Wednesday, February 26, 2025 | Pink Piggies Lessons

Lesson #8

Sound Beginnings curriculum consists primarily of American folk songs and chants, nostalgic songs, nursery rhymes, and well-known classical pieces. You likely recognized a few of the songs or rhymes on our album!

Next week we'll sing these songs in class:

• Ten Little Pennies
• Hey! Hey! Look At Me!
• DO Pentatonic Scale
• My Little Rooster
• To Market
• Zoodeo
• Count Your Blessings

Tuition is due next week, and March is SPIRIT MONTH! We'll have lots of prizes you can win by showing your class spirit! (See the separate email with details.) 

1st Year Registration & Enrollment
If you have a child you want to go through 1st year and aren't on my waiting list, or you know someone who wants to do Let's Play Music, email back and let me know their name and email address so they can get registered ASAP. After next week I'll open registration up to the general public.

Enrollment for next fall begins this SATURDAY at NOON! There is a $20 registration fee, but you won't need to pay it if you register by March 28th! (You can earn 10 extra tickets for the Spirit Month drawing by registering before March 15th!)

Folk music is rich in history and became an informal way to pass on traditions, commemorate personal or communal events, and bond communities. Because it originated with common folk, untrained in the musical arts, it’s melodies are easy to learn and sing. By incorporating folk music into the curriculum, Sound Beginnings is keeping tradition alive and helping preserve the stories of those that came before us. It is believed that the tradition of reciting nursery rhymes began for similar reasons, an oral tradition meant to preserve and pass on stories. Our use of them in class promotes listening to speech patterns, understanding rhyming words, increased vocabulary, and preparation for further literacy skills.

Optional home fun activity: Color the ‘Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks’ on page 16            
(Remember, these activities are optional but can be a great bonding experience to do with your child during the week.)  

While this isn't actually one of our semester instruments, I think this is a very fun video of playing rocks. Yes, I said rocks. The instrument is called a Lithophone and it is similar to the xylophone, but made from rocks, rather than wood! If you would like to see the difference between other barred percussion instruments, here's a link to some good info!

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:
	A child learns when he or she feels loved. In class, purposeful touching, eye contact, partner activities, and generational nostalgia help develop the all-important parent/child relationship.

Have a musical day!          
-Ms. Bethany :)