Piano for preschoolers? YES!!!!

One of the most exciting things I get to do is teach preschoolers. For many years, as an early childhood specialist and music teacher, I believed that usually group lessons, as opposed to instrumental instruction, was the way to go for preschoolers.  I integrated piano into my group classes, teaching basic skills, but never really felt that it was a good idea to start teaching individual lessons.

Wunderkeys changed that for me. Not because they were teaching radically differently than I did-but because it actually provided a framework for good, developmentally appropriate music skills instruction within a 1-1 lesson session, using the piano as the primary instrument. The games included in each lesson, the off bench activities, and the fact that math, particularly, was integrated so smoothly and seamlessly sold me on the program.

And can you argue with these cute characters?

My students quickly fell in love with Pointer, Middleton, Thumbelina, Ringo, and Pinkie, and more importantly, developed the skills they needed to succeed on and off the piano.

And I fell in love with Andrea and Trevor, and their amazing characters, games, and activities. I found that the materials worked, not only for my preschoolers, but for my primer beginners, and that many of their piano book club and piano game club  materials were the ticket for my older students as well.

As  I begin this new school year, with a new location, I am looking forward to riding the wunderbus with my new preschoolers, exploring primer piano with Ruby, Sheldon,and the others, and enjoying the Elementary series since my primer students from last year are moving up. And I hope you will enjoy it with me. 

More note of the week-amazing animals

As I mentioned in my last post, I am using note of the week this year. The initial idea came from the awesome Teach Piano Today blog. I am finding lots of amazing resources to use, so I thought I'd share some of them.

I am using the characters from the Alphabetimals website. There is a nice bundle of resources on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

I have printed these cute little guys at the appropriate size to go on my piano keys and on a magnetic staff board, by reducing the size of the visuals and printing on magnetic paper. I have kids who are definitely going to be more interested in "C is for Cobra" vs "C is for Cat", and this lets them pick which animals they like-and gives us a chance to talk about a variety of animals. 

I made coloring pages for each note name, on treble and bass clef, using this adorable-and free-animal ABC clip art from Worksheet Junkie on Teachers Pay Teachers. I also reduced these to make "Trading cards"/Brag tags-this is my primary "incentive".

We are using the Susan Paradis Clothespin cards 
and animal songs. 

I am excited to do this with my kids this fall-and hope that it will really help build those early music reading and keyboard geography skills.

Note of the Week-with Prodigies Playground!

This semester in my piano studio, I am using a note of the week activity. It comes from Teach Piano Today, and works well for my Primer Wunderkeys students and older beginner students, as well as a fun reinforcement for my older ones. We will introduce one "special" note every week that the students will focus in on.

For my preschoolers, who are not reading notes yet, but who I want to expose to notation and build listening and early skills, I have a lifetime subscription to Prodigies Music, and my younger students have individual subscriptions (which are available for $2.50/month for students of lifetime subscribers or teacher level subscribers), which lets them access the videos and materials at home, and they have AMAZING "One note studies" that focus just on one bell. Or, in my case, one piano key. Since Prodigies is awesome at making their graphics available, I have been making some great resources to use with my students. If you want the full sets, they are available on the FB group for Prodigies music teachers.

I made these visuals-one for each note I want to introduce. This semester, that will be the notes in middle C position for left and right hands. I have these printed large as posters to put on my bulletin board or white boards in my studios, and printed 9x/page as trading cards-the student can earn the card by correctly identifying the note in their music, or, for my preschoolers, by playing the correct bell.

To tie into piano, I also made a set with piano keys. For my earliest primer students, who are still working heavily on keyboard geography, finding the notes on the piano and doing the "one note studies" and working through the prodigies lessons really cements those skills, and is a great supplement to our piano method.

Finally, I also made a set of worksheets to work on keyboard geography. These are mostly for my primer students-my preschoolers will use the pages from the prodigies workbooks, and my older students will use other theory activities.

I am also using the animal alphabet songs from Susan Paradis and these adorable clothespin cards 

Scicomm Songs for little pythons-Over in the Meadow-frogs

This is the one that started it all. We created this one, to the tune "Over in the Meadow" fir a Save the Frogs day event where I was going to do some group music activities with the younger children. All the frogs listed are species local to us, and their sounds are an approximation of their actual calls. Their habitat is where you might find them in an actual meadow setting.  North American frogs tend to be a "lay them and leave them" type of hands off parent, so that part isn't terribly authentic, but the rest is. This one is also in two parts

Part 1 
Part 2

Scicomm songs for little pythons-Rattlesnake and copperhead

Venomous snakes are pretty misunderstood. This installment introduces us to a rattlesnake and a copperhead-both of whom just want to be left alone to serve their rodent control jobs.

 

The first is the Rattlesnake's song. The Melody is "Old Joe Clark"-which is one of my favorites to use with kids because it introduces mixolydian mode.  

Full PDF

Copperheads often are quite feared. They actually are very timid animals and generally only bite when stepped on or provoked. For this, we used the melody "Down by the Station"

SciComm songs for Little Pythons-Octopus!

Octopi/Octopodes are incredible animals. They are extremely smart cephalopods, with an amazing range of behaviors. This is a traditional rhyme/fingerplay style, but, of course, since we're talking about octopodes, we're talking groups of 8!

This is in two PDF files because there were more pages than the sheet feeder on my scanner wanted to manage on the thicker art paper.

 

Part 1          Part 2

Scicomm Songs for Little Pythons-Out came a Spider

Spiders are scary, right? No, Spiders are wonderful and amazing. This piggyback song is to the tune "Down came a lady", which is commonly used in Orff and Kodaly classes. We added a few spider species. Have fun!

Full PDF

Scicomm songs for little pythons-Little brown bats

My daughter (My Little Python) collaborated with me last year to create a series of illustrated piggyback songs and rhymes that actually include facts about animals that are normally thought of as scary. On request, I am posting these for other people to use with their students.

First up-Little Brown Bats. This is based on a fingerplay about "Scary Bats". We picked the little brown bat because it is a common species here, and one that is frequently seen. They are a small, mouse eared bat that eats mosquitoes.

Full PDF

Scicomm songs for Piano Pythons-A My Little Python collaboration

I started teaching music lessons again last year, and this year have 13 piano students between two locations. With some help from My Little Python, I have created a few warm up activities that also introduce a few of the creatures that live in my home, and sometimes are visible from my home studio-and a few of the ones who might be visible in your backyards. Enjoy!

The whole set PDF is here

#HERper lessons I didn’t want her to learn-#JMIH18

I debated writing this about a week and a half ago, and decided against it. It seemed like the societies had it under control, and everything that should be said had been said. Until today, when a prior Herpetologists league president, Ken Dodd, doubled down, blaming the media, those who dared object on social media, and women who wear shorts, all while insisting that the actual incident was no big deal. He is entitled to his opinion, even when in direct contrast to his society and the leadership of the other associated ones. But so am I,

I first came to JMIH in 2014. The reason was my daughter had gotten a prebaccalaureate grant to attend the conference, and travel costs were minimal since it was in our region. She was in heaven. She got to meet people who she “knew” from books and journal articles, and got to hear about reaearch firsthand. She also discovered, as did I, that the social events were definitely adult focused, not a place for a herp-crazy kid. We spent the evenings with the younger “accompanying persons”, who were enjoying Chattanooga TN while a parent attended the conference.  

And I am also very aware, as a mom with a daughter who loves snakes, that there is a definite “men’s club” in the Herp world. Unfortunately, that spans all areas. I was having to explain off color jokes from her first Repticon at age 5. I have also been in academia long enough to know that greater degrees just means that the off color jokes might have a little more intellectual ring to them. I did not expect JMIH to be immune, or to be a “kiddy pool”. 

We have since attended the JMIH 4x, as well as the SSAR meeting in 2015. We have also attended quite a few regional and state conferences. I’m her silent partner there, and her mostly silent partner on social media accounts that I made so she could both do her outreach and communicate with the Herp world, while hopefully keeping her safe. A vast majority of the people, talks and 1-1 discussions  have been wonderful. This is what makes JMIH part of our family travel, and why I, as a early childhood music teacher by profession and training, have a “professional” membership to SSAR. 

And yes, we have heard Dick Vogt speak, both at JMIH18 and in prior years. As a mom, there have been moments in every single talk of his that something has been said that I hoped she didn’t “get”. Something that makes the audience kind of giggle nervously, and females in the audience glance around uncomfortably. Something that gets left out of live tweeting the talk. All talks tend to involve people in field gear. Which, yes, might include swimwear.  But only in Vogt’s talks do you see women who look like they have touched up their makeup and hair, and then posed with a sea turtle in the style normally seen in car magazines. We have attended talks on courtship behavior with no innuendo, yet Vogt manages to fit it in when talking about communications between turtles before hatching. And while the various mentors and awesome folks who have supported and encouraged my daughter have introduced her to many meritorious Herpetologists, they have, across the board, skipped Vogt. I suspect I know the reason.

So. when the whole kerfuffle started, I handled it by keeping a close eye on twitter and largely keeping my daughter, now a high school/dual college student out of the social situations, because that was the primary topic of conversation. I was gratified to see the immediate response from many awesome people in leadership, and the HL’s quick response at their meeting. 

And I watched my teen girl realize that the positive experience she has had at JMIH is largely due to the awesome people she knows protecting her from more than hearing an off color comment,  but many of those same folks have not been so lucky, which in turn makes her question whether the herpetology world  is for her. Part of her doubts is that she is getting older, and discovering there is a lot out there, but part of it is seeing women she respects talk about moving out of herpetology into other areas because they have found the Herp world uncomfortable. She has already filtered her xollege hunt based on “doing interesting work” and “will talk to the little kid”. She’s now, now that she’s not a little kid who stands out due to size, adding things like “female students seem happy in the lab and recommend it,” and “lab is diverse”. 

As of right now, she wants to go back to JMIH. She feels that the good experiences she has outweigh the negatives. But I have to say, only the fact that I know that a majority of the leadership of ASIH, SSAR, AES, and yes, HL, do NOT agree with Ken Dodd that makes me willing to consider it. 

Making Music for Save the Frogs Day!

These are some activities I'm planning for preschool attendees at our Save the Frogs! Day event, which will lead into my preschool music/early learning homeschool class as well. I thought others may want to use some of these as well.


Playlist for most songs. If you have Amazon Prime music, these are songs that are currently included in that plan.
https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/48b97671adc44ec593edc39c48dcf699sune?ref=dm_sh_62dc-8b57-b38b-4e0a-38fcc

Unit:	Save the Frogs music time (demo)
Music concepts:	Fast/slow
LwOT Concepts:	Frog Jump Letters-F
Hello Song-	Hello, How are you?
Alfred the Alligator	(Alfred the puppet brings out a toy frog from the mystery box-the kids identify and talk about the frog, and what sounds it makes)
Listening	Frog calls- listen and repeat
Instrument playalong	Guiros-Galump went the little green frog
Movement	The frog (move in jumping motions)
Fingerplay	Show pictures of real frogs/toads, discuss 5 Little Speckled frogs
LwOT activity	Frog jump Letters frog jumps- Air write
Movement w/prop	Salamanders and frogs String quartet No 10 in Eb Scherzo (ribbons/scarves)
Instrument play	Caribbean Amphibian-Shaker play
Story/Song	Over in the Meadow - Here is a version we created based on our most common local frog calls.  http://mylittlepython.blogspot.com/2018/03/over-in-meadow-frog-version.html
Instrument play/Family Jam	7000 kinds of Amphibians https://thewigglytendrils.bandcamp.com/track/7000-kinds-of-amphibians-a7k (assorted instruments)
Circle/Parachute play	The Axolotl Song
Goodbye song	Goodbye my friends
Materials/Instruments list	Water bottles, scrapers (popsicle sticks work well), and shaker fill                     guiro (frog guiro, if you have one)                     recordings of frog calls or Frogwatch USA stuffed frogs with recorded calls (https://www.stuffedsafari.com/Stuffed-Frogs-and-Plush-Frogs-s/45.htm)                     Assorted instruments                    Stuffed frogs and salamanders or pictures of real frogs and salamanders                    Scarves or ribbons                    Prepared Book: Over in the Meadow                    Wood or magnetic letter pieces (LWoT)                    Mystery box or bag                    Puppet if you use one (I use an alligator named Alfred in all my classes) For the water bottle guiros, collect recycled water bottles with ridges in advance, one per child. Add some shaker fill (Birdseed is good-that way if any escapes, it goes to good use), and close the lid. Seal with electrical tape or hot glue. You can add eyes and legs to make it more "Frog like" if you wish. Use a scraper to make your "frog guiro" croak, or shake to make other sounds. We will use these in some of the activities.
Home activity suggestions:	F is for frog/Letter assembly activity, fast and slow frog calls.

I am the very model of a modern urban animal-for @NatickBobcat (and a few other tweeps!)

I am the very model of a modern urban animal

I survive in human realms both virtual and actual

My small size lets me creep in spaces that the humans have not found

And my bobbed tail is perfect because it doesn’t hang down on the ground

I’m well content with urban prey, on rabbits, pigeons, rats I thrive

But usually I leave the domestic cats and dogs alive

But squirrels are on the menu, yes, that is very, very true.

So watch out @ratatosk4 because I’m coming just for you!

So watch out @ratatosk4 because I’m coming just for you!

So watch out @ratatosk4 because I’m coming just for you!

So watch out @ratatosk4 because I’m coming just for you!

I’m very good at hunting and at not quite being clearly seen

I’m just living my life, so don’t worry, I’m not that mean

I’m a good neighbor, and I am very practical

I am the very model of a modern urban animal!

If you see me you just might wonder what that big cat is

Just a tabby, something bigger, mountain lion for the win

So snap a pic and send it in and find out just what you’ve got,

On twitter, I suggest #CougarOrNot!

In March I have a job to do that I suggest that you check out

It’s called #2018MMM-and it will really be a rout

In March Mammal Madness, I’m the victor, that we’ve found

Just ignore the Sloth faced bear, cause this year he’s going down

Just ignore the Sloth faced bear, cause this year he’s going down

Just ignore the Sloth faced bear, cause this year he’s going down

Just ignore the Sloth faced bear, cause this year he’s going down

On twitter, I’m so awesome it is shown through and through,

So just ignore old @gilamonsterASU

In short in matters animal, both virtual and actual

I am the very model of a modern urban animal!