Sound Travels: Songs Have Form

Line of Inquiry: Folk song games have specific form

The children continued their work with the folk song game "Daddy Loves the Bear"
and practiced pre-reading skills

After I drew the form for the song (two shorts and a long) we sang the song and followed the map with our fingers only this time we listened for the word 'bear'. When 'bear' was sung I stopped and a child glued a picture of a bear on the map where it was heard. They discovered that bear is sung 3 times. 

Making my own song form map

It was an interesting process to see their thinking; the word bear is sung at the end of both short lines and I  asked them to predict where the third bear would be in the song and they all guessed at the end of the long line. They were surprised to see it was found in the middle of the long line and the word 'everywhere' was at the end. The children attempted their own song map as we sang the song together.

The same process was done for "Hot Cross Buns"
"Hey! It's the same!" said Byron - two shorts and a long

Sound Travels: Expressing Feelings

Line of Inquiry:

Music is used to express feelings and thoughts

Folk songs have specific form

The summative activity at the end of this unit will have the children create a piece of music expressing their idea. They will need to understand that songs have form, we explored this concept today with Daddy Loves the Bear

In this song game the children take turns holding and expressing love to the bear while we sing.

Daddy loves the bear

Daddy loves the bear

Daddy loves the bear and takes it everywhere.

The form for the song is

-----------------

-----------------

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Two shorts and a long. "Just like Clickety Clack!" noticed Oliver

 (we had studied the form of Clickety Clack in music class this morning)

The children made a bear puppet and we expanded the song by adding the children's ideas.

"What else could daddy do with the bear?"

Slide -Rielle

Brings -Tyreese and Alan

Walks -Esme 

Swim -Rylan

Rides - Sophie

Dance - Oliver 

Sound Travels: Sound Recognition

We explored sounds in our environment with the help of the story 

"The Sounds Around Town" by Maria Carluccio.

"What sounds do things make?"

We explored sounds the children were curious about using an online sound library.

"A volcano" - Byron

"A car" - Rylan

"A boat" - Alan

were a few of the ideas.

"Do you know the sound of your own voice?"

The children took turns recording themselves saying a word or phrase and then playing it back to hear how they sound. Then I played them back without saying who it was - can they recognize whose voice it is? Yes they can! We presented the guessing game to the other groups. The hardest part was keeping it a secret! The other children found it difficult to recognize the voices. 

Presenting the game

Making a Sound Book

To communicate what we know everyone selected an object to draw 

and what sound it makes and drew a picture of it for a book we'll make.

Sophie "This is a baby, it goes waa waa"

Jayla "This is a face, it goes talk talk"

Sophie "This is a baby, it goes waa waa"

Rylan "This is a train, it goes choo choo"

Alan "This is a gun, it goes boom"

Rielle "This is a trumpet, it goes trump trump"

Tyreese "This is a crocodile, it goes roar"

Byron "This is a car, it goes vroom"

Illustrating the sound book

New School Year & New Unit!

Hello old and new parents! Each week Debbie and I will send you links to our blogs reporting the activities your child is doing in group time. We encourage you to look at the pictures with your child as a wonderful way to share in their day. 

Central Idea:

People use sound to express  feelings and thoughts

Lines of Inquiry:

Folk song games have specific forms (form)

How sounds are experienced (causation)

Environmental sounds cause certain feelings to arise (perspective)

How music and sound are used to express feelings and thoughts (perspective)

Today I gathered what the children already know about sound . . . 

and they know a lot!

I grouped their ideas into the four groups that came up: 

instruments, body sounds, animals sounds, things in our world

Rylan and Rielle named many instruments and animal sounds.

Oliver said he has a microphone at home that makes sound when you shake it.

Tyreese showed us two sounds he could make with his mouth

Esme knew that we listen with our ears.

Sophie knew lots of animal sounds

Here is a picture of the children playing a guessing game - can you name the sound?

Expressing Without Words

The children watched a famous mime actor, Marcel Marceau, perform 

"The Lion Tamer" using only facial expression and body language to tell a story.

A game of expression bingo provided an opportunity to identify feelings expressed and also to notice the subtle differences in a persons face that can completely change the feeling of their expression. 

The game required careful observation.

Careful observation

The children are very familiar with John Birmingham's story "Mr. Gumpy's Outing"

They chose which character they wanted to be and which naughty action they would do that would help cause the boat to tip over and performed the story with only a few words from the narrator (me). Our volunteer, Sunny, was Mr. Gumpy. The children were challenged to express the message "May I come too?" with only facial and gesture expression. They loved it! Simone suggested we perform it for the other children and all agreed. Afterwards at lunch I heard Esme invite Sofia "Would you like to come to my house and we won't use any words?"
The girls used gestures to communicate the invitation.

"May I come?"

"May I come?"

"Yes, but don't wiggle!"

A Party - Story Writing

Parties are the topic that was important to Bela, especially the food that's eaten at parties!

The children watched a video of a children's author being interviewed and talking about where he gets his ideas from. I suggested we write our own story about Bela's topic and everyone agreed.

What makes a story a story? A story contains a topic, characters, a setting, it usually has a problem and a solution and an ending. The children worked together adding details incorporating everyone's ideas. You can tell who added what by the colour. Next week the children would like to dramatize the story.

The Party

Written by Julia, Bela, Alfie, Simone, Esme and Wendy

Once upon a time there was a birthday girl named Melody, she had long golden hair, she was a nice girl and she was turning 10 years old. Her little brother was also a birthday boy, his name was Monster, he was a happy baby monster who looked like a baby and he was turning 2! They were planning a party to celebrate their birthdays together and they invited their school friend Tepalee, a little boy whose skin was blue from his blue light saber. Melody wore a golden shiny dress that was as long as the tip of her toes and her shoes were coloured rainbow sparkly.

Melody and Monster were having their party at the art studio, they were excited to paint their faces! When Melody, Monster and Tepalee got to the art studio they discovered that there was already another party happening. The children at that party shouted “Go away! We don’t want you here!” Melody and Monster began to cry. Tepalee had a great idea, he asked “Can we join your party?” The children looked at Monster and Melody crying and they said “Yes you can! We should say sorry for what we did!” The children joined together and celebrated and painted faces and ate cookies and cream, cake, cookies, chocolate ice cream, and chocolate vanilla syrup, and hot chocolate. They had a great day!

Swings - Poetry and Movement

The children tried this format for writing a poem about their favourite thing at the playground. 

The process gave them practice answering the question "why" and providing reasons for their preference.

Presenting our poems to the group.

Tire swing

I like it

Ask me why.

Because it goes fast

Because I like it when Ashley pushes

Because I tuck my head in when I go so fast

Because when it turns around I feel happy!

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Julia

Tire swing

I like it

Ask me why.

Because I like to swing

Because I like it when Ashley pushes

Because it goes round so fast

Because it makes me feel happy!

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Simone

The swing

I like it

Ask me why.

Because it is my favourite

Because I go so high

Because I can see everything in the sky

Because I can see the clouds

Because swinging makes me happy

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Alfie

  

Space net

I like it

Ask me why.

Because it is very fun

Because I love to climb

Because it bounces when I jump

Because I’m so high at the very top

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Sofia V.

The slide

I like it

Ask me why.

Because it makes me happy

Because I like to go down fast

Because when it rains I go down really fast

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Bela

 A traditional English song called "Swing Me Up A Little Bit Higher, Obadiah Do!" 

has a gentle swinging rhythm that the children enjoyed moving their bodies to. 

They explored different ways they could swing their stuffies. As a final idea we used fabric to swing the stuffies as we sang. If you'd like to hear the song you can check out this site 

http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Traditional-music-in-England/025M-C1023X0085XX-6600V0