In addition to singing, moving, and playing instruments, the four year old class will be learning about music from around our world. We started this week with a variety of music from North America, specifically the United States.
Jazz music began in the United States by blending music from other cultures around the world and became popular in the early 1900’s (This kids didn’t get this background in class, they just experienced the music.) Ella Fitzgerald was a popular jazz vocalist and her version of A Tisket A Tasket is fun to listen to and play a duck duck goose style game with that we will enjoy closer to valentines day.
America The Beautiful is one of our countries songs that every American citizen should learn. Scholastic has beautiful books to go along with some of our countries songs. We sang the song together and then went through the book a second time to see what each phrase of the song was saying about our country.
Aaron Copelands was an American composer and his music can make you feel like you are out west. We jumped on our horses and galloped, cantered, and jumped to the beat to Copelands Hoe Down.
One of the most famous American ragtime pieces is Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag. We enjoyed exploring all of the ways we could move egg shakers to the beat of this song.
In addition to music around the world we are always enjoying some Christian songs as well. This week we danced to This Little Light of Mine. It’s easy to change this song to include ways we can move as well (These dancing feet of mine).
Music can help us be excited, move, and play and it can also help us calm down. We end each class with a calm song. Singing calm songs at home can help both adults and children relax and calm down before bed, a nap, or anytime you may need a calm moment.
