Author: Liesl - Homeschool Den

Layers of the Earth Activity and Cards 0

Layers of the Earth Activity and Cards

I’ve been quite ill this week (I think I was awake for a total of three hours yesterday), so I won’t be posting very much this week. Someone shared a link to the learning ark where there was a wonderful hands on activity about the layers of the earth. There are printable layers of the earth cards at Cultivating Dharma.

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Just Life

    I had a wonderful conversation with my sister the other evening. (My amazing sister who homeschools her three kids, holds a full-time job and whose husband is currently deployed for nine or ten months. Truly an amazing, inspiring person in my life.) Anyway, I was talking about how the blog world is so inaccurate and really doesn’t show what life is really like for us. The reality is,...

Elem-Children’s Music 1 (6 yr old) — Structure of Class 0

Elem-Children’s Music 1 (6 yr old) — Structure of Class

Even though we started up with music classes a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been (finally) giving more thought to the resources, games and structure I want for our ‘class’ (by that I mean me, hubby and the kids).  Each ‘class’ (sorry for that word, can’t think of an alternative!!) session lasts about 45 minutes. We usually have music class for about 12-14 weeks or so. I thought I would...

Music — Sandpaper Notes and Music Notation 0

Music — Sandpaper Notes and Music Notation

To introduce the kids to quarter notes (crotchet),half-notes (minim), whole note (semibreve), etc., I made aset of sandpaper music symbols. You can see where Igot the original idea here at laytonmusic or you candownload the paper symbols here. I’m grateful she sharedthis great idea and resource! We’ve used them blind-folded;we have them out when go over our rhythm cards, whenwe’ve played music file-folder games, etc. I often use the symbols...

Rhythm Cards 0

Rhythm Cards

I thought I’d explain how I use the rhythmcards in case you are wondering. I use thisterminology: quarter note=tahalf note= ta 2dotted half note= ta 2 3whole note= ta 2 3 42 eighth notes= ti-tirest=shh I would say the card aloud, the kids repeat. Once the kids are proficient, you can addclapping and/or rhythm sticks. I’ll give you examples of how I would “say” the cards: (Others might not do...

Introducing Quarter Notes, Half Notes and Whole Notes 0

Introducing Quarter Notes, Half Notes and Whole Notes

When I first introduced quarter notes, half notes andwhole notes to the kids, I showed the kids the sandpapernotes. They looked at the notes, felt them, and also shuttheir eyes to guess what they had. Then I showed them the rhythm pizza pieces. Westacked them and talked about how many quarter sliceswere needed to make a whole pizza, etc. I thought thiswas a clever, creative way to introduce the topic...

Elementary Children’s Music — Resources 0

Elementary Children’s Music — Resources

Here is a list of some of the things I’ve found especially useful in putting together music games, activities and so forth for our little classes (I’ll come back and add to this if I think of anything more): Kodaly Today: A Cognitive Approach to Elementary Music Education — by Micheal Houlahan/Philip Tacka:  This is a bit heavy on the philosophy and methodology of early music education and teaching, but...

More Whole Note, Half-Note, Quarter-Note Games 0

More Whole Note, Half-Note, Quarter-Note Games

Here are some games that are set to go, but that we have not yet played together. I’m sharing it now, though, along with my other music-related resources. Move forward the value of the note you pick up (thus, a half-note moves forward 2 spaces, a quarter note moves forward 1 space, a whole note moves ahead 4 spaces, etc.) Climb the Mountain Sheet: Cards for Climb the Mountain Game:...

Treble and Base Cleff Note Activities 0

Treble and Base Cleff Note Activities

You can find some very cute treble and base cleff fishynotes at susanparadis.com. If your child is learning the notes on piano there is avery cute icecream activity at laytonmusic.wordpress.com Here she has plain keyboard cards with a dot. (Like theicecream part below.) You can use them as three part cards, placing the keyboard and letter onto the full card, you could play memory,matching and so forth. Here is a...

Composer Posters and Picture Cards 0

Composer Posters and Picture Cards

If you’ve visited our website before, You’ll recognize thecraft table where I set up experiments. In the corneris where I stash some of my music stuff. I have theselovely composer posters there. Since I’m talking aboutresources, I thought I’d share the link where I got them:http://laytonmusic.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/composer-posters/She has lots to choose from. I noticed that she had these same composer cards in asmaller version and I thought that was perfect for...

Music with Tots and Preschoolers 0

Music with Tots and Preschoolers

We had our little music session as usual this week. The rhythm sticks below are just wood dowels that I cut down and sanded on the ends. We explored different ways of tapping them together (high, low, on the ground, on our head, end-to-end, etc.) Then we played our rhythm sticks to a fast-tempoed song. The kids all really like the knee-bouncing songs. This week we said the nursery rhyme...

Valentine’s Day Necklace; Valentine’s Day Heart Tree 0

Valentine’s Day Necklace; Valentine’s Day Heart Tree

I set out a couple of activities today with ED in mind, butall the kids participated. Above the kids are makingnecklaces. Below is our seasonal tree. You can always make your own tree out of pipe cleanersif you don’t have a little tree as we did at Christmas timeor find a branch and place it in a vase. http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/ has wonderfulseasonal activities like these. If you haven’t already, besure to...