Tuesday, November 19, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #12

Next week parents attend and tuition is due for those making monthly payments! (Last one this semester!) 

We are heading toward the end of the year, which means we will be finishing up Red Balloons and moving to our Blue Bugs Semester. I’m so excited to start Blue Bugs! The time has flown by and I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching your children! It is amazing to watch as they learn concepts and develop skills that seem simple and fun to them, but are quite complex in their musical meaning, we just haven’t labeled them yet. We call this subconscious learning.
   
I hope you have enjoyed your ‘musical time,’ (aka play practice & music exposure) working with your children and helping them on their journey to not only develop lifelong musical aptitude but cementing skills and concepts that will serve them the rest of their lives. 

Who Took the Cookie?
This may seem to be a simple child’s game, but there is wonderful rhythm component. When you talk during the chant the child is learning to keep a steady beat and verbally respond to and anticipate the rhythm.

Chords in Pieces
Our ears were in training during this activity. The students were learning to hear and identify a right or wrong chord. So essential to developing the musician inside.

Puppet Show
Today we did something a little different. We identified instrumentation by listening to the butterfly kissing the flower! When the students can hear different sounds and instruments within a piece it comes alive and they become sensitive listeners.

Enjoy the following thoughts on why music is such a gift to your children. They are an insightful review of why music education is so important.   
   
3 Big Ways to Boost Your Child's Brain Using Music

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, November 12, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #11

Thank you for coming to class and being such great parents. I hope you are enjoying this musical journey. I surely am. Remember, when you come to class, the kids may act a little differently than when they come alone. Your child may sit and watch certain activities, instead of participating that day. Or they may act worked-up and fidgety. Just remember these types of behaviors are normal and expected. As the teacher, I will always strive for and encourage active involvement but realize, at times, kids simply want to watch and then will participate the next time.
  
Everyone is progressing quite nicely. Even though some aren’t quite matching pitch yet, don’t be fooled. With consistent practice in class and home exposure, it will come! 

Baby Steps
We're starting to read from the staff!! AMAZING! This week we played a ‘baby step’ on the bells. We’ve been playing with baby steps on the staff up to this point, but today we added what it sounds and looks like on the bells! What discoveries were happening! It was fun! By learning to read notes—starting with learning note relationships, instead of note names—we accelerate the reading process, giving the students quicker success and accuracy. We will learn note names in 3rd Year, but for now we look mainly at up, down, steps, skips, and leaps.

  
Echo Ed
Echo Ed gave everyone the chance to independently sing the solfege patterns. Man, these are some smart kiddos! It is so fun to see their ears developing and getting smarter.
  
Solfege Patterns
Today we sang a MI RE DO or SOL SOL DO on command! They were able to do it without any hints! They have these patterns down now which shows you are exposing them to the patterns at home with your music playtime. Nice job parents!
  
DO is Home
We practiced singing “Do is Home” with no sound cues. They’re really starting to get it! Pulling a middle C out of thin air is what we are training the ear to do! The experts say developing perfect pitch isn’t possible, but we’re going to prove them wrong with learning at least one note perfectly!

Do, Re, Mi
We counted the notes of our major scale in class, but there is more to it than JUST counting notes. THIS counting is actually the scale degrees and is the beginning of labeling the roots of the chords, which we start to identify in 3rd Year. (We're sneaking in the learning!)

Read this short blog article on Musical Superpower: Perfect Pitch

Also, learn how babies develop perfect pitch! How to help your Child develop Perfect Pitch

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, November 5, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #10

Parents come next week! Please remember that if ever you aren’t able to come to class please call or email to let me know so that everyone is accounted for. Thank you, thank you!
   
I just can’t tell you how great your kids are. I know I keep bragging about them, but they have been so much fun and truly such wonderful students. In the Red Balloon Student Manual it states, “Young children will assimilate the concepts I introduce in class ONLY if they experience repetition and consistency at home during the week.” I can tell you parents are really trying to create consistency. Because of this, you will produce great musicians and fine children. Kudos to you! 

Five Fat Turkeys
We introduced this song this week. It helps us feel that steady beat and soon we’ll find the SOL SOL DO hiding in it.
   
Baby Steps
The line to a space, or space to a line pattern tells us that we’re moving on the staff in baby steps. This week was exciting because we actually notated a baby step on the staff. The kids are “getting” it! It’s so fun to watch their minds take it all in!
   
Primary Chord Song
In class we played the autoharp independently - YUP! They played the autoharp all on the their own this week as we practiced the “Primary Chords Song”! So exciting!

This week we notated baby steps on the staff. So for fun, we'd like to encourage you to get some playdough and have your child make 5 lines, 4 spaces and then some notes. You can use different colors or the same colors. It's up to you. Then put the notes on the lines or spaces and see if you can make some baby steps!
   
Check out this video and see how this violin teacher helps her students with clay.
   

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, October 29, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #9

Let your kids have fun coloring your new puppet show pages! You can download them from your student portal. Please let me know if you have trouble logging in! No parents in class next week.
   
The kids are doing great! Parents, thank you for being so consistent and supportive to your kiddos. You help me, as the teacher, to add another layer of knowledge each week because you have so nicely cemented the previous week’s concepts and skills. Keep up the good work! Your kids will thank you for this. You’re creating smarties!

Tuition is due today if you are paying monthly. If you can use Zelle, it will save me from paying Venmo fees (just use my phone number), but you are still welcome to pay that way if you want.

Hear How the Bells
When a child is introduced to harmonious sounds of music, a physical and emotional reaction. Harmony is an excellent stimulation which increases brain activity musically and academically.

Baby Step, Leap
We sing, dance, and notate on the staff board a step and a leap when we sing this song. The students are subconsciously learning intervals. In the second year, we will bring this knowledge to their conscious mind by labeling the steps and skips.
   
Waltz of the Flowers
Today I performed our new puppet show for the whole class! This activity helps train our ears to hear patterns and how music is put together. We call this classical form. Research shows that emotions are actually vibrations felt within the body. Music is also a vibration. Music helps us process our emotions by feeling them more deeply and more profoundly. As you come to class with your child, your shared emotional processing will lead to a greater connection, trust, and bond.
   
Echo Ed
We used Echo Ed to give the children a chance to independently imitate a melodic pattern. Singing develops the ear too!
   
Ooooo Halloween
Ooooo Halloween allows us to hear in our heads (audiate) the beats that aren’t played aloud. This activity subconsciously teaches the students how to feel a steady beat and anticipate the beat. It's so fun!

Click here to watch this video and learn interesting facts about the composer of the song Waltz of the Flowers! 

 

Also, I've added the Waltz of the Flowers Coloring book for you to download. Log in at www.musikandme.com and you can download and print these two pages out and let your child color the characters as you discuss their favorite part about the puppet show! (Don't forget to listen to the music while coloring!)

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, October 22, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #8

Parents come next week and tuition is due for those that didn't pay for the semester up front. 

We are having so much fun in class. I can’t believe how easily the kids understand the musical concepts we are learning. Remember, every song has a purpose. We aren’t just playing with barnyard animals and catching foxes to take up the time! Each activity we do has a musical skill and/or concept connected to it. As the teacher, I’m always striving to have fun with each activity, but making sure the kids feel the steady beat or hear the SOL SOL DO hiding in the last part of the song. Your student is subconsciously internalizing these things and they don’t even know it! Don’t you wish all learning could take place this way? I just love this curriculum!

Taking Baby Steps
Our purpose here is to imitate rhythm and reinforcing the concept of lines and spaces on the staff.  

Identify Solfege Patterns by Sound
I threw both a MI RE DO and a SOL SOL DO into our Let’s Play Music song and your student got to identify which one I was singing. Those ears are getting smarter everyday!  

Puppet Show
Today we performed the puppet show with our full bodies! We had fun learning the themes over the last 8 weeks. Next week we'll introduce a new puppet show.  

Ooooo Halloween
This is a great song for teaching internal rhythm. It helps us feel the internal beat while no music is sounding so each student will develop their own "sense of time." Feeling a metronome in their head and body is important when developing the full musician inside!

 Our world is full of rhythm. The waxing and waning of the moon, the ebb and flow of the tide, the very passage of time itself are all controlled by predictable rhythms. As humans, we spend nine months before birth listening to the rhythmic beating of our mother’s heart. The rest of our lives are lived out against the backdrop of our own rhythmic breathing. 
  
Our speech and movements are naturally rhythmic. Whether we are walking, running, swimming or dancing, rhythm permeates our lives to such an extent that we rarely think about it. It is virtually impossible to walk without some sense of rhythm. It is of no wonder then, that rhythm is often seen as the most important building block of music and that developing an accurate sense of rhythm is central to all music-making. Children love to move their bodies and this is one of the earliest musical skills they develop, swaying to the music, clapping and dancing. Simple activities and games involving dance and movement are therefore ideal as a starting point for this all important skill. Marching in time to music, drumming, clapping games and chanting rhymes are all quick and fun activities that young children will enjoy and gain instant gratification from. 
  
Also, parents if you have the time, read this article about how music improves babies brain responses. If you haven't done the Halloween activity, here it is again! 
  
Try this FUN rhythmic exercise about Mosquitos! (video)  https://youtu.be/AY-KjQ0ebAo

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 :)