Sound Travels - Three Billy Goats Gruff

When we were listening to various music pieces last week, the music evoked more than just feelings in the children. The music triggered their imaginations and they began to tell stories. When listening to Vivaldi, Sasha was very animated and told a story of flowers growing in the sun with princesses in the garden. The music of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue inspired Olivia to tell a story of a “bad guy coming” prompting the children to add their ideas:

Kamy – It is dark outside.

Andy – Lots of bad guys coming.

Aston - I think trains are coming.

Connecting to the children’s idea of music and stories, we added sound to the fairytale, Three Billy Goats Gruff.  Each child had a set of rhythm sticks to create the sound effects of the goats trip trapping across the bridge. The children instinctively knew that the smallest goat would have a softer trip trap than the largest goat.

Sasha suggested putting on a show. The children enthusiastically went to each group inviting them to watch. On Friday, we continued with the story adding more props and some children chose to make their own goat mask.

This week we are going to listen to Peter and the Wolf to learn how musical instruments represent the characters in the story.