Week thirty-two 2009

Theme: musical instruments and the orchestra . . Focus: woodwinds, percussion, the conductor, solo vs. ensemble . . Spanish: el conductor(masculine), la conductora(feminine), la orquesta (the orchestra) . . . Table Activities: Alphabet games, magnets, word boards, blocks, stencils and paper, chain links, coloring page, pipe cleaners, stacking cubes

Theme: For woodwinds we had a coloring page of a flautist with particularly long ears (one of the students was particularly careful to color the inside of those ears pink). We observed and held a clarinet reed as the concept of woodwind instruments was introduced by name and picture. Bagpipes had their moment as we read a book entitled, "Over the Hills and Far Away" by Chris Conover, about a bagpipe-playing otter. One of the repeated phrases in the book was, "Over the hills and a long way off, the wind shall blow my top hat off." This phrase was soon completed by a couple of the students each time it came up. It was well enjoyed! Then we listened to a bagpipe-soloist playing "Amazing Grace" with the rest of the ensemble joining in as the song built with each repetition of the melody. During this listening exercise, we played with ribbon-wands in various ways. The students made woodwind booklets. We decorated the cover with feathers because, of course, feathers float in the wind and we were discussing woodWIND instruments, after all! Then we had fun listening to a beautiful flute rendition of a Bacarolle by Offenbach while we floated and blew our feathers around. This feather activity and the ribbon wands were requested again during free time! To complete our booklet, we had two pages with photos of our featured woodwind instruments and their names, but we needed to write in the beginning letters. Then we stapled our cover and pages together...working the stapler is always a big hit! We used our books and pointers to find the specific instrument by matching specific sound to photo. Then as we headed outside we blew bubbles using our wind, because, did I mention? We were discussing woodWIND instruments! :-)

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Our day of focus on Percussion started out with a BANG!(sorry...pun intended)as the students excitedly showed the recycled-rhythm instruments they had created and brought from home. Thanks a ton, mom and dad, for helping them with this engaging project! There were some great ideas shared! The students patiently kept their instruments in their cubbies until it was time for that activity, which was after lunch...way to go,kids! Prior to lunch we learned of different instruments (xylophone, cymbals, timpani, snare drums, triangle, tamborine,etc.) by sight(photos) and sound. We decorated pictures of bongos with ric-rac, pom-pons, buttons, sequins and construction paper.

After lunch we closed our eyes and Miss Cameron asked us to identify the instrument we heard. She then inflated and popped a brown-paper lunch sack. That got everyone's attention, a few giggles and "Again!" besides. We discussed how percussionists in a symphony use many different things to create sounds, sometimes even gunshots! We brought out the recycling-bin instruments. We were able to observe, often with amazement, how different beaters create different sounds on the same instrument.

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We took our instruments into the big room and had a lot of fun making music while accompanied by Phil Collins' "Trashin' the Camp", which features a typewriter and breaking dishes, pots and pans, among other things. Other activities were, "Tap Big Lines","Drummer's Song" from the bagpipe corp, "Rhythm of the World" by Cathy Fink and Marcie Marxer.

Our final day to wrap up this theme was focused on the conductor and the instruments as a combined ensemble cooperating to create exquisite music. We discussed the terms "solo", "duet", "trio", etc. We all had a bit of May-day fever so we enjoyed lots of movement activities while we listened to and "conducted" various orchestral works. Time was much shorter than the activities we hoped to cover, but we enjoyed many wonderful experiences together. One favorite was playing instruments bingo, which involved placing a marker over the instrument heard in a sound-byte. This activity combined all groups of instruments and as usual, Misses Tracy and Cameron were amazed by how quick and accurate the students were. We read the book, Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman, which reviews many of the instruments as well as the terms solo, duet, etc. We also practiced "Do Re Mi" by the students request!

. Art: Miss Cristina helped us create canvas puppets with lots of opportunity for free-expression! These were a big hit and utilized such media as yarn, felt, sharpies, and the ever-popular googly eyes!

Handwriting and Math: Many of these skills were integrated into our music theme during this week. We did review the HWT wood piece pokey and names additionally.

Free-play: This week was marked by the grand entrance of a doll-house, people-figures and Pretty Ponies. It was heaven for several of the students!

As noted above, we often re-played prior activities of the day during free time as well. We have noted the many of the children are abbreviating their lunch in their excitement for free-time. We try to encourage 10 minutes of solid eating-time and taking uneaten lunch home for later. We are happy to note that no child has died of starvation on our watch, but feel certain that many come home with an appetite! Outdoor play occurred this week in smaller doses near the end of class.