Cities! Lesson 3

Hi folks, hope you are having a good week. Can't believe it's already the month of November. Very soon it's Christmas and there, another year gone. I celebrated my 42nd (YES!) last week. Felt very blessed by family and friends as they celebrated the day with me.

Anyway, lesson 3. We are still taking it slowly as I continue to gradually introduce the concept of city life and what we can see and experience in the city. Last week we talked and sang about different jobs that people do in the city and this week we will combine what we learn in Lesson 1 and 2 - modes of transport and different jobs one can find in the city.

In the City - last week we used the rhythm sticks for this song. This week we are going to learn sign language! I quote from the Teacher's guide:

Sign language is considered the 'unvoiced language" and is easily learned. Signing can:

- help children attend more easily - requires eye contact.
- make language active; children are active participant in the learning process.
- foster self-esteem - gives children more control in expressing themselves.

Here we come a walking - a very versatile song which we can use different modes to teach musical concepts. This week we will use the drums as we play to the beat of walking, running, tip toeing, stomping, jumping etc. We are learning to concepts of fast and slow, loud and soft while we 'walk' around the city with different feet!

Elevator and Escalator - we had fun with this activity as we learn about how we go up and down in the elevator in the shopping mall as we shop for different things. The children get to visually understand to concepts of going up and down in the elevator. This week we are going to use the glockenspiel as we explore glissando. Children will become less inhibited about their singing voices when when vocal play such as this ( using a broad vocal range by producing a glissando sound) is naturally integrated with pretend play.

A new activity this week....The Broom Man. A little bit about the song : it is a street cry, a song sung by a vendor to attract customers. This song was collected by J. Rosamond Johnson, an African-American man who began playing the piano at four and went to become a composer, conductor and Brocdway performer. We will be learning the song, and learning what does the broom man do...while adding the element of composing...what does a rag man do? what about a window cleaner man?

We will also do a spot of music listening: Traffic Jammers. The focus here is to listen with a purpose; a city sound hunt as we try to find with our ears as many different city sounds as possible.

Lastly, we will have an active listening activity - an exercise that introduces the concept of timbre, which is a word that describes the difference among sounds. Listening to differences in timbre, the tone quality or tone color of various musical instruments, allows children to learn to attend to relevant sounds and match these sounds to a specific instrument. Activities in which children identify, compare and analyze sound qualities of instruments help children develop auditory discrimination skills.

Parent Sharing time - a chance of us to dance to a jazzy number as we explore various body movements! See you in class.....

Cities! Lesson 2

Hello folks, I am very proud of the children last week! The new kids adjusted pretty well in class, most of them came in on their own without mummies or daddies ( which is a big milestone for them) and all were cooperative and participated well in all the activities. It just shows that it is really a right time for them to be moving up to Imagine That level.

Meanwhile, the 'veterans' ( how can I do without them) boost up the class dynamics tremendously because they were given jobs to take care of the younger ones and show good examples. And did they take their responsibility seriously. I had one kid in class who kept on telling the younger ones...you can do it guys! C'mon, I know you can! Isn't that the sweetest thing? Parents of Ivan - I am so proud of him!

Alright lesson 2. Here we go....This lesson will be have some songs that are the same as last week though we will be using different medium to bring out the flavor of the songs.

Hey Lolly Lolly, is going to be sung using puppets....all that rhymes with Lolly such as Ernie Puppet, Cookie, Bunny...remember, we are emphasizing two elements in this song.....language development as they find words to compose that rhymes with Lolly, and also learning the rhythm of the song ie when can you hear the word Hey Lolly Lolly. It involves listening skills, rhythm awareness and timing.

Last week I introduced the song In the City. This week we will be singing this song again, this time with the use of rhythm stick - to represent different words in the song - walking, city, go and stop. It encourages creative ways to use the rhythm sticks and at the same time developing focus and attention as the children learn to stop and go.

Here we come a walking - this week I will use this song to introduce different jobs in the city - an understanding the kids must have for later in the curricula.

We are going to learn about a lost dog as we sing Oh where has my little dog gone? This will be in introduction to story telling and story plotting which we will explore in the coming weeks. Getting the children to give me suggestions on what can happen to a lost dog will keep those creative juices flowing and also provide a training in keeping logic and sequence.

Jing Jang, a versatile song which can be use for many activities....this week we will explore the drums....and we will continue exploring various ways to play different instruments as we go along the semester. The children will be given opportunities to share ideas and also at the same time made aware of how different instruments can be played. I am sure I will learn a thing or two myself from the children, as always!

Parent sharing time...I will keep you guessing till you come to class!
See you this week.......take care!

Cities! Busy Places-Friendly Faces - Lesson 1

Welcome to all new parents who are reading this blog for the first time! As you can see, I have been blogging for a while now, mostly lesson plans pertaining to the Imagine That curricula. I know parents are curious to know what their kids are doing in class and I thought this is a simple way to keep you in the know ( of course it also helps me by making sure I do my lesson plan in time!)

Just a brief review of what we will be doing this semester. This is a brief summary from the teacher's guide:

People on the go, rushing everywhere - in the city! - A unit that calls us to co-create a city that is familiar, yet like no other. And a city that's really many 'cities' in one. There's a city of music - of songs, recorded works and city sounds. There's a city of imagination. There's a city of stories - of lost dogs and f0und dogs and a globe trotting photographer. A city of movement - sweeping movement, up and down the elevator movement, dance and freeze like a statue movement. A city of music with the Kindermusik Resonator Bars. A city of games - a shoe passing game, street vendor game; and a movement and matching game involving three artists, math, drum and the Puerto Rican children's game song.

There are LOADS of fun and educational musical activities up the street ( pun intended!). Bearing in mind that Lesson 1 is a new level for some kids who just graduated from Our time, and also the curricula itself being a new concept - we will take it easy the first time. It takes some time to understand what is the concept of a city. Though we are living in one, the kids many not realise what it really means - tall buildings, people everywhere, elevators and escalators, traffic lights, different kinds of transportation - these are the few things we will be touching on in lesson 1.

In the City - the focus of this song is the simple tonal melodies. Singing skills tend to develop in the following order - words, rhythm, phrases and contour. Research shows that children's repertoire should include simple tonal melodies ( bitonic, tritonic) which are close in pitch to speech - which makes singing a successful activity for the child. In this song, we are also introducing the concept of stop and go ( traffic lights) - using visual cue - through movement and instrument playing.

Here We Come A- Walking -the music focus here is singing while moving - and using the aural cue of a drum beat. What can we see while we are walking down the street? For this lesson, I am taking the opportunity to introduce various transportation and the sounds they make. We will be using the knowledge of different transportation later in the curricula.

Elevator and Escalator - the music focus here is glissando sound - a musical effect obtained by playing a rapid series of ascending or descending pitches in a continuous sliding movement. We will be using the slide whistle to demonstrate this and at the same time learning the concept of how the elevator moves up and down in a shop. IN the next lesson, we will be incorporating pretend play in this activity.

Hey Lolly - the music focus is to create new verses . I quote from Jeanne M. Machado ( Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts):

Language abilities in three and four years olds are blooming. "Playing" with language by making new, funny words and sounds benefit children by increasing their skill in using speech creatively. Ultimately, this practice in imaginative speech strengthens the children's linguistic intelligence.

We have covered lots in the first lesson. During parent sharing time, we will be learning, through dance the rhythm of Zum Gali Gali, a song sung by the Israeli pioneers while they worked to turn the Israeli desert into fields and gardens.

Kindermusik introduced a wide variety of songs; of different genres and cultures ( we will be covering songs from India, China, France, Africa and many more in this semester).

I see you all in class. Looking forward to a starting a new musical adventure with your kids!

Toys Lesson 16

Hi folks, believe it or not....LAST lesson for this curricula. I will be saying goodbye to some of you....my darlings that are graduating and moving to another level, another class. I hate goodbyes....keep in touch....

Last lesson, it will be a combination of all the favorite activities of this semester. A time to reflect, and observe how much the kids have grown and how they have progressed this last few months.

We have only one new activity, and that is during parent sharing time. A jaw dropping surprise awaits you....

Next week, we will be starting Cities....a challenging curricula as we explore the various aspects of city life....jobs, places to go, things to do, transportation, sounds of the city....not easy for the kids to grasp some of the concepts, this is where I come in....how to simplify the process of understanding and still able to maintain the learning process and make it fun for all! Believe me....I have been working pretty hard these past few weeks, preparing and thinking and humming and even moving ( especially when I stopped at the red lights!) I work best when I am in the car, listening to the music again and again and waiting for the light bulb to light up on top of my head.

So folks, see you all in class this week. Take care....

Rendang, Ketupats and New Ideas......

Sorry I have been out of touch for a while. We didn't go anywhere during the Raya holidays, just stayed in KL and enjoyed the traffic free roads. We visited friends' and family over the weekend, and I had my share of the glorious and yummy rendang and ketupat....hence the title of this message.

I have also been toying with this idea for a while and finally given a push by hubby who is big into buying and selling from ebay. I will be, in the near future, starting a new blog.....solely dedicated to recommending children's books. Apart from music, this is another huge passion of mine. Reading....whether it is adult or kids books. I collect kids books by the way....and my idea of a perfect time is spending time in a bookshop, all by myself with unlimited budget. Bliss......I am definitely not a TV fan....some of you will be shocked...haven't watch any episode of Desperate Housewives, Grey's ( not even sure of spelling!) Anatomy, no Korean Series....the only show I watch is.....American Idol!!!!

So folks, will let you know when my blog is up. Hopefully it can be help to parents who are overwhelmed when they stepped into a bookshop with the wide array of books available.

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......

Toys Lesson 14

Hi folks, another week has passed. Hope you all had a meaningful week. It's easy to get caught in the daily grind of life that we forget that life is indeed precious and should be lived to the fullest. As I am writing this, my thoughts go out to the innocent girl Nurin who lost her life in such as tragic way. My condolences to the parents. Our society has become a dangerous place for our children. Gone are those days where we can freely roam the neighbourhood without fear of dangers lurking around the corner.......

It has been an enjoyable experience teaching and being with your children these past few months. Personally, I have been taught by them as well. The kids see the world in a different and fresh perspective....and many a times I have been caught off guard by their insights and it has definitely made my life richer. Towards the end of the semester ( we have three more to go till Lesson 16), I hope that the kids will continue their journey of music, the theme of next semester is Cities! ( where we will be learning about different types of jobs, transportation, cities around the world)

Anyway back to Lesson 14. This week we will be moving on to the stuffed toys section where we will be reading, dancing, listening and moving to different songs about our stuffed animal toys.

Tippity Tippity Too, an activity that highlights the benefit of word repetition and rhyming which includes strengthening of memory, reduction of stress and creating an enjoyable form of sound making. I am sure you have gone through the book with your kid by now. It will be good to see the kids rise up to the challenge of rhyming to the different animals I will be bringing - ones that are different from the book.

Animal Dance, an activity that encourage the kids to listen, and to recognize the different sections of the song. The music form of the song is ABCABCCoda, which means there are three distinct types of musical sections on this recording. The children will first listen, and then we will move our bodies accordingly to the different sections of the song.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain, a fun song that promotes pretend play and tapping to a steady beat. We will be using our drums as the bear scratch, and the horse stomp, and the mouse creep as we have our animal parade over the mountain!

Teddy Bear, a song that encourages pretend play and creative body movement which in turn promotes motor development.

Lastly, during parent sharing time, we will be doing Animal Dance again but this time with percussion instruments.

I see you all in class this week. Take care....