6. Parent Sharing Time
We will continue to explore the slide whistle ( by using the Do as I'm Doing song) and I will be introducing graphical notation which is a simple visual method for the kids to learn how to blow the whistle. Will be teaching the long and short sounds this week.

7. Everbody wave and sing goodbye

Imagine That - SWIS Lesson Plan 1

See What I Saw (SWIS) – Lesson 1

Lesson Outline:

1. Hello, how do you do?
For the new parents, the hello song is a ritual. It is a chance for the kids to warm up, and also for the educator ( that is me!) to observe their personality and their ability to sing the words and whether they are singing in the right pitch.


2. This Old Man
In this activity, I will be using the rhythm sticks to develop steady beat through imitation.The kids will be encouraged to imitate me by playing the sticks in various ways while keeping to a steady beat. The most fundamental property of music is beat, the underlying repeating pulse. Playing an instrument to a steady beat helps develop a sense of time and the ability to organize and coordinate movements within time.

3. On Our Way
By using the drum, specific signal such as walking, running, jumping and ready stop will be played and the kids will be asked to listen and focus on the signal, understand the meaning of the signal and then transfer the meaning to a self controlled action.

4. What Shall We do?
The focus of this activity is pretend play. The kids will be invited to talk about what they might do in the park and we will be translating their ideas into pretend play. Using the kids’ contribution develops self esteem and also honed leadership skills.

5. Grasshopper Park Story
The focus of this activity is literacy development and play, which promotes understanding and acceptance of others and provide safe boundaries to examine who one is and who one wants to be. We will be learning the songs of seesaw, swinging and slide down.

6. Do As I’m Doing
This is a follow the leader activity. Kids are encouraged to observe and respond to a steady beat motion, and sustain attention by staying with a motion for a length of time. It also promotes understanding in following guidelines of the activity.

7. Parent Sharing Time
Demonstrating the use of the slide whistle – long and short sounds, high and low pitch. Introducing up and down movements in relation to the high and low pitch.

8. Ha, Ha, This a Way
Using the high and low pitch of the slide whistle, we will be moving up and down to the cue of the whistle.

9. Everybody Wave and Sing Goodbye
Circle time goodbye song.