Transitions

When  a child's time needs to be organized, that is, when a parent or teacher have a time schedule to keep or an agenda to stick to, a child will have to move from one activity to another. This time of ending an activity and beginning a new one is called a transition. For example, when you move from playing to eating lunch, or from eating lunch to taking a nap, or from the end of the day at school to the beginning of the evening at home. These are all times of transition. A person doesn't have to physically move for a transition to occur. In our music class we stay in the classroom, but we transition from playing instruments to dancing, or from singing a counting song on the felt board to getting ready to say goodbye.

Transitions can be times of stress or high emotion for children. You might think of the big life transitions like moving houses or or gaining a new sibling, but the small "micro" transitions are important to acknowledge too. Putting our instruments away for example, can be a sad time for children in my class. Adults can help children successfully navigate transitions times in a few different ways. One is to acknowledge the transition and any feelings that might come with it. "It's time to put away the instruments and I know that makes you sad" for instance. Don't be afraid of letting the feelings be present. It can be easy to fall into the trap of making promises that you may not be able to keep in an attempt to make your child feel better, or to let be in charge of the situation. Instead, say something that you are sure of like "we can play our instruments another time" or we have instruments at that we can play later, but right now we have to clean up so we can move on to the next activity."

Transitions are why we sing the same good-day and good-bye song at the beginning and end of every class. This gives the kids a chance to prepare for what is about to happen, and to say goodbye when class is over. When you are leaving you can say "we will see you next week!" and you can sing the songs you learned any time you want to!

Reading Books and Making Music

I often incorporate readings book into my music curriculum. This may seem strange but I have my reasons. There are lots of connections to reading with music. The most obvious one to me is rhythm. When you read a book where the words have a cadence, or a rhyme, you can hear rhythm. If you read the book enough times (how many times have the kids asked for "more"?), children can perhaps memorize and recite the words to the book, creating rhythm on their own. A fun book with great rhythm and illustrations that I usee in my class is "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert.

Another great reason to read books in music class is to practice making sounds with your mouth. This helps develop the muscles and brain connections for speech. Any book with silly sounds or animal sounds works

for this. You can also have a great bonding experience with your child when you practice sounds together. One book I like to read in my class with sounds is "The Ear Book" By Al Perkins & illustrated by Henry Payne. This reminds us about how our body works and gives a great opportunity to make some sounds that we might hear everyday.

Another book I like to read in my class is "Animals Speak" by Lila Prap. I love this book for the great illustrations and it's global outlook. We get to find out what animals "say" in different languages. It's a great way to create awareness of other cultures and to practice making different sounds. Who knew a cat says "Midheabh" in Irish?!

A brilliant music themed book for kids is called "Jazz Baby" by Lisa Wheeler and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. It makes great use of jazzy sounds and scatting while honoring the culture from which jazz music emerged. This is a really fun one to read!

Look for more music themed books at your local library. There are lots to choose from. And if you feel like you're no good at music, pick up a book about music and read it to your child!

March 1 -- April 5th, 2014

Music we listened to in our class:

March 1st: "Diu Diu Diu Shou Juan" from Rabbit Days and Dumplings
                 "John Kanakaka from Dan Zanes and Friends Little Nut Tree

March 8th: "Jamming" from Bob Marley's B is for Bob
                  "Lundu" the Chieftans, Voice of Ages

March 15th: "Bare Necessities" and "Colonel Hathi's March" from Disney's Jungle Book
                    "Hold Him Joe" from Ziggy Marley's Family Time

March 22nd: Frederic Chopin: Nocturne op. 9,1 in B flat minor
                     Do-re-mi song from Japanese Children's Songs

March 29th: "Let's Make Some Noise" from Raffi's Everything Grows

April 5th:

January 11th -- February 15th, 2014

Music we listened to in our class:

Jan. 11th: "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" from Maria Maldauer's Swingin' in the Rain
               "Freeze" from Kids in Motion
               "Mambo Yo-Yo" from Putamayo Presents Afro-Latino

Jan. 18th: "Mbube" & "Hello Hello" from Putamayo Presents African Playground

Jan. 25th: "Jig Jog Gee" from Father Goose, It's a Bam Bam Diddly!
               ""Dil Lay Gayee" from Bhangra Original Punjabi Pop

Feb. 1st: "Paxolina" from Yo-Yo Ma"s Songs of Joy and Peace

Feb. 8th: "Trampoline" from Putamayo Presents European Playground

Feb. 15th: "Do, Re, Mi" Japanese Children's Music