A Memento of Term One :)

Term one is finished! We've had the most wonderful term, with an amazing group of mums and babies :)  


Here are a few pictures I took over the term, many thanks to our Kindermusik families for sharing their smiling faces with everybody!

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We're all really looking forward to next term, when we'll get on our dancing shoes & get grooving with Kindermusik Village - Do-si-Do!  There are only a couple of spaces left in term two's class (starting Tuesday May 4th)  - be in quick! 

Keep checking over the break for lots of ways to bring music into every day :) A big thank you to my amazing Kindermusik families, you guys rock! 

Date Fix-up!

A very quick post from me today - I've put the wrong start date down for next term's classes!!


Term Two will begin on May 4th! (not May 3rd, that's a Monday and class is still going to be on Tuesdsay!!). 


So sorry for causing any confusion - I must have looked at the calendar wrong! 


Have a musical weekend :)


Kath

Timbre!

Hello! Today's class was so much fun - seeing our babies having such a wonderful time exploring the instruments definitely put a smile on my face.


So many different timbres (the distinctive quality of sounds!) were floating around the room - the jingling of bells, the boom of the big drums, the pitter patter sound of the wave drum, the 'chh chh chh' of the egg shakers...all different, all providing another musical experience for our children! 


We spoke about how exploring & experiencing different timbres can benefit our littlest friends, giving them the opportunity to develop a sensitivity to sound and a listening vocabulary of timbres. This helps to attune their ears to the different sounds & timbres in music and speech! 


What wonderful sounds can you find around your house? Rachael & Kobe have been making music by dropping pegs into a can, Jarvis loves the sound of the chicken food dropping between his fingers onto the deck (we don't love that one quite as much!), what's your favourite? :)


We're gearing up for next term - come & join us for some dancing in Kindermusik Village : 
Do-Si-Do! Classes begin May 3rd, places are limited - visit our website  or email us
to find out more. 

Legato...Staccato!

Hello all!


I hope everyone's having a wonderfully musical week :)  I really enjoyed our class on Tuesday, we missed a few friends who weren't able to join us, and we look forward to having everyone back on board next week! 


Something we talked about on Tuesday, which is really interesting as well as really easy to incorporate into our babies' experiences, was Sensory Contrast. This is something we explored when we played 'I Roll The Ball To You', then made a few modifications to add in 'Bounce' and 'Throw'! 


As our babies experience the contrast between a smoothly rolling ball, and a jumpy, bouncing ball, he or she is understanding on a sensory level the difference between smooth, sustained movement, and sharp detached movement. And as our babies learn so much through sensory experience, this is a great way to explore legato (smooth) and staccato (short & sharp)!  


Staccato and Legato are important in music, but did you realise they are also an important part of spoken language? 


Here are a couple of lines from one of Jarvis's favourite books - Schnitzel von Krumm's Basketwork, By Lynley Dodd...


He made a new bed
in a jumble of shirts,
pyjamas and towels
and flowery skirts...




Read it out loud - can you see which parts read smoothly and which are sharper? There are loads of reasons that there's contrast  - things like which sounds make up the words (lots of hard sounding consonants like c,d,b are 'bouncier' than the  vowel sounds and soft consonants as you find in towel and flower...), whether words are short or long, the way the author has used rhythm...I could go on forever. Think about the lyrics of lullabies...they use lots of long vowel sounds, and gentle words. If they were fast & bouncy they wouldn't quite have the desired effect ;) 


What's more important though is that the contrasts are there, and we hear them every day when we listen to the people around us,. Understanding this is going to help our babies with decoding language!  


It really is amazing that doing something as simple as singing a song and handling a ball in different ways can be connected to something as tricky as the contrasts we find in the English language - isn't it wonderful that Kindermusik activities have such an effect on our little people as they get bigger and learn more & more about the world! 


Goodness, that was quite a post! I hope you can find some wonderful ways this week to incorporate sensory contrast into your day.  We'd love to hear your ideas!


Have a wonderful week :)
Kath & Jarvis