Blue Bugs Lesson 9

Company Logo

Lesson #9

Interesting Image

Parent, thanks for coming to class! We all enjoy having you here - it helps create a lovingly supportive environment, where a learning child can thrive. What a gift you are giving them.

 

Often at around this time in the semester, I start seeing some extra wiggles or slowness to follow directions... It's usually a combination of feeling quite comfortable with me and their friends in class by this point, and a bit of spring fever. I'm not seeing any issues yet, but I will pull out our studio rules song again over the next couple of weeks to remind everybody. We'll keep those rockstars rockin'!

 
 
Interesting Image

On Top of Spaghetti

Learning to hear chord progressions as well as each part of a chord is a vital skill when becoming a musician. This song and activity is very rich in its musical lessons. We play the autoharp which allows us to have our hands doing two different things, and our eyes are looking at the chord map and reading music. We are hearing the chord progressions and then we sing each piece of the chord as each student points to their triangles. It's so fun!

Drunken Sailor

This folk song teaches musical form: You hear a theme that repeats a few times and we do the same dance movement back and forth. Then at the end of the phrase "...early in the morning" you hear a strong cadence pull to DO. A cadence is found at the end of a musical phrase. This cadence has a strong pull to our ears that indicates the musical sentence has finished. This cadence trains the ear how music sounds when it is complete or finished.

Fox Hunt - NEW puppet show!

New puppet show! This fun song teaches us to identify rhythmic patterns and learn about classical form. Classical form is when you identify the reoccurring melodic themes and label them. Understanding this concept will help your student in 3rd year to compose their own music!

Jungle Rhythms - spatial skills

As your child sees how the Jungle Rhythm chart divides space and hear how the music divides time, they become aware of how the two correlate. This develops their spatial awareness.

Subdividing rhythms: abstract notation
Seeing the Jungle Rhythm chart exposes children to what the written form of subdividing looks like.

Can't Bug Me

This week in class we clapped bug rhythms without seeing the bug cards. That’s right! We clapped our rhythms today only using the ‘real’ music notation, without the help of our musical bugs. They’re smart little cookies!

Interesting Image

Our new puppet show was written by Gioachino Antonio Rossini, who was born on February 29 (leap year!), 1792 in Italy to a family of musicians. His father played the horn and his mother was a singer. He was just six years old when he joined his father’s band – he played the triangle. When he was only 10 years old, he was asked often to play the piano and sing at their church. At that age, he began composing and soon became the most celebrated composer of Italian Opera. Our puppet show, “The Fox Hunt” is from the William Tell Overture. This famous piece has been imitated (top video) and heard in various "rock-n-roll" forms (bottom video) all over the world!


Make sure to print out the coloring book and let your student color it.