Tuesday, December 3, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #13

Wow, it's always so fun when parents come to class. Can you believe we only have 2 more weeks of Red Balloons?

If you are paying monthly, tuition is due this week.

When doing the soundtrack and bell practice you may at times, feel it is unessential 'busy work' and one more 'to do' for you to accomplish that day. Keep in mind each LPM activity does have a purpose and that the key to successful musicianship and smarter kids are parents willing to take the time to do small and simple things daily in a fun playful way. These activities may seem insignificant, but the final product will astound you. Stay focused on the end goal and the play practice time will seem more meaningful. 

In a Humble Manger
This is a fun song to help kids understand how to keep a steady beat. We also talked about the term lullaby.   
    
Pull Away
With this song we also participated in what a steady beat feels like and our ears heard the MI RE DO pattern! Each song helps us to internalize many facets of music.   
    
Let’s Play Music
Today our ears heard layers of sound as we sang the MI RE DO and SOL SOL DO ending to “Let’s Play Music” at the same time. Singing in harmony helps us to sing in tune and eventually sing in parts.   
    
Echo Ed
Ware teaching the children relative pitch, which is the ability to sing any pitch in relation to a given pitch. A major goal of Let’s Play Music is to develop and train the ear so the students will develop the ability to sing middle C without any musical reference and then find any other note based on its relationship to middle C.

Do, Re, Mi
YES! WE READ MUSIC THIS WEEK in our DO RE MI activity! So exciting! We are teaching our students to read by relationships, (steps, skips, leaps) not by note names. This is a more natural way to teach children to read music and it produces better sight readers because their brain isn’t bogged down with have to interpret the note names yet.
    
Great Big Red Balloon
Today we practiced visualizing the staff. In putting a note up on the staff and covering it, we let the children close their eyes and see it in their heads. Having the children close their eyes and imagine where the balloon was is accomplishing this. If they can see it in their heads, they learn to internalize the staff and where the notes sit on the staff. Staff visualization ultimately results in learning to quickly read music.

Waltz of the Flowers
Play contains repetition, which is essential to a child’s security. As musical concepts and skills are presented in a playful, joyful setting, children absorb knowledge and increase ability.

Did you know that our puppet show "Waltz of the Flowers" uses different instruments for the different themes? Here's a videothat shows some of the instruments playing the song!

Check out one of our amazing Let's Play Music graduates!

Here is a link to all the skills videos as well as the link to be able to purchase a class video to make up for a missed class. (tap or scan)

Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany :)