Young Child Week 8

We had great fun in class today with the homemade percussion instruments. Some very unique creations which the children all delighted in telling us about. We used the instruments in our stormy weather composition.

Did you parents notice how well the children sang goodbye today? You may not have realised it, but everyone sang so beautifully in tune. This really excited me as not all of us were singing in tune 8 weeks ago. It proves that we can all learn pitch.

This week at home have fun with your green rhythm cards. Clap and say the patterns on each one. You could also try playing the patterns with your rhythm sticks. Can you remember how many beats on each card? I wonder if you could teach someone else in your family to play the cards.

If you missed the class this week or fancy some additional patterns to play have a look at these.

http://www.kodaly.org.au/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=19&Itemid=74

Scroll down the page to rhythm set 1 and download. You will notice that these patterns have note heads on - other than that they are the same as the ones we have been using in class. Each line has 4 beats. Remember it's 'ta' and 'ti-ti'.

Also in class this week we listened to some bird song. See what birds you can hear this week and draw your favourite to bring back to class.

Young Child - Week 7

We had enormous fun composing our own musical storm today. We spent some time sorting percusion instruments into groups; those that make long sounds and those that make short sounds. After this we were able to select the instruments we felt created the rigth sounds for our composition.

Our fun game 'Farmer, Farmer', which the children play with much enthusiasum is a very subtle ploy to encourge the children into solo singing. I have been amazed at how eagerly the children have taken to singing and have seen a marked improvement since the beginning of the semester in their pitching of the notes.

This week at home we are making percussion instruments. We have learned that a percussion instrument must be struck or shaken. The following may be of some help:
http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/specialfeature/musical_instruments/