Journey Montessori April 28

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We continued working on high and low sounds this week.  The students performed rhythm patterns in either a silly high voice or a silly low voice.  Listen for high and low sounds around your house or when you are out and about and create your own silly high and low sounds this week!  This is great vocal practice.

After playing around with high and low we listened to all of the pieces from "The Carnival of The Animals" that we had been listening to over the past couple of months.  This students job was to identify the animal the music was about and any instruments they heard.  They were very quick at identifying what animal the music was about.  We had fun moving around like lions, hens and roosters, fish in the aquarium, fossil bones, kangaroos, turtles, birds, and elephants.  Below are some of the pieces from "The Carnival of the Animals" that we did not get to in class.  Enjoy listening to them and identifying the animal and what instruments are playing at home.

Donkeys



Cuckoo


Swan


Pianists



Finale


Tomorrow from 10:00 - 12:00 is the Charlotte Symphony Lollipops concert where they will be performing the Carnival of The Animals!  This is a great opportunity to see the symphony with your young children.  I hope you can attend!  If you miss out on this performance look back for next years Lollipops season that starts in the Fall.

Check out the Music Together Post below.  There is a great video of the Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly playing a rhythm game.  It's a fun game to try at home.  Also listen to the Boston Pops patriotic sing along.  How many of the patriotic songs that they play do you know and sing with your children at home?

Music Together April 27 and 28

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We discussed audiation this week along with the songs "All Around The Kitchen," and "Listen to Me Play The Drum."  "Audiation is the process of mentally hearing and comprehending music, even when no physical sound is present.  It is a cognitive process by which the brain gives meaning to musical sounds."  An example of using audiation is when you sing the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and stop saying one more body part each time you sing it.  Even though you are not singing that part, your brain is still hearing the music for it and keeping the rhythm of the song so you come in correctly when you begin singing again.
Music Together LLC posted a wonderful video on their Facebook page.  Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly play a rhythm game in the video where they tap the rhythm of a song and you have to guess what song it is.  Enjoy the video below and then try that game with your favorite songs at home this week.



Our dance this week was the Chicken Dance!  Below is the video for the version we used so you can dance along at home.



Our play along was Yankee Doodle performed by the Cincinnati Pops.  If you want the actual song used as a play along in class you can get the mp3 with this link.
       
If you do not normally sing patriotic songs a home think about adding them to the list of music you sing and play with your children.  Some of the standard American patriotic songs are included in the video below done by the Boston Pops.  Enjoy singing along to My Country Tis of Thee, America, Yankee Doodle, This Land is Your Land, You're A Grand Old Flag, and God Bless America.  After the sing along listen to Stars and Stripes Forever.  It's also a great way to get ready for the 4th of July!


Journey Montessori April 14

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The Montessori students have been working on 4 and 8 beat rhythm patterns.  The students are all continuing to do a great job creating their own 4 beat rhythm patterns vocally (with animal, and other sounds).  Some of the students are now creating their own 4 beat pattern with body percussion as well.  
In our last few classes we added high and low sounds to our rhythm patterns, as a class.  I sang them a pattern and they had to tell me which sound they heard, high or low, and how many times they heard it.  We then added this repeated pattern as a ostinato (A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm) along with a train song we have been singing.  The students helped me graph the ostinato on paper using simple long or short lines as symbols.  Reading the long and short lines for the ostinato is a beginning step to reading music.  The short lines can become quarter notes and the longer ones half notes.

_ _ _ _                _ _ _ _         ___
  
               _ _ _ _                _ _ 




Music Together Dance and Play Along

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We worked on a simple start to doing some musical improvisation in our last class.  


Musical Improvisation is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition.  


We improvised with several songs by simply having you or your child come up with a movement or animal to change the verse.  In "Jumpin' Josie" you changed the song by changing the movement.  For "Hop Ol' Squirrel" the song was changed by selecting something different from the picture.  Improvising for "Train to the City" was a little more involved because you had to tell me how you were traveling and where you were going.  


These are great activities to try at home.  Change your favorite song to help out with your child's bedtime routine, or getting out the door in the morning.  If you (the adult) improvise with songs then your child will learn to too.  It is just fine for the adults in class to come up with ideas for songs too!

Here is a link to Dan Zanes "All Around The Kitchen" so you can enjoy it at home!
(Click the title above for the full version or the video below for a shorter version.)



Our Play Along song was "Old McDonald" sung by Ella Fitzgerald.  It came from the CD Jazz For Kids.  The whole CD is great and highly recommended.
     


Journey Montessori April 7

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Today we talked about high and low sounds in a variety of songs.  We started using icons to identify when the music was high or low.  Using icons such as simple lines is a first step to reading real notation.  As you listen to music with your children ask them if they can identify high sounds, low sounds, and what instruments they hear playing.  The children are getting very good at identifying key instruments and musical components.

Our Carnival of the Animals piece for today was the Fossils!  We heard instruments from the string family, the clarinet from the woodwind family, and the piano and xylophone from the percussion family.  Watch the video below with your child so they can see all of these instruments playing.  We also heard the familiar tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" hidden in the middle of the piece (listen for the piano to play it around 1:19)!

Children Lean Best Through Play!

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Music Together posts some wonderful articles on their Facebook site.  Check out this great article about research done that proves children learn best through playing and exploring!  If you haven't looked at the Music Together Facebook page check out Music Together LLC.



A squeeze, a squeak, a glimpse of learning

Studies find clues to babies’ minds


http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/03/28/researchers_study_how_babies_think/?camp=misc%3Aon%3Ashare%3Aarticle

Carnival of The Animals

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It has been awhile since I put an update on here about what we are doing in class.  Over the past month we have continued to work on finding the beat, identifying contrasts in music, creating rhythm patterns, and identifying musical instruments and they family they belong in by listening.  Here are some of the pieces from Carnival of the Animals that we have listened to recently in class.










On Saturday, April 30 the Charlotte Symphony will be performing The Carnival of the Animals with the North Carolina Dance Theater School of Dance for their Lollipops (kids) concert.  The Lollipops concerts are a fantastic way to introduce your child(ren) to the symphony.  They let the kids play the instruments of the orchestra and make their own instruments before the concert!

Click this link to find out more about the concert:  http://www.charlottesymphony.org/Lollipops.asp


CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS
Saturday, April 30, 2011 
North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance
Jacomo Rafael Bairos, conductor

Dancers from the North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance strut, prance, pounce, and glide in Saint-Saëns’s musical menagerie, Carnival of the Animals. Hens and roosters, tortoises and kangaroos, and the elegant swan all come to graceful and boisterous life in the Lollipops season finale.

Journey Montessori, February 10

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I have so much fun teaching your children each week!  We listened to the Tortoises from the Carnival of the Animals this week.  We talked about how slowly they were dancing and used large, slow stretching movements to go along with this music.  The children are getting more accurate with identifying instruments and what families they belong in each week!  Listen to the Tortoises at home this week and see if your child can identify the animal the music is about and what instruments they hear!  Parents can you hear a slow version of the "Can Can" being played?  If you want to hear the fast/regular "Can Can" go to the May 22, 2010 posting and click the YouTube link there for it, then come back and listen for the slow version the turtles do here!



We also had a wonderful time dancing to the "Russian Sailors Dance."  The children changed the way they were dancing and moving each time the music changed.  We had to move with big and small, loud and soft, fast and slow, and high and low movements.  Try this out at home with your child.  If you don't know how to move to the music just follow what they do, kids are smart!  You can listen to the "Russian Sailors Dance" by clicking on the YouTube link under the January 27, 2011 post.

Your children are creating fantastic rhythm patterns each week.  I am always amazed at their creativity and willingness to share!

If you have the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" at home, ask you child to sing it to you.  We sang the book to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

Music Together February 10

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I had a great time time playing so many different instruments in class this week!  The songs we used that were not from the sticks collection were:

Dance with Scarves
Doop Do De Doop by: Blossom Dearie



Our parachute song was the ABC song off of a CD called Jazz for Kids.

Parents you sang a fantastic ostinato (repeated part) for Black Socks!

The play along song was called Hop The Fence.  
I am working on putting all of those songs on here so you can listen to them at home.  If you liked them you can click the links here to buy the mp3.

Journey Montessori, February 3

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Today at the Montessori School we continued listening for what instrument was playing in selections from the Carnival of the Animals.  The children identified the bass and violin in the string family, the piano in the percussion family (because the hammers inside the piano strike the strings), and the flute in the woodwind family.  We listened to the Hen's and Roosters and Lions from last week and they identified the instruments and animals by listening.  To listen to those pieces at home check out last weeks post below.


We also started working on short and long rhythms today, and reviewed soft and loud, (although the kids think we were just having fun!) We pretended to be asleep, get hungry for a cookie, and sneak to get one without getting caught!  Somehow we always seem to get caught when the loud "surprise" comes!  We play this game with the first part of Haydn's Surprise Symphony.  Listen to at least the first 31 seconds of the piece below. 
"Haydn's music contains many jokes, and the "Surprise" Symphony includes probably the most famous of all: a sudden fortissimo chord at the end of an otherwise piano opening theme in the variation-form second movement. The music then returns to its original quiet dynamic, as if nothing had happened, and the ensuing variations do not repeat the joke."  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._94_(Haydn)  The surprise comes at 0:31 in the link below!  Some say this symphony is called the Surprise symphony because Haydn added the sudden surprise to wake up the concert goers who had fallen asleep while listening!



Music Together February 3

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Unfortunatly I don't have many YouTube links this week but if you liked the polka version of "The Ten Little Indians" that used for our play along today you can get it very cheep with the link below.
Ten Little Indian's is a fun song and it can help with counting and fine motor skills!  For older children have them show you how many with their fingers while you sing this song and practice counting forward and backward.  Before you count with the song you can practice this fine motor skill together counting slowly.  When you count back down you can blast off!  10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 BLAST OFF.  For those of you interested in having your child start Suzuki violin or piano this is a great beginning for that!  Fine motor skills also help with handwriting later on.




I had so much fun jumping and strutting around for our dance today but unfortunately I don't have any kind of link to share for that song.  I had a hard time finding it myself.  If you really liked it let me know and I'll get you  a copy.

For those of you with children age 3 and older who are interested in Suzuki lessons I highly recommend the following.
1.  Do the above fine motor skill work.
2.  Watch to see if your child is able to keep the beat when drumming, marching, etc.
3.  Listen to see is your child is able to sing full songs in tune.
If you are seriously considering Suzuki violin or piano go ahead and get the Suzuki violin or piano book 1 with CD and start listening to it now!  The Suzuki method is by ear and that is why it is so wonderful for young children.  It is never too early for your child to start listening to the songs they will be performing one day.  I can tell you from experience the more you sing the songs the easier they will be able to play one day.  Here are some links for recommended Suzuki books and camps!
    












 Community School of the Arts Charlotte  http://www.csarts.org/
Suzuki Violin Camp 1: Discovering Suzuki - Beginning and Pre-Twinkle Students

Open to both currently enrolled Pre-Twinkle students and children with no prior experience. Pre-Twinkle
students will attend classes designed to expand their fundamental skills, while newcomers will enjoy a fun
introduction to the world of violin playing. Additional activities include music and movement lessons, listening
games, and arts and crafts.  Come discover the joy of making music as a community!
July 11-July 15
Covenant Presbyterian Church    
Ages 4.5 to 7
9AM-1:00PM
Price: $180
Camp Director: Laurel Talley
Click here to register.

Music Together January 27

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Below are the links for some of the extra songs we used today to play with musical contrasts.  I encourage you to listen to the music at home and see how you can change the way you move and play to fit the music.  As you listen to "The Tailor and The Mouse" this week listen for the change in the music from staccato, bouncy mouse like music to legato/smooth music for the tailor.  Come up with your own movements and story to accompany this song.

Our free movement song today was The Russian Sailors Dance by Reinhold Gliere.




Our play along song today was the Toreador song from the opera Carmen written by Georges Bizet.


Journey Montessori January 20-27

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The students at the Montessori school have begun studying the families of instruments.
Last week we began this study by reading the book "Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin."  Several of the children said they already have this book at home, but if you have not read it I highly recommend it!
We also used our sticks to pretend we were playing violins (string family), drums (percussion family), trumpets (brass family), and flutes (woodwind family).

To further explore the instrument families and other fun music activities at home check out the San Fransisco Symphonies kids site at sfskids.org.

We have continued working on musical contrasts by moving and playing loud and soft, fast and slow, staccato and legato.  Click on the links in the Music Together post above to play along or move/dance with some of the songs we are using to learn these concepts.

We are also listening to music from Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals.  We are using this music to discuss all of the above concepts; instruments, musical contrasts, and movement.  This week we discussed the Lions and Hens and Roosters.  Below are links to the book we are using in class as well as the first two pieces we listened to.


Lions


Hens and Roosters

Music Together January 20

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One of my favorite books about stars is "How Many Stars in the Sky" by Lenny Hort.  It has wonderful illustrations and talks about counting stars in the country and in the city.  This is a fantastic book to go along with the song "Great Big Stars" from this session of Music Together.


This week at home:
Try changing the words to "Spin and Stop," "When The Saints Go Marching In," and "Roll That Little Ball" like we did in class.  These are great songs to work on both fine and large motor skills.  If you come up with a fun way you like to do the song we'll try it your way in class sometime!

The only song we used from outside the Sticks collection today was "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" sung by the Andrews Sisters.  You can click the YouTube link on the previous post (Jan 13) below to enjoy dancing and playing along at home!  This is a fun video to watch as well.

Songs from the Montessori Lesson, January 13

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We had such a fun class today!  We discussed theme and variation today in class.  Reagan played her violin for everyone to help us learn what at theme and a variation are.  First we listened to the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the violin and then sang the song together as a class.  Singing the song the way we are used to is the theme and the rhythmic notation looks like this;


Next Reagan changed the rhythm of the theme creating a variation on Twinkle Twinkle.  We could still identify that the song was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but this time she used a 16th note rhythm that we called "Grandma rides a motorcycle."  Ask your children if they remember this variation and can sing it for you this week at home.  We will sing more variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the weeks to come.

We did an instrument play along to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.  Click the link below to play along at home and enjoy listening and watching the video as well!




We have also been working on creating our own vocal rhythmic patterns with animal sounds!  All of the children are very creative and rhythmically accurate!

Songs from January 13 Music Together Class

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 Everyone did a wonderful job of listening when to play and when to stop with the music today.  The "play.......and stop" game is a great game to play at home with music or other daily routines.  Try changing the game this week to work on motor skills.  Sing, jump....and stop, touch your nose......and stop, march......and stop, etc.

Here are some of the songs we used today in class that are not part of the Sticks Collection.  Have fun dancing and playing along with these at home this week!






The Jazzy ABC song that we used with the parachute today was from the CD "Baby Loves Jazz."  This CD is full of familiar children's songs done by good jazz musicians.  Worth checking out!  I look forward to seeing everyone again next week!

Fun Holiday Songs

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Thanksgiving:



Ten little Indians

One little, two little, three little Indians
Four little, five little, six little Indians
Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians
Ten little Indian boys.

Ten little, nine little, eight little Indians
Seven little, six little, five little Indians
Four little, three little, two little Indians
One little Indian boy.



"Following The Leader" and "What Made the Red Man Red" are just here because they are fun songs. They don't really have much to do with Thanksgiving.




Hanukkah,  also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE, Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.
The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a very special candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah or Hanukiah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. The typical Menorah consists of 7 branches. An extra light called a shamash (Hebrew: שמש, "attendant" or "sexton")[1] is also lit each night for the purpose of lighting the others, and is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest. The "shamash" symbolically supplies light that may be used.
This year Hanukkah is celebrated December 1-9.

Starting Too Early, Too Late? What’s right?

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I came across this interesting interview with Carla Hannaford about when to begin music with your children.  In this interview she discusses some amazing research about music and young children.  Did you know that a fetus can begin to hear sound as early as nine weeks after conception?  Click on the link below to listen to the interview.
http://www.jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WMUS.HannafordWickham.cfm