Blue Bugs Lesson 9
Thank you for coming to class today parents! Parent days are always filled with a higher level of energy because our kids are either super excited to show you what they’ve been learning, or they are suddenly shy and don’t want to participate. Don’t let that discourage you! I promise they are doing well on non-parent days, I’m not worried one bit. And they benefit tremendously from just being present in class – they are hearing and learning even if they don’t want to. Just gently encourage them and show them how much fun you are having participating! Yes, parents should be singing and doing all the actions too – it really helps.
BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS (please read to the end of this section)
Today is the official start of SPIRIT WEEK! Briefly, this is a chance for us to celebrate and share our love of Let’s Play Music with the world! This is fun and is a HUGE help to me in building my studio. Here are the details:
PRIZES: I have assembled a large number of musical giveaways up to $40 in value. Children will earn spins on a wheel of prizes by completing certain tasks.
1) Register for next semester (2nd year: Green Turtle Shells/Yellow Arrows) if you haven’t already. Registration opened Mar. 1st (each child registered gets points.) If you have any younger kiddos (or friends) who would like to start Let’s Play Music or Sound Beginnings in my Summer or Fall classes, please get them registered ASAP because the “good” class times fill up quickly.
2) Share a pic from class on social media #JudieMusic #SoundBeginnings #LetsPlayMusic #weloveLPM2024 (send me a screen shot for credit)
3) Wear a LPM or Sound Beginnings t-shirt, or something else musical to class.
(this one is trickier for SBs families because I don’t provide a t-shirt at this age group. Feel free to get creative! 🙂
4) Share a pic of your LPM kiddo practicing tonebells or enjoying their music at home! #JudieMusic #SoundBeginnings #LetsPlayMusic #weloveLPM2024 (send me a screen shot for credit)
5) Share a review on my business google page. (send me a screen shot for credit)
BONUS: Host a yard sign in your front yard for the month for 30 points!
**When posting on social media, be sure to use the hashtags exactly as listed above so you are entered in my raffle. Also, you can use one of their images below to add to your post:
| On Top of Spaghetti Learning to hear chord progressions as well as each part of a chord is a vital skill when becoming a musician. This song and activity is very rich in it’s musical lessons. We play the autoharp which allows us to have our hands doing two different things, and our eyes are looking at the chord map and reading music. We are hearing the chord progressions and then we sing each piece of the chord as each student points to their triangles. It’s so fun! Drunken Sailor This folk song teaches musical form: You hear a theme that repeats a few times and we do the same dance movement back and forth. Then at the end of the phrase “…early in the morning” you hear a strong cadence pull to DO. A cadence is found at the end of a musical phrase. This cadence has a strong pull to our ears that indicates the musical sentence has finished. This cadence trains the ear how music sounds when it is complete or finished. |
| Fox Hunt – NEW puppet show! New puppet show! This fun song teaches us to identify rhythmic patterns and learn about classical form. Classical form is when you identify the reoccurring melodic themes and label them. Understanding this concept will help your student in 3rd year to compose their own music! |
| Jungle Rhythms – spatial skills As your child sees how the Jungle Rhythm chart divides space and hear how the music divides time, they become aware of how the two correlate. This develops their spatial awareness. Subdividing rhythms: abstract notation Seeing the Jungle Rhythm chart exposes children to what the written form of subdividing looks like. Can’t Bug Me Today in class we clapped bug rhythms without seeing the bug cards. That’s right! We clapped our rhythms today only using the ‘real’ music notation, without the help of our musical bugs. They’re smart little cookies! |
Our new puppet show was written by Gioachino Antonio Rossini, who was born on February 29 (leap year!), 1792 in Italy to a family of musicians. His father played the horn and his mother was a singer. He was just six years old when he joined his father’s band – he played the triangle. When he was only 10 years old, he was asked often to play the piano and sing at their church. At that age, he began composing and soon became the most celebrated composer of Italian Opera. Our puppet show, “The Fox Hunt” is from the William Tell Overture. This famous piece has been imitated (top video) and heard in various “rock-n-roll” forms (bottom video) all over the world! If your child did not receive a page of puppets to color in class today, I will hand it out next week – only the first class got them today because I forgot in the second class. Sorry!
For my convenience, I have preloaded content for the whole semester. I will update each future post with specific time-sensitive info before I send the link each week. If you choose to read ahead you might see details that don’t apply to your child’s class. For this reason I do not recommend reading ahead. Thank you!