Scholastic occasionally does e-book sales where you can do digital downloads for $1 each. These are great for homeschooling, or just for extra fun activities to do. For my fellow Kindermusik teachers, especially those who teach ABC, these can be great extras to send home, too.
Turn to learn-make interactive books and activities to reinforce many key learning skills.
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/turn-to-learn
Pocket charts are a great way to play with literacy-especially if you got the $1 ones from Target last month!
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/the-pocket-chart-book
More Creatures in my Backyard, anyone?
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/early-themes-creepy-crawlies-butterflies-bees-ladybugs-and-more
Tunes that Teach American history-more for older kids than little ones, but these are a lot of fun. I actually bought this book at $14.95 for my 6 yr old.
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/tunes-that-teach-american-history
Tunes that teach Spelling-again, not necessarily for the littlest ones, but a great price for the early school-age child
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/tunes-that-teach-spelling
Great for sending notes to students, or for "I've got a Letter this morning".
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/great-shapes-stationery
Wonderful resource-for home or for school
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/the-great-big-book-of-classroom-songs-rhymes-cheers
Songs for throughout the year!
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/sing-along-and-learn-around-the-year-with-audio-cd
Sing and learn-Following directions
We can always use help there, right?
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/sing-along-and-learn-following-directions
Rhymers are readers!
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/101-thematic-poems-for-emergent-readers
Caring, sharing and getting along-poems for social skills
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/caring-sharing-getting-along
ABC-123 Coloring pages
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/abc-123-coloring-book
Art Activities for early learners
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/art-activities-for-little-learners
Move and Learn early concepts
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/move-learn-early-concepts
Fun and easy brain based activities for early learners
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/50-fun-easy-brain-based-activities-for-young-learners
50 Learning songs sung to your favorite tunes
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/50-learning-songs-sung-to-your-favorite-tunes
Showing posts with label early learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label early learning. Show all posts
Monday, September 12, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
"Playing" school-redux
Alli went to Mad Science class this morning, but apparently she felt that since her "classmates" at Mount Parnassus didn't go to science with her, they needed to make up the school time they'd missed.
So, she's been making them worksheets. What's interesting is that I don't actually grade her work, so she's harder on her students than I am :).
They have also done geography, pointing out countries and continents and US states on the globe, and are now doing a hands-on (well, fins and claws on for the class members who are dragons and sea serpents) project on career choices.
I'd say she's doing a great job :).
So, she's been making them worksheets. What's interesting is that I don't actually grade her work, so she's harder on her students than I am :).
They have also done geography, pointing out countries and continents and US states on the globe, and are now doing a hands-on (well, fins and claws on for the class members who are dragons and sea serpents) project on career choices.
I'd say she's doing a great job :).
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Free kids music downloads
Here are several sites with some nice kids' music downloads
http://www.nancymusic.com/Som-Cat.htm
This one has over 70 songs in Mp3 format for download, with most having printable sheet music as well. Songs follow a wide range of preschool and early learning themes. You can purchase a CD with all of the downloadable songs, too.
http://play.kindermusik.com
All of the Kindermusik core curriculum CDs are here, as well as many supplemental songs from the Do Re Me and You library. You get three songs intially free, and if you take a Kindermusik class, can use the code in your book to both download your class music and 7 more free songs. You can also download songs at .99 each.
http://www.musick8kids.com/html/mp3freebies.php
There are several free songs for download here, including a wonderful one about washing hands.And lots of other thematic songs for download at .99 each, too-I've used many songs from this publisher through the years as a music teacher, and love them.
We are currently enrolling for classes at the University of Memphis Community music school, including Kindermusik!
visit us at http://music.memphis.edu/cms
For more music fun, visit me at makingmusicwithkids.blogspot.com or follow me on twitter @musicwithkids
http://www.nancymusic.com/Som-Cat.htm
This one has over 70 songs in Mp3 format for download, with most having printable sheet music as well. Songs follow a wide range of preschool and early learning themes. You can purchase a CD with all of the downloadable songs, too.
http://play.kindermusik.com
All of the Kindermusik core curriculum CDs are here, as well as many supplemental songs from the Do Re Me and You library. You get three songs intially free, and if you take a Kindermusik class, can use the code in your book to both download your class music and 7 more free songs. You can also download songs at .99 each.
http://www.musick8kids.com/html/mp3freebies.php
There are several free songs for download here, including a wonderful one about washing hands.And lots of other thematic songs for download at .99 each, too-I've used many songs from this publisher through the years as a music teacher, and love them.
We are currently enrolling for classes at the University of Memphis Community music school, including Kindermusik!
visit us at http://music.memphis.edu/cms
For more music fun, visit me at makingmusicwithkids.blogspot.com or follow me on twitter @musicwithkids
Monday, July 25, 2011
Songs all kids should know
This has been a topic of discussion on the Well Trained Mind board, so I thought I'd address it here.
My first thought is "What songs are important to you"? Every family has their own musical heritage, that springs from their backgrounds, culture, and beliefs (religious and otherwise), and that's really where you start teaching music and sharing music with your children. Often, this comes from daily life, but I've known many parents who, the second a baby is born, stop listening to their music and put Raffi in the CD player. Now, that's not a bad thing-and there are a few genres of music where that may be a good idea. But in most cases, the music you'll be most comfortable singing with your child is the music that you're comfortable with yourself-the songs you sing in the car when they come on the radio, or sing in the shower. And there aren't many genres that don't have at least SOME songs that are child-appropriate. I once had a three year old student who's favorite song was "When a Man loves a Woman". And man, could she sing that song! Nothing wrong with that-it shows that her parents are sharing their music with her, and that their love of music is being passed to her.
Having said that, though, there are certain types of music that I consider important to children.
The first is nursery rhymes/nursery songs. These are crucial for developing phonemic awareness (Mem Fox, in Reading Magic, relates a study done that shows that children who do not enter school with multiple nursery rhymes memorized struggle with reading later). They also are very useful for early singing skills, because in most cases, they're limited in pitch and range to what young children's voices can manage first. Songs written for more adult audiences usually are pitched too low and have too wide of a range for children to sing well. There's a reason why "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Ring around the rosey" have stuck around-and they're a place to start.
Recommendation-any good nursery rhyme book. Read, sing, and have fun with your child.
The second category is common heritage songs. In the early 1990's, the Music Educators National conference put together a list of songs, with the help of other music organizations, that they felt were common to the US music heritage. While I may not agree with all their selections (and some that were ranked very high in their surveys were not included due to copyright permissions issues), it's a good place to start.
http://www.menc.org/resources/view/get-america-singing-again
The Core knowledge folks ("What your nTH grader should know") also have a list of 170 songs they have chosen to include. This list is very diverse, and is absolutely wonderful.
http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/406/JN_TOC.pdf
My final category is music from around the world. We include this in our Kindermusik classes and home CDs, but it goes beyond that. My favorite way of finding good world music for children is to go to the source. While Putmayo kids and other world music publishers have done a good job of providing excellent children's music, if you go to an Asian market, or a small grocery store in a Latin American area, and ask what music they recommend for a X yr old child, often they'll point you to resources you've never considered. I am very fortunate in that, teaching at the University of Memphis, I have a lot of parents from different cultures who are often very, very glad to share their music with me, which, in turn, lets me share that with my students, and with you. And if you're traveling, CDs are great souvenirs, light, portable, and easy to bring home.
Regardless, whatever music you choose, have fun, enjoy it, sing, play, and move!
My first thought is "What songs are important to you"? Every family has their own musical heritage, that springs from their backgrounds, culture, and beliefs (religious and otherwise), and that's really where you start teaching music and sharing music with your children. Often, this comes from daily life, but I've known many parents who, the second a baby is born, stop listening to their music and put Raffi in the CD player. Now, that's not a bad thing-and there are a few genres of music where that may be a good idea. But in most cases, the music you'll be most comfortable singing with your child is the music that you're comfortable with yourself-the songs you sing in the car when they come on the radio, or sing in the shower. And there aren't many genres that don't have at least SOME songs that are child-appropriate. I once had a three year old student who's favorite song was "When a Man loves a Woman". And man, could she sing that song! Nothing wrong with that-it shows that her parents are sharing their music with her, and that their love of music is being passed to her.
Having said that, though, there are certain types of music that I consider important to children.
The first is nursery rhymes/nursery songs. These are crucial for developing phonemic awareness (Mem Fox, in Reading Magic, relates a study done that shows that children who do not enter school with multiple nursery rhymes memorized struggle with reading later). They also are very useful for early singing skills, because in most cases, they're limited in pitch and range to what young children's voices can manage first. Songs written for more adult audiences usually are pitched too low and have too wide of a range for children to sing well. There's a reason why "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Ring around the rosey" have stuck around-and they're a place to start.
Recommendation-any good nursery rhyme book. Read, sing, and have fun with your child.
The second category is common heritage songs. In the early 1990's, the Music Educators National conference put together a list of songs, with the help of other music organizations, that they felt were common to the US music heritage. While I may not agree with all their selections (and some that were ranked very high in their surveys were not included due to copyright permissions issues), it's a good place to start.
http://www.menc.org/resources/view/get-america-singing-again
The Core knowledge folks ("What your nTH grader should know") also have a list of 170 songs they have chosen to include. This list is very diverse, and is absolutely wonderful.
http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/406/JN_TOC.pdf
My final category is music from around the world. We include this in our Kindermusik classes and home CDs, but it goes beyond that. My favorite way of finding good world music for children is to go to the source. While Putmayo kids and other world music publishers have done a good job of providing excellent children's music, if you go to an Asian market, or a small grocery store in a Latin American area, and ask what music they recommend for a X yr old child, often they'll point you to resources you've never considered. I am very fortunate in that, teaching at the University of Memphis, I have a lot of parents from different cultures who are often very, very glad to share their music with me, which, in turn, lets me share that with my students, and with you. And if you're traveling, CDs are great souvenirs, light, portable, and easy to bring home.
Regardless, whatever music you choose, have fun, enjoy it, sing, play, and move!
Free trial subscription to EduActiveLearning.com
Sara Jordan, who is the creator of the Bilingual Songs CD series, which is extremely well done, and many other educational materials, has asked me to announce a free 7 day trial of their online streaming site
http://www.EduActiveLearning.com
Not only does this let the kids hear the songs (and gives you a chance to "Try before you buy"), but it shows the words highlighted as the children hear the songs. If you have a child who enjoys Starfall.com, this may be a good fit for them.
I have found Sara Jordan CDs locally at Knowledge Tree and the Booksellers at Laurelwood, as well as through numerous online retailers.
http://www.EduActiveLearning.com
Not only does this let the kids hear the songs (and gives you a chance to "Try before you buy"), but it shows the words highlighted as the children hear the songs. If you have a child who enjoys Starfall.com, this may be a good fit for them.
I have found Sara Jordan CDs locally at Knowledge Tree and the Booksellers at Laurelwood, as well as through numerous online retailers.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Musical learning with your preschooler
One thing I've found in the last few years-homeschooling is a misnomer. We're never at home! What I've discovered is that the car is a great place to reinforce whatever skills my daughter is working on at the time. Obviously, Kindermusik songs were (and are) a big part of the playlist, as are recorder and piano practice CDs now, but there's a lot of academics out there, too.
My favorite way to use these is on an iPod. Set up playlists, then put the playlist on shuffle so you don't have an hour of math, but instead have it mixed up a bit. The iTunes software shows the number of times a song has been played, so if you think that you've heard that particular one a few thousand times, you can check and find that you're right, and take it off the active playlist for a little while.
Here are a few of my favorite resources. Many of these are available for digital downloads.
Dr. Jean-www.drjean.org. Dr. Jean is a noted presenter at early childhood workshops for her ways of making early learning fun for kids. If your child came home from preschool singing "Tooty-Ta", blame Dr. Jean. I'm not thrilled with her singing voice-it's too low pitched for children to sing along with in their most comfortable range well, and she's not a trained vocalist, but as far as concepts go, these are wonderful. You can download whole albums or individual songs. Her CDs are often available at teaching stores as well. Make sure you check for support materials, too-she has a lot of printables to go with the songs on her website.
Sesame Street-sometimes, the traditional is the best. Lots of nice songs, often ones that parents enjoy as much as children, that reinforce academic concepts and social skills.
Leapfrog-you know the videos with the cute frog singing "The A says /a/"? Well, he has a CD, too! I found mine at Dollar General, of all places. Amazon has it for digital download.
Handwriting Without Tears Get Set for School CD -this is one educational CD that is actually very well done musically as well as content wise, and is great at introducing early concepts. There's a second one for reading and math on the website as well, which I don't own, but if it's by the same people is worth considering.
Classics are always the best-both Ella Jenkins and Hap Palmer have recordings of songs that you probably remember singing when you were a child. Or, in the case of Hap Palmer, marching around the room to a scratchy record recording. Because these are mostly re-releases of material recorded years ago, they're not as high of audio quality as some of the other CDs out there, but they're sweet, fun, and often bring back memories.
Twin Sisters These are kind of a "you love 'em or you hate 'em" type set up, because all their recordings have a lot in common-a lot of familiar melodies used to teach concepts, a lot of repetition, and mostly the same voices singing. However, they've got a CD for ANYTHING. If you subscribe to Discovery Education, most of their songs are available as Digital downloads (one song at a time, which gets tedious) so you can find songs that match whatever your child needs at the time. Most teacher's stores sell these, too, and the boxed sets often appear at Big Lots.
Play.Kindermusik.com is the Kindermusik download site. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of great children's music here, downloadable one song at a time or by albums. The "Loony Libs", "America the Musical", and "Dem Bones" CDs have all made it onto our playlists for more academic reasons, plus lots of fun songs.
And special for blog readers-the first 10 people to mention this blog to me at the UM Open House on August 13 (10:00-11:30 on the Park Avenue Campus) Parent information night on August 16 (7:00-8:30 at the main Music building at UM), or at the first day of Fall classes will receive a digital download card which will let you download 10 songs (or one album, in most cases) from the play.kindermusik.com site.
Get listening and have fun!
My favorite way to use these is on an iPod. Set up playlists, then put the playlist on shuffle so you don't have an hour of math, but instead have it mixed up a bit. The iTunes software shows the number of times a song has been played, so if you think that you've heard that particular one a few thousand times, you can check and find that you're right, and take it off the active playlist for a little while.
Here are a few of my favorite resources. Many of these are available for digital downloads.
Dr. Jean-www.drjean.org. Dr. Jean is a noted presenter at early childhood workshops for her ways of making early learning fun for kids. If your child came home from preschool singing "Tooty-Ta", blame Dr. Jean. I'm not thrilled with her singing voice-it's too low pitched for children to sing along with in their most comfortable range well, and she's not a trained vocalist, but as far as concepts go, these are wonderful. You can download whole albums or individual songs. Her CDs are often available at teaching stores as well. Make sure you check for support materials, too-she has a lot of printables to go with the songs on her website.
Sesame Street-sometimes, the traditional is the best. Lots of nice songs, often ones that parents enjoy as much as children, that reinforce academic concepts and social skills.
Leapfrog-you know the videos with the cute frog singing "The A says /a/"? Well, he has a CD, too! I found mine at Dollar General, of all places. Amazon has it for digital download.
Handwriting Without Tears Get Set for School CD -this is one educational CD that is actually very well done musically as well as content wise, and is great at introducing early concepts. There's a second one for reading and math on the website as well, which I don't own, but if it's by the same people is worth considering.
Classics are always the best-both Ella Jenkins and Hap Palmer have recordings of songs that you probably remember singing when you were a child. Or, in the case of Hap Palmer, marching around the room to a scratchy record recording. Because these are mostly re-releases of material recorded years ago, they're not as high of audio quality as some of the other CDs out there, but they're sweet, fun, and often bring back memories.
Twin Sisters These are kind of a "you love 'em or you hate 'em" type set up, because all their recordings have a lot in common-a lot of familiar melodies used to teach concepts, a lot of repetition, and mostly the same voices singing. However, they've got a CD for ANYTHING. If you subscribe to Discovery Education, most of their songs are available as Digital downloads (one song at a time, which gets tedious) so you can find songs that match whatever your child needs at the time. Most teacher's stores sell these, too, and the boxed sets often appear at Big Lots.
Play.Kindermusik.com is the Kindermusik download site. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of great children's music here, downloadable one song at a time or by albums. The "Loony Libs", "America the Musical", and "Dem Bones" CDs have all made it onto our playlists for more academic reasons, plus lots of fun songs.
And special for blog readers-the first 10 people to mention this blog to me at the UM Open House on August 13 (10:00-11:30 on the Park Avenue Campus) Parent information night on August 16 (7:00-8:30 at the main Music building at UM), or at the first day of Fall classes will receive a digital download card which will let you download 10 songs (or one album, in most cases) from the play.kindermusik.com site.
Get listening and have fun!
Friday, July 22, 2011
It's amazing what music can do
http://www.chicagoparent.com/96943
I would add, though, that many of these benefits also can be seen just in music study. I had an occupational therapist tell me, at age 17, that there was nothing to do-that I'd already done it all, and the primary reason I'd built that coordination was so I could play saxophone. I have had so many children with special needs, some identified and some not yet identified at the time, and seen them grow-the child with aspergers who gradually was able to leave her mother and began interacting with the other children, the child with CAPD who worked SO hard to learn his glockenspiel melodies, and who's mother commented that he'd gained more by practicing music than he had in therapy...there have been many, and they've been my best teachers.
I would add, though, that many of these benefits also can be seen just in music study. I had an occupational therapist tell me, at age 17, that there was nothing to do-that I'd already done it all, and the primary reason I'd built that coordination was so I could play saxophone. I have had so many children with special needs, some identified and some not yet identified at the time, and seen them grow-the child with aspergers who gradually was able to leave her mother and began interacting with the other children, the child with CAPD who worked SO hard to learn his glockenspiel melodies, and who's mother commented that he'd gained more by practicing music than he had in therapy...there have been many, and they've been my best teachers.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Reading and learning music
http://theblogfrog.com/p/randomhouse/community.aspx#/1504678/forum/117196/poll--is-loving-to-read-a-learned-skill-or-a-natural-skill.htmlThis blog post discusses learning to read and includes a quote by Jim Trelease
"In concentrating exclusively on teaching the child how to read, we have forgotten to teach him to want to read…somehow we lost sight of the teaching precept: What you make a child love and desire is more important than what you make him learn." ~ Jim Trelease
This strikes home with me as an early childhood music educator and parent. My goal for my students are simply that they LOVE music-and because they love it, at ages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, they'll have the desire to continue-and to continue when it's NOT always fun because they know the fun, the joy, the love is there.
"In concentrating exclusively on teaching the child how to read, we have forgotten to teach him to want to read…somehow we lost sight of the teaching precept: What you make a child love and desire is more important than what you make him learn." ~ Jim Trelease
This strikes home with me as an early childhood music educator and parent. My goal for my students are simply that they LOVE music-and because they love it, at ages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, they'll have the desire to continue-and to continue when it's NOT always fun because they know the fun, the joy, the love is there.
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