MUSIC TO MY EARS!

Dear Parents,

We had a great week learning about different types of musical instruments.  We started off the unit by painting castanets.  We learned that castanets are a percussion instrument which consists of a pair of concave shells, joined by a string.  They are held in one hand and used to produce clicks for rhythm accents.

We then made rain sticks by adding different colored tape and shapes onto a cardboard tube.  The children made a spiral out of aluminum and put it inside the tube along with rice.  We then sealed it to create our magnificent rain sticks.

We also made shakers by adding colorful beads to water bottles. The children then colored the bottles with Sharpies and stuck various colors of duct tape to it.  The children had so much fun making them.

The children made rainbow tambourines by coloring plates with the rainbow colors such as: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.  We then folded them in half and stuffed them with cotton batting and finally attached bells to them.  We played our tambourines down the hall while singing "The Ants Go Marching."

We had a special visitor this week, a magician known as The Vandini. He performed several magic tricks which even included a live rabbit and a dove.  He ended the show by creating balloon animals for each child.  At the end of the show, I overheard one child say, "This was the best day at school."  Another child shouted "I love the magic show!"

The children having fun with Coach Jared during mini sports.

Ms. Yuting reviewed the scale cards and arranged them in order.  The children learned how to read the solfège names.  Afterwards, Yuting mixed up the cards and had them each choose one  from the deck and then find the note on the piano.

 On Friday,  we practiced several songs using our instruments.  We decided to sing and play "The Wheels On the Bus," "Once I Saw A Little Bird," "You Are My Sunshine," and "This Little Light of Mine."  We enjoyed singing so much that we decided to perform for the Quarter Note classroom.  The children absolutely loved our concert and everyone sang along. 

 Love, 

Ms. Bonne and Ms. Denise