Valentine Fun!

This week in Music Time we are having a blast learning Valentine's Day songs!
We are taking old familiar kid songs and using their tunes to make up new songs all about Valentines! The classrooms are doing a great job and we are sure spreading some love around the center.

While the students get to enjoy the familiarity of the tunes from our older songs, they are also being encourage to try them in a new way with new words and actions.

I hope you hear them being sung at home!!

We are playing a fun game that is very easy to do at home. We put on a song and dance but when the music stops we have to find a friend and give them a giant hug! When the music starts again it starts all over! Take time to be silly with your little ones, they love this!!

Have a great Day!

January 25th - 29th 2010

This week in Music & Movement Time:
We are exploring the world of timing and rhythm! Usually we would use instruments or our lummi sticks to accomplish this but, this week we are using our hands, feet and whole body. It has been a very fun week so far. The students are enjoying the fact that they get to do all kinds of silly songs to do this too.

Our last song we are doing for the older classes, is a Jazz song. The students learn a new jazzy way to sing their ABC's and then they have to try to keep the same timing without a lead voice. Every few letters the lead voice will sing just to see if the students are keeping the same jazzy style and timing as they were taught.
They have done really well with it so far!

I am very proud of them!

January 18th - 22nd 2010

This week in music class we will be exploring the world of musical beanbags!
each child will have their own beanbag. I have three different songs for them.
The first one is called "Beanbag Jump". This song will have them jumping all around. The second song is called "Beanbag Alphabet Rag". This song uses the alphabet to give direction to the students to tell them where to place the bean bag, for example A is for Arm, B is for back, and so on!
The last song is called "Beanbag Boogie" and boogie is what they will do with this song. I am sure they will have a great time and they won't even know that we are working on listening skills!!
Along with these wonderful songs we will also have our Hello Song and Goodbye Song. I am saving time for a fun song called "Silly Dancers"! This is a fun song that will have them dancing and listening to directions all at once.

I hope each of you have a great week.

Welcome Back To Music Time! January 4th - 8th

We are back and in full swing in music and movement at Kids 'R' Kids! It is very hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone and we are now in 2010. Man time flies.

This week in music class we are starting a musical "Winter" theme. We will enjoy this fun theme this week and next. The students are in for a very chilly musical time.

We are singing a silly warm up song that the classrooms really seem to like, but we have changed it to match out winter theme. It goes like this: "Mommy made me mash my snowball, I'm mad" the students start out kneeling down and using a soft voice then each time we sing it we stand taller and sing louder. They get a kick out of this and they love that they are actually allowed to use a loud voice in the classroom, I remind them only in music class of course.

This week we are exploring instruments. I have a song called "The First Skater's Waltz" that we are using. We stand in a circle and lay instruments in front of us, we then hold hands and pretend to ice skate around our pond. There is a change in the music where we then stop and pick up the instrument laying in front of us and play it. Then we lay them down and start all over again. This allows the students to experience several different types of instruments.
The toddlers are using this song but they are pretending to be musical ice skaters as we skate around the room.

If we are going to have winter then we have to have a "Snowball Song". We are using paper crumbled up as pretend snowballs. We are singing a song that allows us to work on our tempo as we find new places to put our snowball each time. The students love singing slow like robots and speeding up like the chipmunks. Then of course you can't have snowballs with out throwing them at least once, so we throw them around the room once and then clean them up so we can move on.

We then finish our music class by sitting together and singing good-bye for this week. We completely wrap up our class by then placing their hands on their head and they receive a stamp for the wonderful job they have done!

I'm looking forward to next week!
Ms. Cindy

Holiday Cheer Week 2

What a fun season this is! I just love it. Especially when exploring holiday cheer through music. This week the toddlers are enjoy some fun movement songs that talk about reindeer, jolly Santa, and daddy snoring on Christmas day!
The pre-school students are enjoying their Santa vocal warm up and the reindeer pokey. Then we are working on confidence this week. We are achieving this by playing some fun Christmas musical games. The students are having a great time!

Holiday Cheer Begins!

Welcome to our kick off week of Holiday Cheer!
This week in music class we are enjoying the "Reindeer Pokey"
and a very musical book called "I know an old lady who swallowed a bell".
The students have enjoyed pretending to be a reindeer as they put their antlers, red nose and white tail in and shake it all about!
They have become wonderful musical storytellers as we enjoy this very silly book about a lady who swallows way to many Christmas items.

I am looking forward to more holiday music fun for next week!!

Have a great day!
Ms. Cindy

Welcome Back!

Welcome back from Thanksgiving break!
I hope it was a wonderful time with your family. It is hard to believe it has come and gone and now we are on to Christmas time. I am loving every moment of it.

This week we are enjoying a theme called "Making Music".
I have the students dancing and singing all over the room. We are using shakers for some silly songs. They are exploring their own rhythm in a fun way!

They are great!!

Turkey Time

We have had some great weeks learning Turkey Songs and Thankful Songs! This week we are "Turkey Caroling" around the center. The students are enjoying this very much. They will do their "Tommy The Turkey" song again. This song tells them a story about a turkey that likes to dance and "Tommy The Turkey" wants them to dance with him but they can only dance with him when he asks them too. Then Tommy will have enough and ask them to sit down till he invites them again to dance. They really liked this song last week!
We are making a cute craft of a silly turkey who is hungry and likes to eat music notes and thinks "Music Is Yummy"!

The Pre-School classrooms are still rehearsing away on their upcoming Holiday Pageant!

I look forward to a great week in music class.

I hope each of you have a great week and are looking forward to spending some time with your loved ones as we enjoy some yummy turkey and hopefully some rest!!

November 2nd - 6th

This week in music class:
We are enjoying a song called "Tip Toe" this song helps us with listening and memorization skills.
We are starting our Thanksgiving season in music class. We are talking about being thankful and how we can have Good Character if we are a thankful person. So while talking about this we are learning a thankful song to go along with it.
A funny turkey song is a must and that is what we have done. This is the 1st of many to come in the next few weeks.
Last week we started working on making beats and keeping them in rhythm with our friends, so this week we will continue to build up on that. We are use rhythm sticks this week though. They are doing a great job!

Hope you have a great week too!
Ms. Cindy

Creepy Spiders

Hope you will hear your children singing some of those silly spider songs this week. Getting the little ones to hold the play spiders has been so funny already this week.

The older rooms are doing a great job. We are using the Adam Family theme song to explore the world of making beats and keeping them in rhythm with each other.

It's another fun filled musical week here at Kids 'R' Kids!

Music class is going very well. We are having a wonderful time exploring new songs and activities. The last few weeks we have been enjoying our Fall theme. This week we are starting a Pumpkin theme. Our younger pre-school classes will start practicing for the Holiday Pageant this week as well. This sure is a busy time of year. I love every moment of it.
Hope each of you have a great week!
Ms. Cindy

A Hug

Last week was great! We really had fun learning about a wonderful way to show a friend we care "Hug". We enjoyed a fun musical games all about hugs and listening.

I had a teacher inform me that they were going to use this game when the class is not getting along so well. Everyone forgot what was going on and enjoyed a hug and some laughter. Way to go guys!!

Cute Things!

Today in the flamingo room we were playing our musical signs game and I look over and a boy and girl are sitting right next to each other leaning up against a door and all of a sudden they start tapping their foot to the music and crossing it over the other one for a tap then back again. It's cute to see them pick out their own rhythm and come up with this on their own!

It's moments like this that are rewarding as a music instructor. Can't really explain why but they are! LOL!

Week 2

We are coming to a close for week two. We have had a good time singing and dancing around. This week we started our music flascards. We learned what a treble cleff, breath mark, repeat sign, music staff and a tie looks like. The students did a great job with them. Next week we will play a game with the same flascards to help the students remember them.
I hope all of you have had a great week and have an even better weekend!

It is hard to believe that this first week is coming to a close. It has flown by. The students have been such a joy this week, they were so excited to have Music again. They jumped right back into the swing of things and are ready to take off running next week. Amazon has been very busy the last few weeks due to this music teacher! I can not wait to share all the new songs that I have found, we will enjoy them in the weeks and months to come.

Oh yeah can't forget to tell you about the little toddler that is just verily speaking and you can understand almost everything he is trying to say.....He looks at me and says Ms.Music!! I love it!

Hope your week was great!!

Our 1st week!

The 1st day of Music Class went well today. It was nice to see all the wonderful children and their teachers. The students were so happy, they would ask...Are you coming to our room to do music today? When I replied YES, it was recieved with many cheers!!

We are enjoying making rhythms with many different and uncommon supplies. we have transformed household items with different items inside them into rhthym makers.

We are using those beautiful singing voices again and what a joy it is to hear them again.

Looking forward to many more great days full of music and smiles!!

A New School Year Brings New Things!

It is hard to believe that Music & Movement is right around the corner and about to start. Excitement is growing. I am thrilled to announce that along with my normal music program I will now include a Good Character Education program. Once a month we will dedicate our class time to focus on how to be a person with good character and what it means to live a life with good character. We will do this through songs and musical activities. I believe that the students will enjoy this and will look forward each month to our "Good Character Week" !

Helping To Develop Your Rock Star,
Ms. Cindy
Music & Movement Instructor