Studio3Music Blog

Archive for the ‘Our Time’ Category

Feb
1

Building Routines

Posted in Child Development, Our Time, parenting

It’s Our Time to drive in our cars
It’s Our Time to play the jingle bells
It’s Our Time to snuggle together

Every time children and caregivers in Our Time come into the classroom, they are greeted with their peers and a fun activity at Gathering Time. Maybe it’s puzzles, blocks, or builders. When the teacher sings the toys away, the children know that when the sticks come out, it’s time to sing hello. They’ll get to tap, thunk, scrape, click, and roll hello to each other. Then they’ll sing about their day with the bars, bounce on their grown-ups laps, play instruments, dance, and in my classes, we always end with a snuggle.

This is a part of a routine that children learn and look forward to every week. But why do we work so hard in Kindermusik to build this routine?

In short, optimal learning for a child happens in a classroom where he feels most comfortable. Think back to one of your best educational experiences. It could be a wacky funny teacher you had in high school, or a fun environment at work with people you enjoy being with. Do you remember how comfortable it felt to be in that place on a regular basis? How much did you learn when you were there?

For me, it was my course at UW in early childhood social/emotional behavior. Every time I walked into that classroom, I was greeted warmly by my professor, Gail Joseph, and was delighted to see what sort of snacks she brought for us. It was “food for thought”. J I always knew what to expect and that made me feel comfortable and happy to be there. Looking back on that experience, I realized that I retained more from that class than almost any other at UW. And now I use what I learned there in my professional life every day.

In Our Time, children develop this same comfort when they learn a good sense of self-esteem from the familiarity of their environment. They know that after the sticks are put away, they get out the bars. When the bars come out, the teacher sings to them what will happen in class. The best part is, when we sing about cars, jingle bells, and snuggling, we actually do those activities in class. That may sound like a simple concept, but try and think about all those checklists you’ve made, either mental or on paper, and how good it feels to check those items off when you complete them. Children get to make their checklist when they sing with the bars every day in Our Time.

You may have your own way of building a routine at home with your child. Maybe you both sit down at breakfast and go over what will happen in your day. Maybe you and your child draw a picture together to go over the fun things you did. The more ways you can discuss and recap a routine with your child, the better. Not only does this bring them immense joy and self-esteem to know that their expectations are being fulfilled, but it helps them to build memory retention.

Quite often, a toddler will look out the window and see that it’s raining. Then they’ll go outside, feel the rain, and go back in and say “Mommy, I need a coat.” She won’t see the rain and connect that she needs a coat right away until she builds a temporal sense of cause and effect. Routines are one of the best ways to build this skill.

This developing sense of routine is one of the many reasons why Kindermusik is so beneficial for a child’s development. And it’s important to provide for our children a consistent learning environment. In fact, some children are still developing their sense of the classroom routine in the second or third semester. So every day when you come in with your child and bounce, sing, dance, and play, know that it is just another vital component to your child’s learning.

-posted by Teacher Aaron, who looks forward to his routine everyday!

Tags: kindermusik, preschoolers, teacher aaron, toddlers

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Nov
19

Enjoying the little steps.

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Our Time, parenting, Village

It is an old saying that children grow too quickly, and it is so true. As parents we are often so excited to introduce our kids to the wonders of the world. We want them to see and learn and be amazed at all there is to experience. I think we sometimes move too fast. This is not to say the a little push in the right direction to overcome a fear or try a new challenge is bad. Rather, I believe it is important to allow a child the opportunity to learn all they can before they move on to next level.

Jacob and Matthew

My littlest man has just turned 3, and for the past two years he has been a Kindermusik Junkie. As an infant he lounged in my lap, sat up to gum all the toys handed him, and even took his very first independent step in class. How quickly my little snuggle bug grew older and started squirming away during intentional touch! Eventually snuggling had to be with Mom standing, so he could not get away. Jacob went in his first year from one of the youngest in the Village class, to the oldest or BMC (Big Man on Campus). This was so fun because he now got to hand toys to the babies and bounce with Miss Allison.

Fall came last year and we graduated to Our Time. And do you know what? My BMC was once again the little guy. He had a new routine to learn for singing and dancing. Big kids answered questions and sat right up front during story. Being the little brother, Jacob was used to watching big kids, and so he followed the lead of others and loved it.

We are now newly three and now we are once again BMC. This semester he is ready to bounce and sing, he know the words and actions, he gives song ideas, gently puts instruments away and he is sitting right up front for story of Pete and PJ. The fact that he has come full circle in an environment set up for him to succeed is wonderful. We are teaching him tools for his life. This, as a parent, is the goal, some time they will fly away and do well. But for now he is mine to kiss and tickle and find frogs on his belly.

-posted by Angie – the mother of boys who are busy from Son up to Son down.

Tags: parenting

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Nov
17

What shall we do on a rainy day?

Posted in Imagine That, Our Time, Things to do

We’ve had a lot of fun coming up with lots of creative rainy day play ideas in my Imagine That classes for preschoolers: from drawing, to reading a book, to traveling in a space ship! The class has been traveling (in our musical imaginations) to Grasshopper Park on a Tricky Trail. It zig zags, curves, and spirals all the way there. These three shapes are the basis for all of the letters children will need to write!

So, get out some paper and crayons and see how many colors you can use as you draw zig zags, curves, and spirals. Tape the paper to the wall. Writing on a vertical surface is easier and less frustrating for young children, as they need to make large motions with their arm and shoulder. Not until about 2^nd grade do children begin to move only their wrists and fingers when writing.

Then, get some blue or green painters tape, and make zig zags, curves, spirals and straight lines all over the floor to make your own Tricky Trail. Run, hop, crawl and tiptoe over your trails while you sing “What Shall We Do”. The version I’ve included here is from ABC, Music & Me, and says “What Shall We Do on a Rainy Day?” The regular lyrics are on your See What I Saw CD.

What Shall We Do! (Click on the link to play the music.)

When you get tired of traveling on your tricky trails, turn them into roads for your cars and build a city with blocks and boxes and anything else you have around the house to build with.

-posted by Miss Beth, who likes zig zags best!

Tags: Miss Beth, physical development, preschoolers, Things to do

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Nov
16

A Plague of Frogs

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Imagine That, Our Time, Things to do

There has recently been a plague of frogs in my classroom. They cannot hop independently, and they are not slimy. They do make noise, but only when you hit them with something! These frogs are lovely, hand painted, wooden instruments called guiros. These manipulative give the children opportunity to work on many different skills and learn some fun new songs.

I’ve enjoyed watching the children with the frogs over the last several weeks, as they learn to say the different frog sounds and choose what each color of frog says. I realized that I used a song that is not on your CD, and then changed the song from its original format to serve my educational goals. (This is an age old tradition in the folk song world called piggy-backing.)

Now that many of you are going to be having a frog guiro or two come live in your house, I wanted to give you the instructions for the song we did in class, plus a couple of other songs you can do with your frog.

The melody for “Gang Goon” is an old girl scout song, and has had many different lyric variations over the years. I know I learned the melody as “Great Big Globs Of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts” as a grade school kid. My cousin, Britt, and I wrote endless variations of this particular version; all of them full of alliterated nasty things floating on McGilligan’s pond.

We once cleared a campground in New Mexico of a rowdy bunch of RV campers by marching up and down behind their camp signing this lovely little ditty for hours. They left the next morning. (And you doubted the power of song to change the world!) We also flooded the roads in the campground by building a fabulous little dam on the river so we could go swimming and spotted Big Foot – but those are other stories….

So here are the words and the instructions for Gang Goon. This is the frog version rather than the alliterated, gross version. I’ll leave your children to learn that one on their own. The instructions for what you do with your striker on the frog are above the lyrics. The frog, of course should sit placidly in your palm while you sing and play. (That’s the benefit of wooden frogs- they don’t hop away!)

Click on the play button to hear the song:

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scrape scrape tap
Gang goon went the little green frog one day

scrape scrape tap
Gang goon went the little green frog

Scrape scrape tap
Gang goon went the little green frog one day

scrape scrape scrape
And they all went ging gang goon!

tap swish your striker
But we all know frogs go Lahdeedahdeedah!

Swish your striker swish your striker
Lahdeedahdeedah! Lahdeedahdeedah!

tap swish your striker
But we all know frogs go Lahdeedahdeedah!

scrape scrape scrape
They don’t go ging gang goon!

The motions with the striker and the frog stay the same as you go on to the other verse. You simply change what the frog says, like to ribbitt. The frog that says croak also gets an adjective change to big, slow (a tempo change is nice here, too) and the frog that says SHHHH is a quiet frog.

You can change the animal in the song and add all kinds of adjectives and sounds, and turn this little song about a frog into a whole lesson on how words work, how we form them in our mouths and how much fun they can be to play with. This is a great way for kids to learn how language works.

Woof Woof went the tiny brown poodle dog….
Meow went the black and white cat
Moo Moo went the Holstein cow
But we all know they all go Lahdeedahdeedah!!!

-posted by Miss Allison, who is glad the plague in her classroom these past few weeks wasn’t bees – or fleas!

Tags: Miss Allison, music, Things to do

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Nov
11

It’s not a hula-hoop, it’s a puddle!

Posted in Child Development, Imagine That, Our Time

In Kindermusik, it’s rare to ever call hoops by their actual name; usually they’re mountains, meadows, or even puddles. In fact, last week my toddlers we’re ecstatic to “hop-a-doodle” around their “meadows.” With my early elementary kids, they loved playing the rhyming “Dr. Foster” game with their “puddles.” Even my preschoolers were looking forward every week to taking the “tricky trails” with their imaginary friends in our story “Josh and Katie.”

At the end of the week, I realized that a bunch of plastic 2 dimensional circles managed to not only thoroughly entertain all the children, but more importantly helped them learn important skills like how to jump on one foot, how to communicate with each other to go through “the tunnel”, and even how to work on their special awareness. All these important learning concepts were addressed by using something that costs around $5.

Funny thing is, in the same week, I was talking to a dad at my preschool, and he was mentioning how he just spent $30 on a toy that was supposed to be geared to his son’s learning, yet after the first week, his 3-year-old never touched it.

So if children can make a hula-hoop be a mountain, or a puddle, or a meadow, and never tire of it, then what separates the hoops from that very expensive gadget at the toy store? Why do they love the cardboard box more than the toy inside?

It all boils down to how children play. Both parents and childhood professionals alike can tell you children not only love to pretend but it’s how they learn. Children can grow in all domains of development through play. Often, when children pretend, they associate an identity with an object in their game. A block is not simply a block, it’s the start of their hospital. Then more blocks become the road they need to connect it to their house. Then perhaps from the hospital, the children will decide to use their scarves as wings and become helicopters, spinning away onto another game, and so on. We call these objects endowed objects because the scarves, for example, would never be called those; they would be endowed to be butterfly wings.

We see these elements of pretend play particularly in children 3 years old and up, however children learn these skills much earlier, in toddler hood. That is why in Kindermusik classes, we use these elements as the basis for the songs and activities. In fact, manipulatives in Kindermusik such as hoops, scarves, and streamers all have one thing in common: they are open-ended. The more open-ended an object is, the more roles it can have in play.

We see children assign multiple identities to an object all the time. One day, a scarf is a butterfly wing, but the next, it’s a leaf. When children can use an object in their play in many different ways, they will pick it up again and again. Children can play with legos for years because it can be so many different things! When children are autonomous and own their learning, they not only enjoy learning more, they retain it better. This comes from choosing how to learn a certain concept.

So when you’re at the store this holiday season, think about that toy you’re buying and if it will be worth the cost. Some of those higher-priced toys are really cool, I am a big fan of some of those science-oriented toy stores, but some are just too closed-ended to keep our children’s attention with their growing minds!

-posted by Teacher Aaron, who still has his first set of legos!