Hello, Our Time Parents!
What a fabulous Fall semester we have had! We have great kiddos and fabulous families. Thank you so much for all you do to make Kindermusik a positive learning experience for all! What wonderful memories you are making with your children!
Our Fall unit is called "Wiggles and Giggles"! It is a fun unit for our little moovers and shakers! We hope you have enjoyed the first part of our semester!
We started with a water theme--this lead us to talking about bath time! ***At home, doing water play can really encourage discovery of the physical properties of water. Concepts such as full and empty, heavy and light, wet and dry, floating and sinking can be experienced and explored during bath time!
We had so much fun in our pretend bath doing "Wishy Washy Wee" like Pete and P.J. from our Kindermusik book. Throwing our scarves in the air on "Weeeeeee!" is following a cue, but also matching the rise and fall of the scarf with the rise and fall of our voices (or slide whistle!).
***Young children often cannot distinguish between their speaking and singing voices. Varying the range in which children can produce sound helps build the foundation for singing as well as and expressive speaking voice. Children should be encouraged to explore the upper (or head) voice in their daily play. You can do this at home by playing with the word "wheeee!" in different ways and encouraging your children to imitate. You can also help your child develop his/her DYNAMIC voice by speaking both loudly and softly and having your child imitate! Label these different dynamics---loud and soft, whisper and yell, etc. Someday, you will be happy to be able to tell your child to WHISPER and have them well practiced in knowing how to quickly change the dynamics of their voice!
Here we are playing "Wishy Washy Wee" and Peek-a-boo with our scarves!
Inhibitory Control
We did some work with starting and stopping. This is called Inhibitory Control, and it is a very important physical skill for the kids to be working on. It is important to be able to quickly stop movement--sometimes for safety's sake! We started with the "I Can Wiggle" poem that has us moving small sections of our body and then stopping. It goes:
I can wiggle my fingers
I can wiggle my toes
I can wiggle my shoulders
I can wiggle my nose!
I can STOP my wiggles
1-2-3 and be as still as still can be!
Sssshhhhhhh.......
From there, we worked on Inhibitory Control with our egg shakers. This added a NOISE to our starting and stopping! When the eggs were quiet (Resting--musically speaking) we heard no sound! When the eggs were playing, we heard shaking, tapping, etc. We working on the little ditty "Shake Shake Shake Your Eggs" and the kids did such a good job of playing the eggs in different ways and then STOPPING. This is a great skill not only for following directions, but also for working on Inhibitory Control.
Shake Shake Shake Your Eggs
Shake Shake Shake Your Eggs
Shake Shake Shake Your Eggs
....And Now Let's STOP!!!
(additional verses--Tap, Roll, Drum, Etc.)
We also just played along to "A Ram Sam Sam" in different ways with our eggs. Here we are shaking away to the musical beat.....
We have been working A LOT on balance this first half of the semester. We started with the balancing squat--Knees bent, out front, fannies off the ground, and hands on knees. This is the squat we did for the poem "The Green Speckled Frog" before we LEAPED away! We also worked on the pendulum sway---Rocking side to side, even lifting one leg off the ground as we sway side to side. This works on the Vestibular System, the inner sense of balance. We did a dance called "The Keel Row" which worked on the pendulum sway.
More Balance...
We also worked on balancing on ONE LEG. This is a BIG BIG skill for toddlers!! Huge congratulations for those little ones who have reached this milestone---yes it is a milestone, so EVERYONE will get there--no worries! For our little ones who need a little help on this, it is great to give them some support as they gain the confidence and ability to stand on one foot. Confidence to TRY something new is the first step of almost anything, right? As a parent, you can be a great coach in this! Check out all these different levels of support. Awesome job, parents!
We did a song called "Down in the Meadow" that worked a bit on one leg balancing. It even took it to the next level with ONE LEGGED HOPPING! It was great to see those first attempts at hopping on one foot! Some of them kinda kept one leg down and behind and did a little GALLOPY hop for this. (Totally cute---AND it is a great transition to our GALLOPING later in the semester! They were galloping without even knowing it! Ha!)
The song goes like this:
Down In The Meadow
Hop a Doodle Hop a Doodle
Down In The Meadow
Hop a Doodle Doo!
Down In The Meadow
The Horse Began To Prance
The Cow Began To Whistle and
The Pig Began To Dance!
(Then additional verses in place of "Hop"--"Jump", "Swing", "Crawl")
The song also got some swinging in, which is just plain fun, AND it is also triggering that all important Vestibular System! Check out this great swinging action! Wooo Hoooooo!
----AND MORE BALANCE!
We used BEANBAGS to help us balance! On our heads, on our shoulders, on the top of our hand, on the top of our FOOT! To balance in this way, they have to find their equilibrium and then remain very VERY still! We used the slide whistle to have some FUN with letting it fall down to the floor. (This also doubled as working on those musical slides---GLISSANDOS!)
And then we put the beanbags on our foot and counted to THREE and Kicked it UP in the air! How fun!
FROGS
We did some work on listening to the different pitches of the frog guiros. The bigger the frog, the LOWER the pitch of the croak! The smaller the frog, the HIGHER the pitch of the croak!
Then, we had some fun with the Froggy Instruments. This helped us to play and hear the variety of sounds that the instruments made, but also helped us to learn to pass and SHARE! (Not always easy with toddlers!!)
FINE MOTOR
We worked on small finger skills using the little frogs and tweezers/pinchers. This is great for fine motor work, and also hand-eye coordination. This is very HARD to do for the little ones, but boy did they stick with it!!
TROTTING and GALLOPING
From frogs, we transitioned to HORSES! We listened to the sounds of horses TROTTING and GALLOPING. This is the beginning of learning to count musically in 2's and 3's. We did a little lap poem to feel these different beats. It goes like this:
This is the way the lady rides, Trot! Trot! Trot! (Little bounces-counting 1-2, 1-2)
This is the way the gentleman rides, Gallop-a-Trot! Gallop-a-Trot! (Big bounces-Counting in 3)
This is the way the children ride, Jiggity-Jog! Jiggity-Jog! (Rock forward and back)
This is the way the farmer rides, Hobbily-Hoy! Hobbily-Hoy! (Rock side to side)
DRUMMING the BEAT!
We added drums to try making the sounds of trotting and galloping. While we were counting in 2's and 3's, the kids might just hear the change as SLOW and FAST. While this is not always true musically, the beginnings of hearing DIFFERENCES in music is a good first step!
We also did a little poem to reinforce that all-important INHIBITORY CONTROL! It goes like this:
I play LOUD SOUNDS on my drum!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
---and NOW LET'S STOP!!!
---and NOW LET'S STOP!!!
(shhhhhh........)
We also pretended to RIDE horses on our bouncy balls! We did some little bounces (Trot, Trot, Trot!) and some big bounces (Gallop-a-Trot!). We even rocked forward and back (Jiggity Jog) and side-to-side (Hobbily Hoy!)
HORSE RACESWe are just starting to work on learning to GALLOP. Watch for this locomotor to really improve with more practice! We use the horses to encourage them to move like a horse. Some are jogging along, some are hopping along, some are doing a little sideways hop, and some are getting that uneven cantor of a gallop! Yee Haw! We celebrate each stage of this difficult locomotor!
CREATIVE MOVEMENT
We love just letting the kiddos cut loose! Here we use ribbons to encourage lots of arm movements--swishing, circling, wiggling, wagging....each cause our ribbons to make interesting shapes and movements!
The end of each class is a celebration! The kids love rituals to let us know when class starts and when class ends. That is way the beginning of class always looks the same (Balls, Hello song) and the end of class always ends the same (Bubbles, Stamps, Goodbye song.) You may have noticed that transitions are HARD for toddlers! These predictable patterns help the kiddos transition IN and OUT of class.
HOOPS
The toddlers had so much fun exploring in their hoops---hopping in and out, skipping around, and also making a tunnel! How brave they were to go through all the hoops!!
STILTSBalancing on the stilts was a culmination of some of our balancing exercises we have done this semester---like the pendulum sway and balancing on one foot. Little by little, the toddlers gained so much balance and coordination from walking on stilts! Wow!
BALANCING STACKS
Using our beads, the toddlers made quite impressive stacks and walls! And, of course, it is sometimes just as much fun to KNOCK THEM OVER!
BOUNCY BALLS and SLEDS
Bouncing and gliding to the beat is a great way to FEEL the pulse/beat of the music! OK----it is also LOTS of FUN too!! I love how their eyes light up when these fun things come out!
And that is a snapshot of Fall Kindermusik! So much fun and learning! Questions? Comments? Leave them here, jot me an email, give me a call, or talk to me in class! I am here to help and I encourage your active involvement in your child's Kindermusik experience! :) Join us again!
