Thursday, December 19, 2024 | Green Turtle Shells Lessons

Lesson #15

Thank you so much for attending Station Day! I hope you realize just how much your child has learned this semester. I also hope you were able to see some things that can be worked on over Christmas break. I hope the kids enjoy and use the Christmas songbook they received!

As the name has implied, this semester has been a little slow (like a turtle) purposely to help the children be able to really build a good foundation that will be so important in the next semesters. Yellow Arrows will feel like we are flying through new material (pun intended!), but since we have built a strong foundation, it will be a lot of fun!

Let's Play Music requires all teachers to have their families complete surveys at the end of each semester. If you didn't fill it out on Station Day, please fill it out now! Here's the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZDhU3zg9pM7Gy3EK43ZP5aJhPfI2ISJbCvoPvizqqEfA9Hw/viewform 

A little bit of relaxed daily practice over the break will keep the skills taught over the semester fresh and honed. By Yellow Arrows they should be able to recognize and play all chords in RH with fairly quick and smooth transitions. 

The Christmas Break Challenge is completely optional, but I hope you will help your child keep their skills up over the break! (I put it on the download portal, in case you happen to misplace it!)

Classes begin the first full week of January (the 9th). Lesson #1 of Yellow Arrows is a Parent Day! Please look carefully at your class calendar in the student portal. (If you still can't access that, please let me know!) I have a few random weeks I'm taking off, so please be aware of that when importing your calendar to your phones!

Please begin listening to the Yellow Arrows soundtrack! We have a lot of fun songs coming up!

Celebrate Connection    
A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!

• Pull out the bells from last year and notice how fun it is to play some of the Green Turtle songs on the bells.
• Any chance you get, have visitors listen to your child play his/her favorite song at the piano and applaud generously! As a family, sing along with the holiday songs.
• Can you collaborate with your child at the piano, a parent duet, someone on the Let's Play Music bells from last year and someone else playing jingle bells or simply singing along? THIS is joy for your child when it is done with emotional safety and celebration!

Holiday Ensemble

Fun ways to incorporate the entire family with a Holiday Sing & Play-a-Long!    

• Student/parent plays chords while everyone sings along. 
• Play chords an octave higher or lower to change the timbre of the song.
• Play as a duet, trio, or quartet. Someone plays melody, others play chords on piano. All Sing!
• Play Silent Night with broken chords (Play each note of the chord separately: Do-Mi-Sol, Do-Fa-La, Ti-Re-Sol). Invite someone else to play the melody an octave higher.
• Invite younger siblings to play rhythm instruments to add variety while piano is playing: jingle bells, tambourines, drums, etc.
• If anyone in your family or friend circle plays any other instruments like guitar, ukulele, violin, cello, etc., have them play along with your child! It is completely exhilarating to have these fun jam sessions!
• Wear a costume while you play.

Be sure to go through the Christmas Break Worksheet! (It's in the Student Download Portal if you lose your printed copy!) Try to do 1-2 activities each day. I've added a fun version of Deck the Halls piano music to your student's download portal to add variety to daily practice and spread Holiday Cheer! 

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 :)