Wednesday, December 4, 2024 | Brown Teddy Bears Lessons

Lesson #13

Has your child found a favorite activity from this semester that they insist on doing again and again? What might appear repetitive and monotonous to adults is actually a powerful learning experience for the young child. Their innate desire for repetition is their brain’s instinctive way of helping them master skills and concepts.

Instrument day is coming up soon! Each family will have the opportunity to share an instrument with the class. You can even bring something homemade! Anything that makes sound will be fine! :) If you play an instrument (especially if it's one of our semester instruments), we'd love for you to bring and demonstrate it for us! You are welcome to invite someone else to class if they would like to come do a short little instrument performance for us! I'll also have some instruments to demonstrate and the kids will have the opportunity to play some of them! Please let me know what you will bring, just to help me with planning.

Next week we'll sing these in class:

• Four Seasons
• Weather Bear
• Name the Instruments
• Little Boy Blue
• It's Raining
• Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around
• The Bear Went Over the Mountain
• Going to the Zoo
• Flight of the Bumblebee
• Old Brass Wagon
• Your child's favorite activity song! Just text me to tell me what it is and I'll be sure to include it next week!

How the brain is structured and how well it functions is determined by the frequency, duration and intensity of an activity. The neural pathways in the brain ‘wire and fire’ in response to activation that occurs when a child experiences stimulation to their sensory systems. Messages in the form of electrical signals are sent along the nerve fibres from the body to the brain. The brain then sends electrical messages back along the outgoing nerve pathways to the body. The more practice the nervous system has at receiving and sending messages, the more efficiently it operates and the more effectively a child acquires a skill.

Repetition is fundamental to helping young children learn. Repeating words, actions and songs benefits memory and encourages language acquisition.

Rhyming helps the children notice and work with the sounds within words.

Optional home fun activity: Color the Teddy Bear March on page 17 in your workbook    
(Remember, these activities are optional but can be a great bonding experience to do with your child during the week.)  

Need more ideas for ways to use your rhythm sticks? Watch this video to see what else you may not have thought of!

Sound Beginnings is education through musical play! It prepares children for success in Kindergarten and Let’s Play Music. Sound beginnings provides research-based elements that stimulate growth in the areas particularly crucial to the development of the young child. These elements make up the foundation of the Sound Beginnings curriculum.  Here is just one:
	Peek into a Sound Beginnings class and you will see skipping, crawling, dancing, and jumping! Full body movement builds large muscle strength, hand-eye coordination, aids brain-hemisphere function, and develops balance in young children.

Have a musical day!  
-Ms. Bethany :)