Miss Mindy’s January Music Note

The Value of Finger Plays and Nursery Rhymes!

For most children handwriting is synonymous with torture. The handwriting of today’s children and youth is barely legible. Research indicates that this is caused not only by a lack of emphasis on handwriting but also because the way young children use their hands now is very different than 50 to 100 years ago. In generations past children, even toddlers, used their hands to work. The day was full of work demanding the use of the hands: sewing, scrubbing, hammering, chopping, picking, kneed dough, etc. They developed hand coordination and muscles tone that today’s push button electronics children just don’t have.

In the past when children learned to write they already had the fine motor skills and muscle tone required to write neatly, all they had to learn was how to shape the letters. Today children have to develop the fine motor skills and hand muscles needed to write while learning to form the letters. This puts their brains on overload and in some cases children simple don’t have the coordination and muscles needed for writing! Writing truly is a torturous process for them.

Finger plays and Nursery rhymes allow children to use their hands and develop the coordination and muscles that will help them write. Using basic sign language also gets fingers moving. Another way to get children using their hands is have them do simple jobs around the house. Give them a scrub brush, a towel, and a small bucket of water. Have them scrub and wipe an area of the kitchen floor. It will keep them busy, get them using their hands, and you’ll have one area of your kitchen floor clean!

Another great value of nursery rhymes and finger plays is that they RHYME. Infants' and young children’s phonological awareness is accelerated in an environment rich with rhyming and rhythmic speech. Phonetic sound discrimination is the first step in learning to speak and a vital pre-literacy skill. When a child hears the same phonetic sounds spoken close together it enhances the brains ability to identify and record that particular and unique sound. I’ll be talking more about phonological awareness in February’s music note.

Resources

Local libraries have a large supply of nursery rhyme and finger play books, CD’s and DVD’s.

“Mainly Mother Goose” by Sharon, Louis, & Bram, is one of my all time favorite children’s CDs. You can listen to the CD at: http://www.rhapsody.com/sharon-lois-and-bram/mainly-mother-goose--2004. This CD is a must for every family music library!

Spring Semester of Kindermusik begins the week of January 3rd!

Our Time (18 months to 3 years)

Mondays 9:30-10:15, and 4:00-4:45

Musical Focus: Learn to identify sounds as high or low, fast or slow, loud or quiet. Be able to feel a steady beat, experience a wide variety of music and movement genres, and exposure to musical vocabulary words.

Life Skills Learning: Active listening, large muscle and fine motor skill development, balance and stability, vocal expressiveness, pretend play, social competency, cooperative games, ensemble play, turn taking, creativity.

Imagine That (ages 3 to 5)

Thursday 9:15-10:10, parents are invited to join us for the last 10 minutes of class.

Please have your child bring his drum and play set to class every week. He’ll be getting his play set the first week of class and getting new pieces each week. I’ll be giving each child a bag they can keep the play set in.

Musical Focus: Learn to identify different timbre in music, develop a musical vocabulary, and gain confidence in singing. Accurately echo singing, chanting, and patting of rhythmic phrases. Learn to move to and play a steady beat. Identify, sign, and sing the so-mi-la, interval. Lay a foundation for more advanced music study.

Life Skills Learning: Explore and understand the world through pretend play, pre-literacy and vocabulary development , continued large muscle and fine motor skill development, social competency skills, ensemble play and turn-taking, active listening, memory and attention development. Engage in constructive learning; learning that allows children to reflect, compare, make choices, express opinions, communicate preferences, and problem solve.

Village (birth to 18-months)

Wednesday 11:30-12:15

Musical Focus: Experience a steady beat, exposure to a wide genre of music, exploration of sound and rhythm instruments, enjoy engaging in musical play.

Life skills Learning: Vestibular stimulation, this is the first sense to fully develop and allows the infant to interpret and integrate sensations from the other senses. Develop visual-spatial skills, tactile perception, language, active listening, and relaxation skills. Build self-awareness and social skills, bonding between parent and child. Limited exposure to ASL.

All classes will be taught at the beautiful Sweetwater Bay Montessori Home Preschool, located at 936 N. Sweetwater Bay, Gilbert AZ. Please contact Miss Mindy to get the gate code. The preschool is located in the Val Vista Lakes subdivision. Here is the map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=936+N.+Sweetwater+Bay,+Gilbert+AZ&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.915634,56.513672&num=10&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=936+N+Sweetwater+Bay+Dr,+Gilbert,+Maricopa,+Arizona+85234&ll=33.367273,-111.754882&spn=0.009516,0.013797&z=16

To maximize you and your child’s learning experience and eliminate distractions please make sure your child is fed before coming to class, and has recently taken care of their potty or diaper needs. Occasionally we will be using food to enhance learning in class. If your child has any food allergies or restrictions please let me know.

I’ll be doing weekly posts to my Kindermusik blog (kindermusikwithmindy.blogspot.com). I’ll post pictures and explanations of what we’re doing in class to enhance your child’s development. You’ll want to check the blog regularly!

Kindermusik Home Materials have ARRIVED!

If you’d like to receive your materials before classes start in January, call Miss Mindy at 602-350-9197 to arrange for pick-up. We’re going to have some fun making music, and learning together!

December Music Note: Christmas Choreography!

Christmas time with all its hustle and bustle doesn’t always bring out the best in our children. There is an abundance of excitement to contain and channel. How do you help your children plan, guide, and self-regulate their behavior? You CHOREOGRAPH! Notice I didn’t say dance, but choreograph! Free dancing has some wonderful benefits, but that’s not the subject of this Music Note. Choreographing requires a child to think, plan, listen attentively, and then self-regulate their movements to a story based on cues in the music. This is similar to the patterns used to write a story or essay. (Incidentally, if your child is having a hard time writing, having him act out or use small toys or objects to play through his story. This will make it easier for him to organized and understand the ideas he will be writing about.)

A child can choreograph by himself, with siblings, or you can all choreograph together as a family. If you can get them excited about what they are choreographing they will spend hours putting together a special performance for you to enjoy on Christmas Eve. Remember that boys may want to create a funny number rather than more serious creation. Here are some ideas:

Dance the Christmas story-Pick an instrumental version of a traditional Christmas carol that has great variety in tempo and sound. Then figure out which parts of the story fit the different parts of the music selection. Don’t have the children talk out the story; have them move in ways that communicate what is going on. Don’t try to teach them steps or specific actions, just have them dance freely to communicate. Have them use cues from the music to know when to change from one part of the story to another. You can also do just part of the Christmas story like the Angels appearing to the Sheppards. (Suggested Music: The Holly & the Ivey)

Be Elves at Santa’s Workshop-This can be a lot of fun and is easy to figure out what to do. Suggest some funny things that could happen, like elves bumping into each other and falling, or spilling hot chocolate. (Suggested Music: In a Workshop Way Up North)

Be Santa Delivery Presents-This offers a lot of scope for imagination. You need reindeer, Rudolf, Santa, etc. This could work with an instrumental version of Up on the Housetop.

Be Christmas Bells-Ring out the news of Christmas, the children can plan parts in the song to join hands and circle, or dance together in pairs, etc. (Suggested Music: Christmas Bells, if you have bells for notes, C, E, G, they match perfectly with the song. Hoppy Lobby sold these type of bells last year.)

http://www.musick8kids.com/ this website has all the songs I’ve suggested. You can download them for $0.99. Look under kids, then select browse all songs, next scroll through to the songs I’ve suggested. You can listen to the songs before purchasing and downloading them. Another wonderful song on this website is Sing We of Christmas.

Some of my fondest Christmas memories are of dancing as a family in front of our lighted Christmas Tree. We love watching home videos of us dancing together; they bring loads of laughter and delightful memories. Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

Give your child or grandchild the gift of Kindermusik this year!

Enroll in Kindermusik with Miss Mindy by December 5th and receive a $20 discount on your semester tuition. Remember tuition costs include the take home materials that are part of each Kindermusik class. For more information call Miss Mindy at 480-892-2918!

Take Home Materials

Included in the price of every Kindermusik class are unique and age-appropriate materials for the child to take home and use. Home material kits include an engaging book, CD's of songs and music used in class, and other specially designed materials to integrate the class experience with the time you spend together at home. Most kits include an instrument. Home materials allow you and your child to make everyday a Kindermusik day!

Class Schedule

To view the classes Miss Mindy is currently teaching at Imagine Arts Studio in Katy, Texas, click Here .