Here's a fun Halloween post from a couple of years ago - we have a few new faces, but you'll recognize a lot of them.

(We played this game in class after talking about things that were real and pretend at Halloween.)

Happy Halloween

Still missing one class...  we've recorded it twice now, and the camera gremlins have made it so that a 3rd try is in order -- I'll have it for you on Tuesday, thanks for your patience.


Here are the links to some fun halloween videos


 5 Little Pumpkins
http://youtu.be/RK8uLz6hihE


Mr. Jack-o-Lantern
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9zAWFLAzSU


Pumpkin, Pumpkin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQe5NTNTunA


Little Spider
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a8m390KszY


Leaves on the Trees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKiG_Wfyj3Y


This is Jacko...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lYGJYmt9qs


Halloween Stew -- an adaptation of "Stirring My Brew"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6FTfJeM8LQ


We also danced with fluorescent scarves in a black light to Toccata Fugue in D (scary organ music) and the theme from Phantom of the Opera, and played on Halloween drums with magic Halloween drumsticks (light sticks) to Monster Mash.

Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything!

now grab some instruments and join in on the fun!

youtube jump

I've been VERY frustrated with the video quality offered by blogger.  After trying several different cameras and uploading options, I've decided to go with a private channel on YouTube to upload future videos.


This way, you'll be able to watch the videos full screen and they won't be fuzzy anymore.
The link is private (you won't be able to search for them on YouTube) - you have to have the link to see the videos.


Tell me what you think...

3 Little Fishies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1rIt-hNpOg

Little Mousey Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t52xzMiZ5cw

I had a Little Turtle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8mSJYY0R10

Jump Jim Joe

Here's a fun partner game we LOVE to play - Jump Jim Joe!  Dance along together at home.

Community Helper Song

Last week we talked about all the people who help in our neighborhoods - ala the old Sesame Song "Who are the people in your neighborhood?"

skinny dog

A little Rodeo

We like to play music with "found" objects.  Today it was plastic cups because when you tap them together, they sound like horses hooves clip-clopping along.

5 Little Birdies

Pets

I'm still working on more of our "pets" videos - my computer is not playing nice this morning.  Here's one of our favorites as well as a link to a song page with all the words (hopefully the music will be up by this weekend?)

http://www.missmsmusic.com/music-downloads.html

and an activity you can do at home that corresponds with the Skat the Cat Video

http://www.missmsmusic.com/classroom-fun.html

Hurry, Hurry! Drive the Firetruck!

We got a visit from the Firetruck this week.  We saw hoses, and big tires, lights and fire-fighter's uniforms.  We even got to climb into the fire truck!  Here is a song we learned to sing for them...

Family Week

We had lots of fun during family week.  We pretended we were babies, and then sang songs about families. We also played a baby bear, mama bear and daddy bear stick activity to emphasize quiet, medium and loud sounds. 

Words to songs and music samples are available on Miss Marilee's website

http://www.missmsmusic.com/music-downloads.html

Grandma Moses:

Little Mousey Brown:

Shark Story:

5 Little ducks:

Grandma's Spectacles

The Wheels on the Bus

We did the "wheels on the Bus" last week, and after doing all the hand motions, we let each of the kids choose something to put on the bus.   We had snakes, sharks, and lots of dogs and cats on the bus before we were done.  What a ride!

Here's a re-visit to last year's "wheels on the bus" video

Hello and Welcome Back for 2011-12!

Another year has begun - so many plans ahead, and so much fun to be had!

Be sure to sign up for email notification (see tab at the right), that way you'll know when we've posted new pictures and videos.

If you don't want to sign up for email notification, check back here often to see posts of all the fun we're having in music class this year!

Bucket Drumming

This week we've been drumming on empty buckets while reading the book, Tanka, Tanka Skunk.  The book has lots of different animals that we drummed to the beat of their names.  Then we drummed our own names and talked about how many "beats" (early introduction to syllables!) were in their names.  For example, "Jack" has one beat, and "Lauren" has two.

After praciticing the beats, we explored pounding on different parts of our drums, and mallets (using the stick end, tapping on the sides, etc.) Then we put on some drumming music and drummed til we ran out of time, or until our sticks broke - whichever came first.

You can easily make your own drum set with any empty bucket, a dowel (at least 1/2" round) and a rubber ball.  Use a sharp object (or a drill!) to make a hole into the ball to insert the stick.  Load up with lots of expoxy glue (I use EC6000), and place the ball on top of the stick.  Let dry overnight and then start banging!

The song that NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEER ends

Do your ears hang low?

I had a little pig

wadle-what-cha?

The Lady and the Crocodile

Handel: Water Music

George Frideric Handel was a composer for King George (I forget the number - 13 or something?).  King George wanted to have a party on a boat on the river, so he commissioned a piece of music from Handel to play at the party.  Handel's orchestra played while riding on one barge, while floating down the river next to another barge with the party-goers.

Today we made a barge in the river and took turns playing music, being waves and fish while listening to Handel's "Water Music"

Saint Saens: Carnival of the Animals

Have you ever heard a song that sounds just like a lion roaring, or an elephant lumbering, or a horse galloping?  Well, we have.  Last week we learned about Saint Saens who wrote a collection of songs about different animals (you may have seen the paper come home).  We listened and colored each animal as we heard their songs.  The next day we acted out the animals - lions, elephants, birds, fish, turtles and more!

More on Composers... Mussorgsky

This past month we have been talking about different composers.  (And we'll continue to do more throughout the next few weeks).  We talked about Modest Mussorgsky and his composition - "Pictures at an Exhibition".  It is a collection of songs written about works of art Mussorgsky saw at an art exhibition.  We listened to, and then acted out music about an ox pulling a heavy cart, children dancing in a field, 2 bickering women, and a hut on chicken legs.  We drew our own pictures to more of Mussorgsky's music.

The next day we drew pictures and then composed our own music to the pictures we drew.  Some of us tapped sticks, while others of us sang our compositions:

Marching Feet

Back in February I attended the Texas Music Educators Convention in San Antonio.  It was great fun -- well, maybe if you're a music geek.

This is an activity from one of the presenters at the conference -- it was a lot of fun and I found myself marching out the door with a resolve to get myself a bongo drum. The kids loved it and were asolutely exhausted by the time we were done.

Bumble Bees

Last week we talked about how bumblebees help the flowers to grow by sharing their pollen.
We played a gathering and sharing pollen game while we listened to "The Flight of the Bumblebee"
I think they would have played all day if they could have!

Then we learned a new Bumblebee fingerplay:

Here is the Beehive

But where are all the bees?

Hidden inside where nobody sees

Here they come creeping out of their hive...

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Buzzzzzzzzz!

glow worm

Grab your own "glow worm" (light stick) and wiggle along to the tune of "Glow Worm" sung by the Mills Brothers.

Around the World

This week we sang a song that says "Hi" in many different languages (and the kids even taught me a few of their own).  Then we played instruments from around the world, while listening to musical selections from around the world. 

My favorite comment of the week?  "This was a good day!" (spoken by one of the kids as we returned to class).  To quote "the hokey pokey" ---- that's what it's all about!

Composers & Conductors

This week we learned about music jobs - Conductors (who lead a group of musicians in playing a piece of music) and Composers - (who write down the music so musicians can play it).

We looked at a piece of music and noticed all the  lines and dots.  We talked about how the dots are the notes.  Solid notes are different from hollow notes and tell the musician how long to play the note.  We also learned that where the note is on the line tells the musician to play high (or low).

We learned about a famous composer: Chopin.  Chopin was 6 years old when he started composing, so you don't have to be a big person to compose music.  We played pretend pianos to Chopin's "Minute Waltz".

Then we "composed" our own music by coloring in notes on a piece of music.

Then we each got to conduct our music, first by calling out the colored notes on our music score, while the musicians played xylophones, chimes and bells.  Finally we waved the baton to lead all our friends in an all-out chime/bell choir!

Jazz Band

Although April is National Jazz Month, we thought we'd get a head start on the celebrating and have a little fun with Jazz music this week.

We learned about a few instruments that are played in a Jazz band such as trumpets, trombones, saxophones, keyboards, clarinets, bass fiddles and drums.  We saw lots of pictures, and heard lots of audio samples.  We even got to touch and play a few of these instruments:

We found out that blowing a trumpet is hard work! (Don't worry, we had special mouth-piece covers so we wouldn't share germs).

Then we read Ben's Trumpet, by Rachel Isadora about a little boy who wanted to play trumpet, but didn't have one.

We marched around the room to some music by Louis Armstrong (a very famous jazz trumpeter) while playing our own "air trumpets".

And then we listened to Jazz Fly, by Matthew Golub- a story about a fly and his troubles with his jazz band.

and finally we did a little dancing to a jazzy piece: "Rag Mop", by the Ames Brothers