November Activities

BANG! BANG! BANG!  In November we played the drums :)

We sung "the Itsy Bitsy Spider" and pretended that a spider crawled up our body with a song by Raffi "There's a Spider on the Floor."

We read a lovely song story called "Mary Wore her Red Dress" and we made our own book by taking pictures of the kids wearing their "red shoes", or "brown pants", or "blue shirt."

   

You can listen to a version of the song here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iIMa_CROQ4

We bounced and rolled balls of different colours to this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhT7Ic-gPwA

I chose these songs  and activities to encourage participation, follow one and two step instructions, and to communicate using words, pictures, and gestures. We had great fun!

 

 

 

October Activities

In October we learned a new familiar song: Row Row Row Your Boat.  The children had fun singing this easy tune as well as doing some rowing in our pretend boat and with partners.

We listened to a version of the song on YouTube as well:

Row Row your Boat


We continued practicing taking turns while making tissue paper pumpkins and playdough: passing the supplies and saying "your turn" using words, pictures, or a voice output button.

As Hallowe'en came closer we sang "5 Little Pumpkins" and danced to a French skeleton song.  You can find "Les Squelettes" on YouTube as well.  They loved dancing to this upbeat tune:
                                                       

Les Squelettes

The children always enjoy exploring the musical instruments before music circle begins.

September Activities

During the month of September the children have been getting to know one another and we have enjoyed getting to know them.  In music we sang "The Wheels on the Bus" and did a variety of activities with it. 

Find your name and picture...

...get on the bus.....

...and drive to school!

We used rhythm sticks in a variety of ways.

"tap, tap, tap and STOP!!"

The children get to play instruments of their choice when they come into the classroom.

We also practised sharing and taking turns, first with markers, then with glue.  We made some beautiful colored glue puddles :)

We have also started some mindfulness and breathing activities.  This introductory breathing activity I called "beach ball breathing."  We practised deep breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth.  Filling our lungs would make the beach ball bounce up, and exhaling it would fall down as we hugged it to our chests.

First Post for 2015

Welcome to our music BlogSpot!  Come back soon to see what we do during the month of September :)