Dear Our Time Parent:
For the past two weeks, the children have taken turns playing the resonator bars while the class sang Sweetly Sings the Donkey. The repetition of this activity has allowed your child to become more and more familiar with the song, thus encouraging him to sing along. This activity also provides the opportunity for each child to learn how to take turns in a supportive environment! And the children have also been further developing their sense of steady beat, the most fundamental property of music. Feeling, moving to, and playing a steady beat help children develop a sense of time and the ability to organize and coordinate movements within time.
You can further experience steady beat activities by playing your Fiddlesticks (or another beat-keeping instrument or homemade instrument) while listening to songs such as ‘Liza Jane, The Tailor and the Mouse or Polly Wolly Doodle. More music at home increases your child’s opportunity to develop a love for music. Have fun!
______________________________________
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning - some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Steady Beat: The most fundamental property of music is beat, the underlying, unchanging, repeating pulse. Feeling and moving to a steady beat helps children develop a sense of time and the ability to organize and coordinate movements within time.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Kindermusik Family Time Our Kind of Day Week 12 Bonus
It was a blast this semester! Hope you had a fun! Can't wait to start the new curriculum! See you next week!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Kindermusik OurTime Feedle-dee-dee Week 9
I hope you have been listening to your Home CDs over the past few weeks. If you have, you have heard a variety of instruments and vocalists, musical styles, and arrangements. Your Kindermusik CDs offer the highest quality in children’s music by including folk songs (Hush, Little Baby), traditional children’s songs (All My Little Ducklings), music of many cultures (Usagi, Usagi from Japan and Bangara Dance from India), interactive tracks, and more. Enjoy your CDs this week by:
listening to Home CD 2, track 12, Donkey Braying,
playing an echo game with Home CD 2, track 13, Donkey Sounds, and then
singing along with Home CD 2, track 14, Sweetly Sings the Donkey.
If you’d like to know more about the music or activities we share in class, please feel free to drop me an e-mail with your questions.
I look forward to singing with you and your child next week!
______________________________________
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning - some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Crescendo: Crescendo is the Italian musical term for a gradual increase in volume. It is one of many expressive elements of music and can serve to add intensity, urgency and excitement to music, regardless of whether the music is sung, played on instruments, or spoken rhythmically.
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning - some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Hiding and Finding: Asking a child to hide an object and then find it helps her to discover object permanence. Awareness of object permanenve is the realization that even when something (or someone) is hidden and out of sight, it still exists. This is an important understanding for “bound away and back” toddlers adjusting to the experience of being away from their parents.
listening to Home CD 2, track 12, Donkey Braying,
playing an echo game with Home CD 2, track 13, Donkey Sounds, and then
singing along with Home CD 2, track 14, Sweetly Sings the Donkey.
If you’d like to know more about the music or activities we share in class, please feel free to drop me an e-mail with your questions.
I look forward to singing with you and your child next week!
______________________________________
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning - some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Crescendo: Crescendo is the Italian musical term for a gradual increase in volume. It is one of many expressive elements of music and can serve to add intensity, urgency and excitement to music, regardless of whether the music is sung, played on instruments, or spoken rhythmically.
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning - some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Hiding and Finding: Asking a child to hide an object and then find it helps her to discover object permanence. Awareness of object permanenve is the realization that even when something (or someone) is hidden and out of sight, it still exists. This is an important understanding for “bound away and back” toddlers adjusting to the experience of being away from their parents.
Kindermusik Family Time Our Kind of Day Week 11 Bonus
Thank you for joining our end of semester bonus class today. Next week will be the last class of our semester. Have you registered for fall yet? Sign up now and we'll rush the order for your At Home Material!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Kindermusik OurTime Feedle-dee-dee Week 8
Dear Our Time Parent:
What a “kick” I got today from the children’s responses to Bazoo, Bazoo, Butz as they bounced, bumped and giggled! We all enjoy laughing, but did you know that laughing is good for you? “Laughter increases white blood cell activity and changes the chemical balance of the blood. This is believed to boost the body’s production of chemicals needed for alertness and memory. Laughter reduces stress, and low stress enhances the brain’s receptivity to learning. According to researchers, laughing (having fun) also boosts the body’s immune system for three days – the day of the fun and the next two.”*
Enjoy a few laughs together with your child this week!
Educator’s Personal Signature
*Start Smart!: Building Brain Power in the Early Years, by Pam Schiller
What a “kick” I got today from the children’s responses to Bazoo, Bazoo, Butz as they bounced, bumped and giggled! We all enjoy laughing, but did you know that laughing is good for you? “Laughter increases white blood cell activity and changes the chemical balance of the blood. This is believed to boost the body’s production of chemicals needed for alertness and memory. Laughter reduces stress, and low stress enhances the brain’s receptivity to learning. According to researchers, laughing (having fun) also boosts the body’s immune system for three days – the day of the fun and the next two.”*
Enjoy a few laughs together with your child this week!
Educator’s Personal Signature
*Start Smart!: Building Brain Power in the Early Years, by Pam Schiller
Kindermusik Family Time Our Kind of Day Week 10
Dear Family Time Parents,
The physical development of your children is a priority in Kindermusik class. That’s why we take time each week for rocking. Moving the head off center stimulates the system in your child’s body which controls navigation and balance. You can reinforce the benefits of rocking by trying it at home, too.
For variety, try rocking while sitting and then while standing. Hammock with each child in your family by taking turns and letting the other children help. Consider rocking by creating a hammock and rocking your kangaroo puppets or favorite stuffed animals. Incorporate any of the rocking songs on your Home CDs: “Shalom Haverim,” “Come All You Playmates,” “Simple Gifts,” or “Oh, Watch the Stars.” If you’ve not yet re-enrolled in Family Time for the next semester, call or email TODAY so that you and your family can enroll in the next class.
And again, thank you for sharing your family with me,
_________________________________________
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning – some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Fine-Motor Movement – During the first year or so of life, gross-motor activities dominate the child`s repertoire of movement, with the major objective being the mastery of walking. As the child grows older, however, she can begin to focus on activities – such as instrument exploration and finger plays – that encourage the development of small muscles.
The physical development of your children is a priority in Kindermusik class. That’s why we take time each week for rocking. Moving the head off center stimulates the system in your child’s body which controls navigation and balance. You can reinforce the benefits of rocking by trying it at home, too.
For variety, try rocking while sitting and then while standing. Hammock with each child in your family by taking turns and letting the other children help. Consider rocking by creating a hammock and rocking your kangaroo puppets or favorite stuffed animals. Incorporate any of the rocking songs on your Home CDs: “Shalom Haverim,” “Come All You Playmates,” “Simple Gifts,” or “Oh, Watch the Stars.” If you’ve not yet re-enrolled in Family Time for the next semester, call or email TODAY so that you and your family can enroll in the next class.
And again, thank you for sharing your family with me,
_________________________________________
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning – some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Fine-Motor Movement – During the first year or so of life, gross-motor activities dominate the child`s repertoire of movement, with the major objective being the mastery of walking. As the child grows older, however, she can begin to focus on activities – such as instrument exploration and finger plays – that encourage the development of small muscles.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Kindermusik Family Time Our Kind of Day Week 9
Dear Family Time Parents,
With only one more week in the semester, I am celebrating all that we have learned and enjoyed during this Family Time class. We’ve established a set of classroom rituals and routines that have provided a framework in which your children can flourish. I invite you to share your favorite class memory or perhaps something significant that you’ve observed at home that illustrates how your family has enjoyed and benefited from this class. Rituals and routines like these, in class or at home, contribute to the stability of your child’s emotional development. With that in mind, create a new ritual for your family this week, perhaps a bedtime ritual. Read and sing along to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” with the whole family and your kangaroo puppets, too. Then turn down the lights and listen to one of the following tracks on the Home CD to help your children relax before bed: “Brahms Intermezzo,” “Simple Gifts,” or “The More We Get Together.”
As you continue these rituals and create new ones, know that you are contributing to the stability of your child’s emotional development. Thank you for sharing your family with me!_________________________________________
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning – some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Internal Control – Achieving internal control over his actions, or self-discipline, is a gradual and important process for a child. Activities that ask children to focus, listen, and rect to aural cues to move – or stop moving – help them develop this kind of attention and control.
Locomotor Movements – Locomotor movements move the body from one place to another. The growth and refinement of these skills teaches balance, steady beat, and coordination. Locomotor movements fully activate and integrate the brain and enhance the development of cognitive skills.
With only one more week in the semester, I am celebrating all that we have learned and enjoyed during this Family Time class. We’ve established a set of classroom rituals and routines that have provided a framework in which your children can flourish. I invite you to share your favorite class memory or perhaps something significant that you’ve observed at home that illustrates how your family has enjoyed and benefited from this class. Rituals and routines like these, in class or at home, contribute to the stability of your child’s emotional development. With that in mind, create a new ritual for your family this week, perhaps a bedtime ritual. Read and sing along to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” with the whole family and your kangaroo puppets, too. Then turn down the lights and listen to one of the following tracks on the Home CD to help your children relax before bed: “Brahms Intermezzo,” “Simple Gifts,” or “The More We Get Together.”
As you continue these rituals and create new ones, know that you are contributing to the stability of your child’s emotional development. Thank you for sharing your family with me!_________________________________________
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning – some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
Internal Control – Achieving internal control over his actions, or self-discipline, is a gradual and important process for a child. Activities that ask children to focus, listen, and rect to aural cues to move – or stop moving – help them develop this kind of attention and control.
Locomotor Movements – Locomotor movements move the body from one place to another. The growth and refinement of these skills teaches balance, steady beat, and coordination. Locomotor movements fully activate and integrate the brain and enhance the development of cognitive skills.