Thursday, September 19, 2024 | Green Turtle Shells Lessons

Lesson #4

Next week parents attend and tuition is due for those of you paying monthly! You can scan the QR code to the right in your banking app to pay via Zelle (or just use my phone number).

When you come next week, you can make class especially great by arriving a few minutes early to get your child settled at the keyboard, and throughout class encourage your child, praise them for the wonderful progress their little hands have made (hugs, DO bonks, high 5's, etc.), participate in all of the activities, and HAVE FUN!!!

Celebrate Connection  

A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!

• Roll one die (dice) and play Kit Kat Keyboard or Old Paint that many times
• Sing along while you play Old Paint in a British or Australian (like Bluey!) accent
• Run across the room and give your Mom or Dad a hug or a high five (or hip bump) after you finish each song 

White Keys 
This week we reviewed anchor notes C & F in class with the 2nd verse of Kit Kat Keyboard. Play a quick game of “Show Me a _______” (LOW F, HIGH C or a MIDDLE C, etc.). This will help cement these white anchor notes as well as review keyboard geography!

Red Chord
Do you want to build a snowman? This year, a red chord will always be stacked up nice and neat like a snowman with two stacks of 3rds. Enjoy drawing rounded snowmen for the theory this week!

Old Paint
Now that we know how to read and play a red chord we get to play our favorite Old Paint! When you sing together exaggerate that down beat: good BYE, old PAINT, I'm LEAV-ing Chey-ENNE. Mix it up singing in a cowboy voice, an opera voice, in a video for grandma! SING ALONG as your child accompanies you both feeling the steady beat and hearing beautiful harmonies all at once!

Our first puppet show this year has been renamed “Spring Bees” for the sake of Let's Play Music's story line. However, its real name is "Spring" and is from a set of four violin concertos called, The Four Seasons composed by Antonio Vivaldi. What is your child’s favorite character? Can they hear the loud (forte) and soft (piano) within the themes? Which themes are major and which ones are minor? Have you made the puppets yet? Please let me know if you have any questions about how to download it. The kids LOVE being able to do the puppet shows at home so they can be ALL the characters!

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 :)

Wednesday, September 18, 2024 | Brown Teddy Bears Lessons

Lesson #4

Some children take a little time to warm up to the idea of participating in class. You can encourage participation (though never force/bribe) by doing simple things such as:

• Listening to the music at home
• Do some or all of the activities at home
• Play with instruments at home
• Fully participating in class yourself and be an example of how fun making music can be!
  

Next week we'll sing these in class:

• Weather Bear
• Fall Is Here
• Little Boy Blue
• Echo Edie
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
• Mulberry Bush
• Rocky Mountain
• Weather Dance
• Lavender's Blue
• Round and Round the Garden

Smart Moves dances engage children in whole-body movement that helps develop gross motor skills while simultaneously providing them with a unique way to experience the elements of a piece of classical music. Children will develop large muscle strength, hand-eye coordination, and balance while training their ear to hear musical elements such as theme, dynamics, and phrasing.

When we point to the letters in our workbooks, we develop left-to-right hand-eye coordination and practice phasing that helps prepare our children to read!

The parachute strengthens large motor skills, develops a sense of rhythm, and encourages cooperation.

I've added many fun bonus activities, as well as dance instructions that you can download from your Student Portal! Just be sure you are logged in and click the "Online Resources" button. This works best on a computer if you would like to print anything you download. If you have children in both Let's Play Music and Sound Beginnings, be sure to select the child in SB. Click through the folders to get to the Brown Teddy Bears section.

Optional home fun activity: Color the Weather Dance on page 15 in your workbook       
(Remember, these activities are optional but can be a great bonding experience to do with your child during the week.)  

Here is a video with the original version of our Teddy Bear picnic song played on the piano!

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:
	Little hands need to be strong in order to perform life and learning skills such as dressing oneself and writing. In class, students gain finger dexterity and hand strength as they participate in finger plays to favorite nursery rhymes and manipulate tactile props and instruments.

Have a musical day!     
-Ms. Bethany :)

Tuesday, September 17, 2024 | Bridge Lessons

Tuesday, September 17, 2024 | Purple Magic Lessons

Lesson #4

Next week is PARENT WEEK and tuition is due for those of you paying monthly! You can scan the QR code to the right in your banking app to pay via Zelle (or just use my phone number).

This week we practiced drawing our treble clef by making a long skinny "J" that starts above the staff and goes below the staff. Then we pick up our pencil and start at the same place again and draw a "D" that meets the straight line from the "J" at the 4th staff line. We continue the line from the "D" with a "schwoop" that circles around the 2nd staff line. If your child wants to practice drawing these, please be sure they are doing them correctly!

We'll be adding new note flashcards next week, so now's the time to make sure your student really has a handle on the treble clef space notes. It will be much easier for them to learn the new notes if they're already really good at identifying the old ones.  
   
Celebrate Connection

• Have the parent do the flashcards as fast as possible, then switch!
• Sing "Our Bugs Are So Fun" facing your child and touching fingers together for how many beats each note and rest gets.

Alouette
This song is jam packed with opportunities for musical development. We will further develop our sight reading skills (playing something we have never seen before), stretch our experience with playing intervals, encounter rhythmic reading and learn more about the classical ABA (ternary) form with our fingers instead of JUST our ears. And you thought it was just a fun song you remember singing as a kid, huh? 

We also learned about the repeat sign this week and how it makes us 'repeat' something in the music. Here's a fun dance you could do with your child to help them remember to 'dot dot do it again.'
 

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 :)

Tuesday, September 17, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #4

Class was so fun this week. I love interacting with your students and teaching them through play. I have the best job in the whole world!

Just a reminder next week is parent week and tuition is due for those of you paying monthly! You can scan the QR code to the right in your banking app to pay via Zelle (or just use my phone number).

Also, are you having fun listening to the music? (Please let me know if you still haven't gotten the app working!) When you expose your student to the music, and sing a lot, the child experiences fun repetition at home so they learn faster and internalize the concepts and skills in class more rapidly!

Learning to sing harmony     
In class we listened and sang the song Hear How the Bells. The kiddos got to sing the melody while the ostinato played on the bells. We’re reinforcing hearing layers of sound as well as the importance of keeping a steady beat.   
     
Music staff training     
They are also learning how the music staff works. Notes are on the lines and spaces, and when they go up, our bodies and voices go up, when they go down, our bodies and voices go down! This exposure is prepping them to read music!    
     
Autoharp   
Playing the autoharp helps the children gain strength in their hands, helps them to "anticipate" the beat when they strum the strings, and primes their brain to do different right hand and left hand movement. It's the perfect prep work for playing the piano.

Hickety Pickety w/Mi, Re, Do on Tone Bells

Check this article about practicing the Autoharp at Home...even if you don’t have one! Our LPM app now has that feature! It works better on a tablet, rather than a phone because of the size. 

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 :)