Conducting

Today in music class we read a book about some different instruments and the sounds they make.  At the end of the book we saw a picture of the whole orchestra and the conductor in the front.  We practiced saying the words "director," and "conductor," and talked about all the things a conductor does.

We watched a short video about conducting and learned about "crescendo," which is gradually getting LOUDER, and "diminuendo," which is gradually getting softer.  After the video, we made our own batons so we could practice being a director and conducting.  The kids made two batons, one to take home to practice with, and one to leave here to use for later activities.

After we finished, we practiced conducting by taking turns standing on a stool and waving our batons in the air in time to the music.  When we want the orchestra to play LOUD we wave our arms BIG.  When we want them to play SOFT we wave our arms SMALL.  The kids absolutely loved conducting!  Have them practice conducting at home by putting on some classical music, giving them their baton, and letting them have at it.  Make it even more exciting by providing a stool and/or a music stand.

The more you encourage your kids to express themselves musically while they are young, the easier it will be for them to continue to do so as they get older.  So, go forth and conduct!

Harp

Last week we learned about the harp.  We learned that the short strings sound high and the long strings sound low.  We learned the parts of the harp: shoulder, sound board, feet, legs, strings.  When we practiced playing the harp we made a hook shape with our fingers and PLUCKED the strings.

Check out my "Instruments" playlist on the right for a couple songs with the harp in them.

Bonus Coloring Pages

With the coloring pages for the instrument book the kids are working on, I've been mainly thinking about introducing them to the instruments in the orchestra.  However, that is not always the case.  There are lots of really neat instruments out there that may not always be in an orchestra, if ever.  The first instruments we learned about were rain sticks and maracas.  We did not do coloring sheets for those, but if you would like to have them, here they are.

Maracas:

http://www.coloring.ws/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.coloring.ws/countries/mexico/14.gif

Here's a link to a song on youtube that has maracas in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYh3aTCW7nw

Rain Stick:

I will have to make this one and add it later.  Surprisingly enough, there are not really any clip art images of rain sticks online, so I will have to make one.

Coloring Pages

I realize that sometimes it is easy to lose papers your kids bring home from class, and sometimes they may not even make it home from class.  And, for a variety of other reasons, kids' artwork doesn't always have the longest life.  So, for your ease of mind, I am going to try to remember to upload the coloring pages for the instrument books the kids are supposed to be compiling.  That way, if you are missing a page, you can always print off another.

So far, we have only done the guitar and piano.

Here are links to the coloring pages I used for the piano.  We talked about the upright and the grand piano, but the kids colored the picture of the grand piano.  If you, or your kids, are feeling especially motivated, feel free to print off "pianocoloring1," color it, and add it to your musical book as well.

Upright Piano:
http://www.tlsbooks.com/pianocoloring1.pdf

Grand Piano:
http://www.tlsbooks.com/pianocoloring2.pdf

*Update: I have tried to find a way to upload pdfs of the coloring pages I make so you can just download and/or print them right from this blog.  However, I'm working on figuring that out.  The guitar does not print out very large, so perhaps hold off on it for now.  I will update this as soon as I get a chance to work on fixing it.

More Instruments

Sorry I missed posting last week.  Ideally I would like to post every week after class, but alas, it does not always happen.  Anyway, last week we learned about the guitar, and, as a little bonus, the ukulele.  We learned about some of the parts of the guitar: the body, bridge, neck, tuners, and strings.  We talked about how many strings the guitar has--6, although some have more.  The ukulele only has 4.  So quiz your kids on the parts of the guitar and let yourself be thoroughly impressed.  I can't believe how well they remembered today what we learned about guitars last week.

This week we learned about the piano.  We learned that there are black and white keys, and that there are 88 keys on the piano.  We talked about how there are high keys and low keys on the piano and the kids got to try playing them to see what they sound like.  Don't forget to keep your coloring pages the kids bring home so you can make a book of all the musical instruments your kids are learning about.

One last thing.  I introduced the kids to "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do" today.  I know it's a bit advanced maybe for our age group, but it's something my daughter has enjoyed doing, and she is 3, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  It went surprisingly well.  I encourage you to play the "Do-Re-Mi" song from the "Sound of Music," and let them get used to hearing the sounds.  For now, I would just focus on having them get to the point of being able to shout out "do-re-mi. . ." etc., but eventually they may surprise you by learning even more of the song.  My daughter can sing most of the song when I hold up pictures for each sound.

There are so many fun things to learn and explore in music and we are loving every minute of it in our Merry Music Makers class.  So keep on coming and keep on listening and experiencing music in any way you can!

Halloween

Since Halloween is this month, we have been doing some fun activities with Halloween songs.  You can find a bunch of great Halloween songs for kids in my playlist.  They are the Wee Sing for Halloween songs.  One of the main songs we are working on learning is "5 Little Pumpkins."  You can look it up on the playlist, or you can just practice the words with your kid(s).  Here are the words:

5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are witches in the air!"
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."
Wooooo went the wind and out went the light,
and the 5 little pumpkins rolled out of site. (The kids roll over onto the ground here.)

This is a fun little rhyme to practice with your kids this month in honor of Halloween.

We are also starting to learn about different instruments.  Last week we learned about rain sticks and this week we learned about maracas.  Ask your kids about them and see what they remember.  You can also help our exploration of instruments by helping your kids be more aware of different musical instruments when they hear and/or see them.

Here are some fun videos about how to make your own maracas and rain sticks.  Try doing this with your kids so they can begin their own musical instrument collection at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUWVfsuSVFc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koD1J1nnwOw

Welcome!

Welcome to Merry Music Makers!  This is a group music class designed to introduce your child to music and begin the beautiful journey of learning to understand and appreciate music as well.  I am so happy to have your child joining my class.  I am creating this blog to serve as a supplement to our music class and a place where you, as the parent, can come and see some of the things we've been learning.  I hope to keep adding to this and making it more and more fun to come and explore.  If you and/or your child find something really neat online that pertains to music, feel free to share it with me so I can post it on here for other children to enjoy.

Look for the link on the Registration page to register your child for my Merry Music Makers class.  The classes are 1 hour long and include singing, dancing, and listening to all sorts of music.  This class serves as an intro to music class and will help prepare your child for further pursuit of music in the future.

In the same way that the best thing you can do to help your child learn to read and expand their vocabulary is to read to them, the best thing you can do to help aid your child in their journey of musical discovery and exploration is to expose them to good music.  Check out my playlist on the right side of the page for some of my suggestions.  Thanks for stopping by!