Week thirty-one 2009

Theme: Musical Instruments Focus: Keyboard, strings, and brass

Classical composer: Felix Mendelssohn (1809 –1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. . Spanish: el música (music), el órgano (organ), el piano (piano) . Theme: For the keyboard we talked about the 88 keys, the white and black keys (including the 2 and 3 groupings of black) the “secret code” names of the keys (A-G), and the bass and treble sounds. We created fun paper keyboards and labeled them with the correct names. The children loved pretending to play the keyboards. We also introduced the children to the Do-Re-Mi scale. We had fun practicing the official hand signs that correspond with each note on the scale. We just had to do the song “Do-Re-Mi” (The Sound of Music) several times and the children requested it over and over. For strings, we listened to Mendelssohn’s Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcY0Gh3mPBc&feature=related We made mythical stick- puppets and each child made up a little play as we were listening to the music. The characters on their puppets have nothing to do with actual characters from Shakespeare’s play, except that they’re fantasy just as Shakespeare’s fairies are. In the song, the flute represents the mischievous Puck who is always playing tricks on everyone. We also listened to distinct sounds of the violin, cello, harp and read some fun storybooks. Each child had the opportunity to play conductor.

For brass, we mainly focused on tuba, French horn, trombone, and trumpet, but the children also saw pictures of the coronet and bugle. They listened to the bugle at the beginning of Rossini’s "William Tell Overture" and became the cavalry riding in to save the day at their own request. We also played a paddle game where they listened to separate instrument sounds and moved the see-through paddle over the correct brass instrument.

Table Activities: free drawing, marble mats and tongs, plastic nuts and bolts of various sizes, wooden HWT pieces, pattern blocks and pieces.

Art: Miss Cristina reviewed the color rainbow with a fun book and the children assembled their rainbows. Then, they created a line drawing of something they like to do at school on contact paper. The contact paper drawing was stuck to the finished rainbow. Beautiful, colorful projects! These projects will go in their portfolios.

. Activity Songs: “Do Re Mi”, “William Tell Overture”, and lots of snippets of different songs which perfectly showcase different instrument sounds. . Math, Handwriting and Reading: For math we used the large dice: one with number dots and one with activity cards. The students rolled the dice and we completed the activity the amount of times the dots showed. Since one of the activities was throwing a ball and catching it, this was also a lesson in following directions and gross-motor (how to throw a ball accurately so you can catch it again.) The children loved it! For handwriting/reading, one group used slates and chalk and were congratulated for correctly following directions as we made the beginning letters of each child’s name. We’re having fun seeing them grow in this skill-set! The other group had HWT paper and practiced writing the numbers 1-9. We discussed and emphasized correct use of helper-hands. The tricky thing is that many in this group already write the numbers their own way. They were encouraged to try the HWT way to help get them thinking about what they’re actually doing and be deliberate about it. Miss Cameron’s personal opinion is that if the student is writing legibly with acceptable grip and reasonable stroke-order we won’t make a big deal over minutia. The fundamental principles of starting at the top, stroking all the way from the top line to the bottom line or corner-to-corner (etc.), not adding unnecessary strokes and use of the helper hand are more important and more strongly encouraged. . Storybooks: Tubby the Tuba (with a beautiful orchestral recording and a new favorite of Miss Cameron’s), Zin!Zin! Zin! A Violin, Manuelo the Playing Mantis, Baby Brains Superstar . Free-Play Fun: Wooden block garages and giant storage facilities for cars, ponies and horses, reading loft/fort, outdoor play, sidewalk chalk