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1) Eastern Brown Snake 2) Frilled Necked Lizard 3-4) Perentie (it’s shedding its skin) I should add that this perentie is probably just over 1 meter/3 feet long. The largest perentie can grow to be over 2 meters long (up to 7 or 8 feet long!).
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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:...
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...
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...
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...
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...
We’ve continued with our Forest Unit. Today, LD did this quick animal track sorting activity. The animal tracks in the top row go with the story, The Mitten (see our activities here). I got them from http://kidssoup.com/ (a membership website). Update: More recently, my youngest was interested in studying animal tracks. I made a new packet of materials for her. This packet is available here: Animal Unit! ~Liesl Other related...
We’ve been doing some activities related to the winter Olympics. If you have younger kids be sure to check out http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/OlympicTheme.htm. They have some printable activities you might find of use.
It has been a very busy week and I’m just now gettingaround to talking about this week’s science experiment. We talked about surface tension this week and how askin-like layer (called a meniscus) forms on the top ofthe water. We saw how this allows water to rise up overthe top of the little cup. All three of the kids repeated these experiments anumber of times. They especially liked using the...
