I realize that I’m a week behind, but I’m going to teach April week 4’s lesson next week, even though I know it’s going to be May. I wanted to teach the entire month’s lessons and it’s going really well.
Hello song – Today I used a different hello song. I’m so happy to see ___, I’m so happy to see _____, I’m so happy to see ____, Everyone has fun in music class. I kept the beat with castanets and reviewed what it’s called (Castanets – letter C), and how it’s played.
Vocal warmups: Our vocal warmup was singing with the pipe cleaners. I pull out a pipe cleaner and we sing a descending oo-ooo-ooo as I slide my finger down the pipe cleaner. Then, I make different letter shapes with the pipe cleaner and we vocalise to those shapes, using the sound the letter makes. I made a V, and we sang vvv down and up the letter V.
Letter Song: We sang Letter V says V, then I taught them V is for Victory. I didn’t do such a great job of teaching it, and forget to bring the story along. I’m getting better at story telling in the preschool – any time I tell a story, I have much better engagement!
Vicki and Van were on a volleyball team. Their volleyball team was very good. Vicki and Van really liked to play volleyball. At the end of the season, their team was in first place. Their team had a good chance to win the gold medal. The coach told the team to try their very best. “When you’ve done your best, you are a victor,” he said. All the parents wanted to video tape the big game. Then the kids could watch the game on TV. Vicky and Van tried their very best. All the kids tried their very best and they won the game. They were victorious! Vicky and Van were very happy that they were the victors and won gold medals. After the game was over, all the kids went to Vicky and Van’s house and watched a video of the game on TV. It was great to watch the victory!
New Song: Five Little Ducks was the new song this week. I had the castanets out, and had a brainstorm! I used the castanets to do the sound of mother duck’s “Quack, quack, quack, quack.” The castanets even looked like mother duck’s beak! I have a class set of castanets, so gave each child one. We always start instruments with the chant: Play the castanets quickly, quickly, quickly. Play the castanets quickly, quickly stop! Then I praise the children who stop when they are supposed to! Then we do it slowly, quietly, and loudly. We sang the Play and Stop song. (From the collection, Rhythm Instrument Fun!) and then we sang “Five Little Ducks” again, with the castanets playing mother duck’s “Quack, quack, quack, quack.” We counted how many ducks were left after each verse, so reinforced counting too!
Movement: We reviewed “John the Rabbit.” This song has been a big hit this year. I’ve tried it a few other years, but this is the year that the kids are loving it. It’s a call-response, and the kids are getting better and better at singing the response. Today I asked who wanted to be “farmers” with me and had a group of farmers on my side of the room. They sang the call with me, and when the rabbits answered, “Yes, Ma’am” they took one jump closer to the farmers. I think their favourite part is when the farmer shoos the rabbits back to their spot.
Circle Game/Simple Song: I’ve been teaching Rain Rain Go Away in preparation for the Rain Rain Story. This is an app for iTunes, iPad and Google devices. It’s great for creating sound effects and has some excellent ear training exercises for kids in the app. Today I put 6-7 instruments in the middle of the circle. I reviewed what these instruments were called and how to play them. Then, as we sang “Rain Rain Go Away” I walked the outside of the circle, tapping each child on the head to the beat. The last child tapped, went into the circle, chose an instrument and played the beat the next time we sang. There was one child who was disappointed they didn’t get to go into the middle – another time, I’d give everyone a chance to play. However, this way, we could hear the instruments better and the child playing could hear themselves better.
Audiation: I taught the chant that is part of the Rain Rain app.
Pitter patter, pitter patter says the falling rain. beats 1-4 pat, clap 2x, 2 beats show rain falling
Pitter patter, pitter patter on my window pane. beats 1-4 pat, clap 2x, 2 beats show rain falling
We added the body percussion/actions as shown above. Then I showed the kids my “magic mouth.” I mouthed the words of the poem but didn’t say it, while I did the actions. I asked them to try it and we all did the actions, no words. Next week, Say/Actions – Think/Actions – Say/Actions.
This is to help develop their ability to hear sound internally – audition.
Goodbye song: Oh, It’s time to say goodbye to our friends.
This week I started teaching two classes at a Montessori preschool as well as teaching at Hunter’s play school. I’m hoping to teach all the potential lessons in Musicplay Preschool several times before even thinking about completing it!
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