Our class was a lot of fun today! Parents come next week with tote bags, books, and bells!

Thank you for sitting and doing the homework play/practice with your child during the week. This creates such a great foundation for next year when keyboard practice is highly encouraged 5 times a week. Check out these ideas for making musical play fun throughout the week with your child:

• Listening to the music can spontaneously include doing some of the actions too! For instance, skipping, pretending to be frogs, cutting your hair with finger scissors, etc. Just sitting close and tapping the beat on their leg, shoulder, back, or arm can be a great way to help them internalize the beat of a song. You can listen to music geared towards children or music YOU like too!

• If you are practicing Bill Grogan’s Goat, have your student clap 4 times, nod their heads 4 times, or - my personal favorite - blink 4 times between each line, etc. The more senses you use while "playing" the more your student will internalize.

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El Gallo

El Gallo translated means “The Rooster”. During your "play" time have fun working on the pronunciation of these words. Soon we’ll be singing it in harmony using a round and learning harmonic rhythm. When a child sings harmony they develop the ability to sing in tune and independently sing parts of music. It's quite a skill!

A Frog Went A-Hoppin'

Today we introduced this song, but this song will soon teach us how to read leaps on the staff and play leaps on the bells. 

Jungle Rhythm

Using our “Jungle Rhythm” song we had the students walk like the elephant while I was the lion. This allowed them to hear how a beat can be divided and subdivided. 

I've Been to Harlem

On the autoharp we played the song, I’ve Been to Harlem in major and then again in minor. We are training the ears to recognize the difference between the two tonalities which helps us to recognize that music can help touch our emotions and influence those listening to music. 

Your student has been taking baby steps and skipping around in class for sometime. Now, we get to take the concepts that we've been experiencing and start applying them to reading music on the staff. This approach to reading music is somewhat unique to Let's Play Music. Young children will be reading from the staff without knowing any note names, read more details on how this effective method works. 

I value open and honest communication so please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or comments.

Thank you!