The Up Beat! preschool music program is in full swing! So far we have had two energizing sessions with 20 children taking part in at least one of the sessions. To prepare for my preschool lessons, I have been reading into Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory (read about it here). In particular, I am using many ideas from Gordon's early childhood music curriculum: Music Play.
Aside from moving, chanting and singing in several different meters and modes, I have also incorporated at least one song-based picture book into the lesson. I try to model ways that the parents can do the same at home.
The first week we read The Ants Go Marching by illustrator Jeffrey Scherer. Musically, this was a great book to work on steady beat and singing a song that is in minor and 6/8 meter. Better still is the fact that we were able to pause to cumulatively count from 1 to 10 on each page. The children not only practiced counting, but also made connections between the name of the number and what the number looks like in print, as well as one-to-one correspondence in the pictures. After doing things like this at home with my son, he is now almost able to count to 10 on his own and is even recognizing numbers in print at only 20 months old!
The first book we read this week was Winter Wonderland by illustrator Jacqueline Rogers. I had intended on using this song the week prior, but we had to cancel our session due to our own winter wonderland! I loved pausing during the song to make connections to things like weather. The children shared things they see during the winter time and we talked about what they like to do in the snow.
The second book we sang this week was If You're Happy and You Know It by illustrator Jane Cabrera. I love this book because the kids already know the song and can interact with movements and sounds that are described in the lyrics. It's a great way to help the kids recognize patterns (i.e. clapping 2 times after I sing "clap your hands"). At the end of the book is a picture of all of the animals from the previous pages. We took some time to discuss the characters in the book by naming the types of animals. Next week we will use this song and sing it with feelings. The children will share different types of feelings and things that you do when you feel that way (i.e. happy = smile, sad = cry, sleepy = yawn, etc...).
For those of you interested in song-based pictures books, Jane Cabrera has a collection of really great ones! The other two books I mentioned are from Scholastic's Sing and Read Storybooks. Again, there are a lot of really great song-based picture books from Scholastic. Some even come with sing-a-long CDs.
Aside from moving, chanting and singing in several different meters and modes, I have also incorporated at least one song-based picture book into the lesson. I try to model ways that the parents can do the same at home.
The second book we sang this week was If You're Happy and You Know It by illustrator Jane Cabrera. I love this book because the kids already know the song and can interact with movements and sounds that are described in the lyrics. It's a great way to help the kids recognize patterns (i.e. clapping 2 times after I sing "clap your hands"). At the end of the book is a picture of all of the animals from the previous pages. We took some time to discuss the characters in the book by naming the types of animals. Next week we will use this song and sing it with feelings. The children will share different types of feelings and things that you do when you feel that way (i.e. happy = smile, sad = cry, sleepy = yawn, etc...).
For those of you interested in song-based pictures books, Jane Cabrera has a collection of really great ones! The other two books I mentioned are from Scholastic's Sing and Read Storybooks. Again, there are a lot of really great song-based picture books from Scholastic. Some even come with sing-a-long CDs.
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