A Quick Little Student Inspired Idea

Forgive my neglectful blogging lately - I'm currently dealing with lots of semester-end stress and I am more than a little swamped. However, please rest assure that come May 1st, there will be lots of new blogging material to read, and some fun printables! WooHoo! Meanwhile, I shared this brilliant idea I had (well, maybe not brilliant, but I was pretty pleased with myself) on the Faber Piano Adventures Forums the other day, and thought that it might be of use to some of you, too!


First, some background: right now I am currently teaching one of my four (almost five) year old students to read notes on the staff. We've been working our way through the note names on the staffs - but not using any books, simply activities. Here's the breakdown of how I taught her the space notes of the treble clef over the course of three weeks:


The first week, we cut strips of paper and glued them down on a sheet of paper to make a staff-  then we labeled all the notes. This particular student enjoyed getting to color and decorate her poster. Whatever works!


The next step was a stroke of sheer luck, and I can't take all of the credit for it, as my student was starving, but I didn't want to waste lesson time giving her a snack. Note: Normally I don't feed children during their lessons, but this student comes right after dance class (therefore she's pretty hungry) and I babysit her on a more than regular basis, so I made an exception!


Anyway, what did we do? We wrote the notes on my whiteboard staff as a reference and we used pretzels to make a staff and chocolate cheerios for the notes. She had to name the notes before eating the cheerios.


Then, the following week, we used the same pretzel and cheerio activity but, as we played the game, I erased one note name from the white board at a time until she could name every single note. 


It worked like a charm! She now knows all of the spaces of the treble clef, and so now we'll start with the lines at her next lesson!


Has anybody else ever created an activity for a student on a whim?

Introducing The Brian Waite Band

Have you heard of them? I hadn't until last week. I downloaded several of their songs, stuck them on a CD in my car CD player... and... well... I'm kind of ashamed to say it, but I've left it there playing on repeat for several days! (Yes, even when there aren't any children in my car!)

I'm looking forward to using some of their songs with my early childhood classes. They currently have five CD's out: 

(These are links, by the way, so that you can check them out on Amazon.com and hear clips of their songs!)

I particularly like the songs Jingle Your Bell (from the River of Life CD) and Can't Sit Still (from, naturally, the Can't Sit Still CD). I haven't listened to Stick Game, Musicmaker, and I Like to Sing (from Musicmaker) all the way through yet, but I think those look promising for my early childhood classes, too!

Check them out and let me know what you think... for now, though, I'm off to teach!

Early Childhood Music Classes: 18 Months - 3 Years

I've spent so much time focusing on piano lessons, that I've neglected to address my early childhood music classes until now! It's a downright shame, too, because teaching my little ones is one of my favorite parts of teaching! Thanks, Joy, for posting about your early childhood class ideas and reminding me to get on it! I'm borrowing your list of things to consider as a jumping off point. (Hope you don't mind!)


Location/Space
The larger the space, the better... sometimes! I've learned that having too much space can be distracting to children, and they spend more time running around then participating! If you're looking for a place to teach, I would search out area dance studios. Their rooms are usually the perfect size and many studios (at least in my area) are willing to rent out space in the mornings when they aren't offering classes- anything to defray the cost of rent, especially in this economy!

Parents' Presence
The class I teach is Mommy & Me, due to the fact that it's during a morning out program at a local church. However, even if it wasn't, I wouldn't teach these little ones without their Mommies around! It's great for these little ones to see their Moms enjoying the music, and it gives them the chance to make awesome memories together.

Materials
You'll need a wide selection of music and child friendly musical instruments. I keep Egg Shaker Pairs, Castanets, Sandblocks, Rhythm Sticks and Scarves handy - enough for each child to have one or two (see class size below). I also have some ribbon dancers that I made (I'll post about those before too long).

I also use a wide variety of music. I love Rachel Rambach's songs, as well as music from Baby Einstein (Particularly the "Meet The Orchestra" CD) and Wee Sing. I used to feel tremendously guilty about using Baby Einstein and Wee Sing, but the kids LOVE it. (Another word of advice, don't feel guilty about using the same songs over and over, particularly if the kids like the songs. Preschoolers LOVE repetition.)

Class Size
Generally, I limit all of my classes to 6-10 students. For the early childhood classes, I try to keep it at 6-8. Too many small children = lots of chaos!

Class Duration
With this age range, 30 minutes is about all I can get before the kids begin to lose interest. Kindermusik offers 45 minute classes for this age range. I think it really depends on your group of kids, and what type of activities you incorporate. I believe Kindermusik may also include a story and craft project (although I can't swear by it) which might help to hold interest a little bit longer!

Sessions
I recommend charging monthly for early childhood classes, but I would also give parents the opportunity to pay for an 8 week (two month) session and only charge the for 7 weeks, making it clear that this is the better option. (So that if you have to miss a week, you're not losing money - it's not uncommon with early childhood classes for things to come up unexpectedly, and I like to be flexible!)

Goals
At this age, my main goal is for the children to enjoy and LOVE music. However, I also use it to introduce students to basic aural skills (high/low, fast/slow, etc.)

Hope that these thoughts help! Please let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll do my best to answer them!

Using Scale Blocks with Young Students

• Mix up an octave or two of scale blocks and have students place them in order – forwards and backwards.

• Place one or a more blocks on their corresponding keys, and have students fill in the remaining blocks.

• Mix up all of the blocks and have students draw them at random, placing them on their corresponding keys.

• Start an egg timer. Point to a key and have students grab the corresponding scale block. Repeat and see how many blocks can the student collect before the timer runs out!

• Repeat activity four - but instead of playing a key, display a flashcard of a note on the treble or bass staff. 

• Draw a staff on a blank sheet of paper and have students place the blocks the proper lines/spaces.

• Choose a word that can be spelled using the music alphabet, draw the needed blocks, and have students build it on the keyboard.

• Choose a word that can be spelled using the music alphabet, draw the needed blocks, and have students build it on the lines and spaces of the staff.

• Mix up the blocks and have students draw them at random, placing them in a row on the music rack as they go. Then have them add rhythm to compose a song.

• Repeat any of the activities above, but reverse roles and let the students “teach” you! Be sure to make lots of silly mistakes for them to correct!

Early Childhood Music: Shakers!

Raise your hand if you have a few extra plastic Easter eggs laying around! Only me? I figured that was probably the case. But on the off chance that you DO have a few left (or have something that you can substitute, like film canisters or mint tins), here are 5 super easy music activities that you can use them for.

But first - take your Easter eggs, open them and fill them with a variety of household objects, and then superglue them shut. Here are my eggs:

• Two eggs, each filled with a handful of gravel
• Two eggs, each filled with three coins (a penny, a nickel and a dime)
• Two eggs, each filled with 4 uncooked lima beans
• Two eggs, each filled with a single paperclip
• Two Eggs, each filled with a pinch of rice

If you are doing this at home, talk to your child about what they are, and what kind of sounds they might make as you fill them. Ask them which ones they think will make the loudest sounds, which ones will make the softest sounds, and even open ended questions, like, "What kind of sound do you think this will make?"

Ready for the activities?

1. Have your child match the eggs that have the same sounds. This is GREAT for  auditory discrimination.

2. Ask questions about the sounds of the eggs - Which one sounds like it has metal in it? Which one sounds like it has rocks in it? Which one sounds like it has the most in it? Which one sounds like it has the least in it? Which one is the loudest? Which one is the softest?

3. Grab an egg and dance! Turn on music and let your child move and groove to the beat. Any kind of music is fine!

4. Shake a rhythm and have your child shake it back - then reverse roles!

5. Sing this song (to the tune of Row, Row, Row, Your Boat) as you shake your shakers. I learned this one from my Early Childhood Music & Movement class:

Shake, shake, shake your shakers

Shake them high and low!

Shake them all around the room,

Whichever way you go!

Shake, shake, shake your shakers

Shake them left and right,

Shake them all around the room,

Shake them out of sight!

Have fun! If you have any other ideas for activities, feel free to share them in the comment section!