We start every class with a Hello Song. We're using the same hello song as last year, but I think I will introduce a new one next month. 

We learned a fun new song called "A Big Red Apple" and the kids really reponded to it! We've also been singing songs they recognize like "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and "Hickory Dickory Dock".

We've listened and learned to sing a major scale! I use tone bells in class as we sing their colors and sign with solfege syllables with hand signs. Familiarity with the major scale helps children learn to sing in tune.

We also learned a sweet poem about apple picking using the SOL-MI interval that is the most natural interval for kids to sing in tune. This also aids in learning to sing in tune. Our dear puppet friend, Frieda Repeatah, helped us learn this poem. They love echoing everything she says and sings!

We love to tap our legs, clap our hands, and move our bodies to the beat! We spent a lot of time doing this in class AND got to get out fun props that continued to aid in finding the beat of a song. The parachute and stretchy band are really fun for this!

We made time in class to be silly and also be calm! "Silly Dance Contest" by Jim Gill is a favorite because not only do we have an excuse to dance in a silly way, but the cadence of the chords in the song really help your brain know what to do with your body! Music is so powerful!

Then for our calm song, I love to trick the kids into taking deep breaths with this genius song, "Light a Candle" by Stephanie Leavell. They don't realize that they're helping their bodies calm down after an energetic moment in class because they are concentrating and "lighting their candle and then blowing it out!". 

We used a few books in class in September. We read some poems out of a book of poetry by Jack Prelutsky inspired by Camille Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals. We read about an aquarium and about teachers teaching piano.

In addition to our talking about the piano a bit, we did one of my favorite activities and I read the book Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle while Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy. 

We also had another calm moment in class looking at a sweet picture book set to the lyrics of "What a Wonderful World".

The piano was the instrument that we highlighted during September. Listening to Debussy, looking at what it looks like and some of it's features. We also had many opportunities to notice the piano playing in many of the songs we listened to.

We will continue to learn and listen from many pieces from Camille Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals! This playlist features many different recordings of the suite of songs and is entertaining classical music that both children and adults will enjoy listening to.