We start every class with a hello song. Click HERE to hear the hello song we'll be singing at the beginning of class every year. This song is especially great because I can alter the lyrics, tempo, and mood to help match their energy and how the class is feeling that day. For example, some kids felt awfully tired at the beginning of class so I changed the lyrics to "Hey everybody, pretend to fall asleep..." and they loved it! Of course, they energetically jumped up when in the next verse I sang about how they woke up and started marching. 

I have introduced the major scale to your children and we've been listening  closely to how the notes start low and go high. By moving our bodies up and down with the notes, that helps them internalize the difference in the notes. We also started learning solfege hand signs that match each note of the major scale.

I have introduced the children to two rhythm instruments so far: shaker eggs and sand blocks made of pool noodles. We played them fast, slow, up high, down low, and have played along to the beat while singing and listening to music. 

I sang a tune to the book "The Hugasaurus" by Rachel Bright which is a sweet book about a young dinosaur that goes off to a school-like group without their parent and learns to make friends and get along with others. It is a great book for the beginning of the year.

I love including books in my class. Some of the books we have enjoyed looking at and singing together are:  "The Hugasaurus" by Rachel Bright, "The Green Grass Grows All Around", "Old McDonald Had a Farm", and "Watermelon, Watermelon" by Stephanie Leavell.

We listen to plenty of classical and instrumental music in class. I like to have it playing when we first enter the room and when we color, but I also play classical music for a game of "freeze dance", with the parachute, dancing with scarves, and sometimes we act out a scene or puppet show. For the past month we've listened to many pieces that highlight the violin and our main piece of music will the "The Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams.