Yellow Arrows Lesson 9
Parent Day is THE BEST!!! I absolutely love having you join us, and the kids look forward to it all month! I hope you take this opportunity to bond with your child one-on-one and to take note of how you can more effectively support them in their practice at home.
We have 6 lessons left this semester, the recital is scheduled for May 5th, time TBA. If you haven’t done so already, please take a moment to register your student(s) for their third, and final year of Let’s Play Music. CLICK HERE and select the Purple Magic/Orange Roots class time that works best for you. Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or conflicts.
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:
First off, registration began March 1st so click here to get your kiddos registered for 3rd year LPM Purple Magic/Orange Roots, and if you have any younger kiddos (or friends) who would like to start Let’s Play Music or Sound Beginnings in my Fall classes, please get them registered ASAP because the “good” class times fill up quickly.
PRIZES: I have assembled a large number of musical giveaways up to $40 in value. Children will earn points by completing certain tasks.
1) Register for next semester (Purple Magic/Orange Roots) if you haven’t already.
2) Share a pic from class on social media #JudieMusic #SoundBeginnings #LetsPlayMusic #weloveLPM2024 (send me a screen shot for credit)
3) Wear a LPM t-shirt to school and music class.
4) Share a pic of your kiddo practicing LPM 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:
Celebrate Connections
A few ideas to make the alphabet pieces game more playful!
Super Skippers:
Your child draws out an alphabet letter and places it on the keyboard as a ‘starter’. Next, she chooses another piece and checks to see if it can make a skip up or a skip down from the starter. If not, discard it and player 2 gets a turn to play (player 2 should start her skipping chain on a different octave from player 1). Keep taking turns until someone makes a chain, by adding skips at the top or bottom, that is 7 letters long and wins!
Parking Lot Cars:
Draw a letter from the lot and park your car on the white key “parking space” that matches. Works great with cars like these from the learning shop. Keep going until you run out of cars (or whatever counters you have).
Cowboys and Indians:
Start one tiny plastic character (ANY tiny plastic figures you have will do: Pokemon, animals, cowboys, princesses, etc.) at one end of the keyboard on a white key, and another at the other end. Draw a tile out and move the low guy up to that key. Draw another tile and move the high guy down to that key. Keep going until they meet (and battle, or shake hands, or whatever you pretend!)
Bug Scale
We can now play UP the C Major Scale with our RH! Place the RH in C position and play with fingers 1-2-3 (CDE) then POP UNDER with the thumb to make a new bubble and continue playing with fingers 1-2-3-4-5 (FGABC). Choose your favorite BUG to practice this new skill. One way to remind where to pop is to insert POP with the bug like this: Butterfly, Butterfly, Butterfly, POPPERfly, Butterfly, etc. As always, we try to make our technique drills so fun that the kids don’t even notice they are getting practice!
A Warm Welcome to Middle B and Middle D
The 5 anchor notes used in 2nd year include the members of the “C” family: Treble C, Middle C, and Bass C and the Middle Friends including Middle B who is B-elow Middle C and Middle D who is Down under the first line on the staff.
How to Skip
We will master all of our middle anchor notes with this song: Middle B, Middle C, Middle D. Use the same 3 fingers for the entire song: 1-3-5. Simply move your thumb to the appropriate starting note. Sing “C-skip-skip-skip, D-skip-skip” etc. emphasizing each anchor note. This is where the practice of seeing and playing those middle anchor notes connect!
I am Robin Hood
If your child can play each hand of “I am Robin Hood” comfortably, they are ready to put both hands together! Isolate 1 or 2 measures at a time to have a successful experience, then continue to add 1-2 measures until they can play the entire song with confidence! While practicing with your child, you can guide their eyes by pointing note by note with V fingers. Hooray for Hands Together!
How instinctive is your child getting with their keyboard geography playing the Alphabet Pieces Game? Time your child for 1 minute and see how many pieces they can put on the piano. Your student will treasure this craft and game idea as they continue to solidify all of the notes on the keyboard!
I sent home the puppets and popsicle sticks with your child today. Please be sure they get colored, cut, and assembled ASAP so we can use them in class next week. Here is a digital copy in case yours gets misplaced:
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!
